Dual Crewed Ambulance can save services £1.4 million in fuel costs

Testing at UTAC CERAM Millbrook’s Bedfordshire facility has shown that services using our Dual Crewed Ambulance (DCA) could save up to £1.4 million in fuel costs over five years.

Results showed that our Fiat Ducato-based DCA panel van recorded a reduction in fuel use of 10% per vehicle, meaning that each ambulance could save more than 500 litres of fuel per year. For an ambulance fleet of 480 vehicles, this equates to 1.2 million litres of fuel over five years. At today’s fuel prices, this equates to a cost saving of £1.4 million.

Coupled with lower maintenance costs due to our lightweight design, quality and world-class workmanship, ambulance services can expect to save more than £2,900 per vehicle over the course of its life.

Tests also showed a 5.7% reduction in CO2, which equates to a saving of more than 2,300 tonnes over five years for a fleet of 480 vehicles. The DCA also achieved a 12.9% reduction in NOx, meaning the DCA could play a significant role in reducing ambulance services’ impact on air quality.

VCS can provide a more efficient vehicle because of the significant weight savings made by our Core Capture technology. With a gross vehicle weight of 4250kg, our DCA is expected to be around 7% lighter in a full operational setting than our next closest rival.

Core Capture sees our engineers employ engineering practices from the aerospace industry to create an ambulance conversion that adds as little mass as possible, while still meeting stringent CEN testing and the rigours of daily ambulance use. This includes using lightweight composite materials and creating single moulded structures across VCS’s range of DCAs, PTSs and RRVs wherever practical.

Mark Kerrigan, Managing Director of VCS, said: “For nearly 11 years our engineering and design experts have worked diligently to reduce weight throughout our ambulance range. The results of our test programme in our next generation DCA are extremely encouraging and a strong step towards lower emissions from emergency service vehicles.”

“We’re delighted to see a reduction in NOx, which can be so harmful to the health of society’s most vulnerable, while also proving that the DCA can help ambulance services to reduce their carbon footprint and make considerable savings on fuel and running costs.”

Find out more about our DCA panel van.