Asset management is key. SCAS needs to maximise the use of ambulances which cost £120,000-£140,000 apiece when fully kitted.

It buys them outright; multiply that by 200 ambulances and it’s a serious dent in the budget sheet.

“We tried leasing them but the issue is that they are pretty shot at the end of the lease. Buying outright and writing them down to zero over the ownership cycle works better,” says Stillman.

These vehicles have historically been kept for up to seven years; SCAS has recently switched supplier to Mercedes-Benz and intends to keep these for 10 years. They will be refurbished and painted at around five-and-a-half years, then run for a second term.

Considering how harshly these vehicles are treated, being driven at speed with annual mileages of 50,000, it’s testament to the quality of the Mercedes-Benz vans that they remain reliable after this length of time.

“We switched to Mercedes-Benz because the support from them is fantastic,” says Stillman.

“They are robust vans with competitive pricing on parts and servicing. We also have an all-encompassing three-year warranty which even includes mis-fuelling.”

When they come off fleet, SCAS strips out the equipment and removes or disables the blue lights. Many then start a second life as roadside chip vans; some are exported to mountain rescue teams or charities.

The ambulances account for around 60% of the fleet budget; each costs around £50 per day to run. Take one off-road for unscheduled maintenance or accident and the cost is substantial, in addition to the issues over fulfilling operational commitments.

Consequently, the processes around maintenance far exceed most fleets – indeed, they are far more stringent that even those recommended by the manufacturers.

“We impose O-Licence maintenance levels – six weekly inspections with services at ‘arduous use’ level,” says Stillman.

“This means changing oil and lubes at 50% of the manufacturer’s recommended time. We over-maintain everything.”

This stretches to the drivers via training. New staff are assessed during the recruitment process and complete a four-week course once appointed covering vehicle checks, bluelight training, road skills and practice runs.

They are re-assessed every two years.

A points system monitors their performance: get to 12 points, for example by accumulating at-fault accidents, and the driver goes through a re-education programme.

Speeding tends not to be a problem area; these drivers have attended enough road traffic accidents to understand the results of dangerous driving.

“We have the best accident record of the ambulance services in the UK, a lot of which is down to our points system and our driver training,” says Stillman, with evident pride.

“We identify driver issues early on and take action to address them.”

Each ambulance is fitted with CCTV front, rear, side and in-cab linked to a black box recorder which logs data such as speed and G-forces 30 seconds before until 90 seconds after an incident to help SCAS piece together what happened. “Police take this data in serious accidents – we have always been cleared,” Stillman says.

He is also assessing technology in other areas, including fuel management.

Ambulances have run lock systems which means the doors can be locked while the engine idles.

Stop-start could eliminate the issue, potentially saving 0.8 litres per hour. Tally this up by 200 vehicles on multiple call-outs and the sums start to get significant.

“We have two vehicles fitted with data tracking to establish the size of the issue. When we see how much we will save, we will look to retrofit stop/start on all ambulances,” Stillman says.

He is also considering speed limiters set at 56mph for when the ambulances are not on call.

However, while there is growing pressure to reduce costs, nothing happens at the expense of safety. It was already Stillman’s priority; Van Excellence has only served to further emphasise the importance.

“Our guys are driving on the edge. If vehicles aren’t maintained to the highest possible standard, they could be put in danger,” Stillman says.

“Van Excellence is a way to focus those intentions; it’s a robust scheme that covers all the basics.”