By Scott Wuerz
Belleville News-Democrat (Illinois)
Copyright 2007 Belleville News-Democrat
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
Operators of Abbott Ambulance have ordered more ambulances in the last month than they usually do in three years.
They say a contract dispute between Ford Motor Co. and one of its suppliers has led to a nationwide ambulance shortage. And they’re hoping by ordering a big batch, now they can stock up before the supply runs out.
“This should insure that we’re OK for a couple of years,” said Bjorn Thommesen, Director of Business Development for Abbott, of the $2 million investment. “We don’t know what will happen after that.”
Abbott serves the St. Louis region and has a metro-east hub off Royal Heights Road in Belleville. The company puts about 55,000 miles a year on its diesel ambulances, according to Larry Stone, vice president of administration for Abbott. They have a lifespan of 300,000-400,000 miles and are typically replaced every six years or so, which means the company turns over six or seven of its 90 vehicles annually.
Thommesen said Ford engine supplier Navistar International stopped shipments of the 6-liter diesel engines that are used in about 90 percent of the ambulances Ford sells in February after a dispute over the price of the engines and warranty issues with 6.4-liter diesel engines used in Ford Super Duty pickups.
Ford officials didn’t return calls seeking comment. But Thommesen said company representatives continue to sell the same ambulances powered by a gasoline engine instead of the 6.0-liter diesel.
It is not much of a consolation to buy ambulances with a different engine, according to Thommesen. He said emergency service organization maintenance workers are trained specifically to work on the 6-liter engine and they are stocked with parts and tools needed to repair it.
“In addition, diesel engines are longer lasting and produce better mileage than gasoline engines,” Thommesen said. “The savings in fuel cost benefits both the ambulance industry and users of ambulance services.”
Stone said gasoline engines last about half as long as a diesel, and don’t handle the extreme stress that ambulances operate under as well.
Navistar spokesman Roy Wiley said the dispute happened when Ford decided to stop putting Navistar’s 6.0-liter diesel in its F-250 pickups in favor of the engine makers’ newer 6.4-liter diesel. That made ambulances the only platform for which Ford used the smaller diesel.
“Ford doesn’t want to pay the price of the engines, so they stopped making orders,” Wiley said. “When they bought 300,000 of them a year, we could sell engines for one price. But when that number dropped to 10,000, the price had to go up.”
While the diesel Fords have dominated the ambulance industry for two decades, Wiley said his company plans to fill the ambulance gap.
Warrenville-based Navistar produces the International brand of trucks, and Wiley said the popular 6.0-liter engine is available in it.
By buying International ambulances directly from Navistar, Wiley emergency service providers could save mechanics from needing to learn to work on a new power plant. But Thom-mesen that only solves part of the problem. Abbott’s mechanics would still have to learn how to work on a completely different chassis.
While Abbott didn’t plan on buying so many ambulances right now, Thom-mesen said it was important that the company to make the investment while it could.
“As a 911 ambulance provider for the City of Belleville — and the only one that serves both Missouri and Illinois — it is essential that we engage in both regular preventative maintenance as well as the scheduled replacement of our 90 vehicle fleet to maintain the highest standards of safety and comfort to our patients.”
Abbott has no plans to increase its prices to offset the purchase of the 20 new ambulances now, Thommesen said.