As a manufacturer of ambulances and special vehicles, we not only develop new, better technical solutions on our own initiative, but also receive important impulses from customers and partners. And we meet people who have very special stories to tell through their work in the emergency services. This is how news worth reporting from special vehicle construction and rescue services continuously emerges, which we are happy to share here.
A boa constrictor at a dredge hole, six bats in the bedroom of an attic flat, a runaway dwarf pony on a road crossing - the reasons for using the WAS 900 animal transport vehicle are as varied as the fauna of the Rhineland.
In March of last year, the German Red Cross (DRK) in Frankfurt am Main had already tested the electric ambulance in the 5 t class from WAS in action (see Rettungsdienst 7/2022). In November 2022, the team tested the eVito (WAS 100-E NEF) from Mercedes, which WAS had converted into a first response vehicle. The special thing about it was that while the e-ambulance was a completely self-built WAS vehicle, the NEF was a series-produced electric vehicle from a renowned manufacturer.
When a brand new special vehicle from the WAS factory rolls into the car park, mechatronics engineer Janek ten Brink has carried out almost every single conversion step himself: from removing the seats from the base vehicle to wiring the interior and fitting the blue light to the 230 V test to testing all the functions.
There are currently 23 colleagues who did their apprenticeship at WAS, stayed on after successfully completing it and are still with us. To ensure that we continue to inspire young people to join us, we not only offer qualified apprenticeship programmes with fair remuneration, but also our own training workshop, team-building events, apprentice exchanges and, of course, personal support through our mentoring system.
