Increase in total vehicle availability at the start of shift, increasing operational hours where crews can respond to calls
Decrease in daily vehicle moves, reducing fuel costs and time lost in moving vehicles
Reduction in vehicles going off-road for repairs, reducing costs and increasing vehicle availability
An ambulance trust asked TN to review the efficiency of their fleet management model. The subsequent diagnostic highlighted low vehicle availability, leading to crews without a vehicle at the start of shift, and a high number of vehicle moves. The diagnostic identified two key drivers of these challenges: the centralised model for moving vehicles between ambulance stations, and the misalignment between the scheduling of frontline ambulance crews and vehicle preparation staff (Make Ready).
Subsequently, the trust commissioned TN to adapt two aspects of their operating model:
- From a central ‘flexi-fleet’ to a local ‘tethered fleet’ model: Minimising unnecessary vehicle moves, reducing the number of crews without a vehicle at start-of-shift, and devolving ownership of vehicles to local stations
- From last-minute planning to designated ‘windows’ for prepping vehicles: Aligning Make Ready rotas and the underlying distribution of vehicles to match frontline staff rotas to improve vehicle availability
- Designing the new model: Facilitated a series of workshops with key stakeholders across the trust to agree the high-level design of the tethered fleet model
- Analysing the distribution of vehicles: Identified the number of vehicles required at each Group Station through projections using frontline staff numbers, assigned a fixed fleet, and devolved responsibility to local stations
- Creating Make Ready rotas aligned to frontline demand: Conducted comprehensive demand analysis to create a new rota in Make Ready that incorporated changes to service lines and frontline staffing
- Rolling out the new model: Held iterative working groups to refine each element of the model as part of the initial pilot, refining standard operating procedures (SOPs) and monitoring KPIs. After the pilot demonstrated success, TN supported the Trust-wide roll-out of the model in 5 months.
