Ambulette Service: Built for the Long Trip
An ambulette moves someone who needs help getting there but doesn't need an emergency ambulance. Most ambulettes run across town. We run the version that crosses states: 200 miles to coast to coast, with a real bed aboard if sitting up that long isn't realistic.
- ✓ Wheelchair and mobility equipment aboard
- ✓ Attendant with them the entire trip
- ✓ 200-mile minimum, long distance only
Answered 24/7 by our team, not a call center.
What is an ambulette service?
An ambulette is a vehicle that transports someone who needs assistance and equipment (a wheelchair, a lift, a hand at both ends) but who is not having a medical emergency. It's the middle option between a taxi, which assumes you can walk and buckle yourself in, and an ambulance, which exists for emergencies and is priced like it.
The word gets used most in New York and New Jersey, where ambulette companies are licensed to run local trips: dialysis three mornings a week, a clinic appointment, a discharge across the borough. Those are short runs, usually under an hour.
The same patient sometimes has to make a much longer trip: moving in with a daughter four states away, or leaving a rehab facility for home at the other end of the country. That's the trip we run.
Families who needed the long version
2,500+ five-star reviews from families we've transported. A few from trips like yours.
families we've transported
“The crew was very professional, empathetic, and friendly to my sister and her family throughout the entire transportation process. As a patient with limited mobility, multiple illnesses, aches, and pains she had no negative comments and said the trip went pretty good. They made excellent time…”
“Excellent experience - right from the start of an email inquiry till the end of the trip. The crew transported my 90 year old Dad, afflicted with poor mobility, safely from Florida to California. My brother and I accompanied. Crew was professional and caring at all times. The vehicle felt a little…”
“This is a fabulous service! I wasn't certain how to transfer my father with mobility issues from Florida to a new place in Delaware. The people were easy to work with, and very friendly. They updated us frequently before and during the transport. I highly recommend this service to anyone that needs…”
“Thank you ACC for sending such a wonderful team of workers to transport my husband home. I want to recognize Suzan, Anquonette, and Soniel for their kindness, on-time arrival, and compassion for what they do. These guys really took care of my husband. I was so worried that he would have anxiety…”
“We did not ride with dad, but upon arrival the vehicle appeared to be very clean and dad comfy upon his arrival. Your staff are very hard workers and still managed to smile and help getting dad into his new facility.”
“Lisa, Tyron and Marquette were absolutely the best according to my dad. They took excellent care, made sure he was comfortable, stopped so he could move around and made sure that ate properly. He had nothing but good things to say. I met with the three of them when he got here and they were very…”
If your trip is across town, we're the wrong company
We'd rather tell you now than take your phone call and waste your afternoon. Our minimum trip is 200 miles.
Across town: call a local operator
We don't run dialysis routes, clinic appointments, or same-city discharges. Not because they don't matter, but because they need a local operator who can be at your door in twenty minutes and do it again on Thursday.
For those trips, search for a licensed ambulette or non-emergency medical transport provider in your county, and ask whether they're contracted with the facility you're going to. Your hospital's discharge planner or your local Area Agency on Aging will usually have a list.
Across states: that's us
Call us when the trip is long. If your loved one has to get from one state to another (or from one coast to the other) and can't manage a flight or a car ride, that's the entire thing we do.
200 miles to coast to coast, across all 48 lower states, with our own vehicles and our own hand-picked crews.
What changes when the ambulette trip is 1,400 miles
A vehicle that's perfect for a half-hour ride to dialysis is the wrong vehicle for two days on the interstate. Here's what the distance actually demands.
A bed, not just a chair
Nobody sits upright in a wheelchair for twenty hours. Our vans carry a real bed on a memory-foam mattress, so they can lie flat for as much of the trip as they want to.
Someone medical aboard
A local ambulette driver helps you in and out. On a multi-day route there's a trained medical professional riding beside the bed the whole way, keeping medications on schedule.
Two drivers
On long routes drivers rotate so the vehicle keeps moving safely through the night while your loved one sleeps, instead of stopping at a motel with no medical support.
A real bathroom plan
Twenty hours raises questions a thirty-minute ride never does. Our crews handle personal care and comfort stops as part of the trip, not as an interruption to it.
Room for the equipment
The wheelchair comes too, along with oxygen, the walker, the luggage. Our most spacious vans have the space for the things that have to arrive with them.
Both ends handled
Our crew collects from the room and delivers to the room, bed to bed, not curb to curb. You don't arrange helpers at either end.
“These guys were great! I want to acknowledge Suzan, Soniel, and Anquonette. They arrived on time and were very patient with all that was going on.”
Ambulette, ambulance, or something else?
The three options families weigh usually sort out quickly once someone explains the difference:
- AmbuletteAssistance and equipment, no emergency care. Right for a stable patient who needs help moving, not treatment on the way.
- AmbulanceEmergency vehicle, emergency staffing, emergency pricing. Right when minutes matter. For a planned, non-urgent trip it's an expensive way to travel. See long distance ambulance service.
- Air ambulanceRight for genuinely critical patients who must be somewhere in hours. For stable patients it costs many times what the ground trip does, and family usually can't ride. See the honest comparison.
Most of the families who reach this page turn out to need the middle thing over a long distance: a calm, equipped, staffed vehicle with a bed in it. That's what we've been running since 2010, with our own fleet and our own trained crews, fully licensed.
Compare ACC Medlink to the competition
How our Sprinters stack up against the vehicles other services send.
| ACC MedlinkMercedes Sprinter | Competitor Minivan Services |
Competitor RV Services |
|---|---|---|
| Two professional drivers & a medical professionalMedical attendants can stand and properly care for the patient en route | Two drivers onlyTight space, no headroom No room for proper care |
Medic and two driversNo way to load a stretcher onto an RV No room for proper care |
| Our own Mercedes Sprinter fleetNationwide fleet, expertly maintained Fully licensed |
Questionable safety recordQuestionable maintenance record | Structure not built for passengersQuestionable maintenance record No crash-safety standards required |
| Real beds with memory-foam mattressesA real bed, not a reclined seat | Thin plastic mattress | Hospital-type bed |
| Custom bedside commodeDignified access, no transfers | Bedpan only | Small ambulatory bathroomNot ideal for patient transfer |
| Low-emission vehiclesBlueTEC SCR technology Complies with strict EPA/CARB standards |
Not low-emission | Not low-emission |
What families ask about ambulette service
Don't see yours? Call. A real person on our team answers, day or night.
What is the difference between an ambulette and an ambulance?
Do you provide local ambulette trips?
Can my loved one stay in their wheelchair for the trip?
Is an ambulette cheaper than an ambulance?
Can family ride along?
How far in advance do I need to book?
Reviewed by the ACC Medlink teamUpdated How we review our pages
Going a long way? That's our whole business.
Tell us the two addresses and roughly when. If we're the right fit you'll have a quote today, and if we're not, we'll say so.
2,500+ reviews10M+ patient milesSince 2010