KEY POINTS:
Emergency services say they are feeling the pinch from fuel price rises.
The country's largest ambulance service, St John, runs 551 ambulances which travel more than 14.5 million kilometres a year.
St John chief operations officer Keven Tate said the organisation's fuel costs had increased significantly over the
past two years.
Fuel expenditure for the year ended June 30, 2007, was $2.6 million - up from $2.3 million budgeted for the year ended June 30, 2005. Fuel costs have jumped significantly again since mid-2007.
Mr Tate said St John had moved from petrol-fuelled ambulances to diesel ambulances, and for other operational vehicles had gone for smaller and more fuel efficient engines.
However, unlike many organisations, St John was limited in its ability to adjust its travel to save on fuel costs.
"Our first duty is to respond to emergency incidents and provide clinical care and transport," Mr Tate said.
"We need our ambulances to be a certain size to enable effective treatment and transport of patients; we need to attend all emergencies requiring clinical care; and we are often required to travel faster than normal road speeds with lights and sirens ... when patients' conditions are life-threatening, to ensure optimal care."
While diesel was cheaper than petrol, diesel prices did track upwards alongside petrol price increases.
Mr Tate said the service relied on a range of funding sources to pay for ambulance services, including crown funding agencies, district health boards, contributions from commercial activities, such as first aid training courses and community support.
Ross Cameron, marketing manager for Wellington Free Ambulance, said the organisation was in the process of changing its fleet from gas-guzzling "but lovely" petrol-powered V8 Chevrolet ambulances to diesel-powered Mercedes Benz ambulances.
The Chevrolet was a "beautiful ambulance," but the organisation could simply not afford to run the V8 engines.
The organisation began replacing its 22-strong fleet about two years ago, and had "really stepped it up" this year.
About half the fleet had been upgraded, and Mr Cameron said by this time next year the organisation would be well on the way to having completely replaced the vehicles.
At $160,000 an ambulance, it was not a cheap exchange.
The decommissioned ambulances were being sold off to the odd Chevrolet enthusiast but were not worth a huge amount, he said.
However, the organisation was already saving a lot at the pump, after budgeting for high petrol prices and instead paying for lower-cost diesel.
A Fire Service spokeswoman said the department had no option but to simply budget more each year for fuel costs.
The service had a fleet of around 800 appliances, which were diesel-fuelled. The cost of running the vehicles was budgeted at $2.21 million for the 2007/08 year.
She said although fuel costs obviously affected the organisation's budget, they did not impact on service, which was not compromised in any way.
Police spokesman Jon Neilson said the department had a "small amount of discretion" to reprioritise certain items of about $1.3 billion of operating expenditure.
There was also a modest budget reserve to help address issues such as rapidly rising fuel costs.
But Mr Neilson said if fuel prices continued to rise police may look to seek additional government funding.
- NZPA
