Renault Ambulance

We are a relatively small private ambulance service operator based in the ACT,” Ambulance Service Australia’s (ASA) director Michael Rigo said.

ASA, which has been operating for more than 21 years, runs a fleet of 12 vehicles and provides a full range of ambulance support services including intensive care retrieval work and also has access to both fixed wing and rotary winged aircraft.

Much of ASA’s work is through contracts with the Commonwealth Government and through a program partnership with the Australian Institute of Sport.
“We have a staff of around 30 and have run the older style Ford F250 series, a Toyota Troop Carrier and the Ford Transit van as ambulance platforms,” Michael Rigo said.

“We’ve been relatively happy with the Transit as an ambulance platform, but when Ford brought the latest Transit series into Australia they dropped the automatic and that made us start looking around as under the design rules it is preferable that ambulances are automatic.

“Adam Lefevre from Renault Australia lent us a vehicle for a couple of weeks to try out. “We could not fault the Renault in terms of our trial, so we put on one, then another and now, just recently, a third.

“For a range of work we do, we use the low roof short wheelbase Renault Master because it happens to particularly suit our needs. “We can fit an ambulance module into it and while there is not much room between the airways management seat and the head of the stretcher, it is do-able.
“We’ve just been really impressed by them.
“They are all automatic and we’ve been averaging 8.5 litres per hundred kilometres out of them, they just go.

The third and latest Renault Master to join the fleet is a high roof long wheel base version which has been set up as a long distance retrieval car.
“It’s got so much room and so much roof height.
“Everybody is pretty happy with them, they handle well and are very smooth,” Michael Rigo said.