MT-ND | Mike SE IL - 4/21/2024 19:02 Kochia - 4/21/2024 16:35 Out of curiosity, why does a box truck with shelves cost 400k? I could understand 400k with all the equipment, but what is so special about a box truck with lights that it costs 400k? The simple answer? Because it's more than just a box truck with shelves. First understand this: I've got a special spot in my head and heart for ambulances. A friend was a paramedic. They were transporting a patient to the hospital lights and siren going. He was in working on a patient in back when it got t-boned by a little pickup that ran a stop sign. He died in an ambulance trying to save someone else. Those "box trucks" are special to me. OK getting back on topic. An ambulance has to comply with regulations from DOT, OSHA, NFPA, on and on and on. There's folks that get paid a lot of money to sit at a desk and write new regs for all these things.
Plus it has to stand up to face ambulance chaser's lawsuits.
I'm not up on all the requirements, but I'm betting there are rules about how each storage area is made, about the glass in the cabinet doors, about how high the steps have to be, about how the oxygen bottles must be anchored and the lines routed, about how the gurney is connected to the chassis when loaded. pages and pages of rules and regulations. And the builder has to know and comply with all of them.
It's not as simple as throw a Band-Aid® or two in a couple boxes and stick a lawnchair in back. Get in an ambulance and look around and think about what it takes to build one. I'm not arguing what it is equipped with, I'm arguing the lone basic shell you get for half a million. No offense, but saying a mid sized pickup killed the occupants doesn't exactly sell the half a million price, if they had survived, then it is a bit more understandable as then it would have to be built and tested to withstand that. Regulations on a mass produced vehicle still isn't really a reason for a standard vehicle from Ford with, from what I recall from our "Ambulance special" pickup, a larger set of alternators, heavier wiring to the back, heavier springs, and a few others miscellaneous things that only raised the price by 5,000 when new, which still doesn't really make sense that the bare empty box, that isn't crash resistant, doesn't have a ROPS or a FOPS, and is a drop on mass produced thing, even with the shelves, cabinets, anchors, and regulations, which after you make one that does meet them doesn't require you to relearn it for every one, why does it cost 400k alone, and not hold its value? I mean looking at Brindlee, a couple year old under 50k miles ambulance is 100k. If they held their half million value, then it would make sense that there is something super special about it, but at 5 years old and 50k miles, you've lost 4/5th of the value, and any older and any more you're sub 50k, something isn't adding up. |
Price of a new ambulance?
