When seeking an ambulance car, people have the option of selecting between VSL or standard taxi services. Although both appear similar in appearance and function, their roles differ significantly: VSL vehicles are driven by medical assistants that provide basic first aid while taxi services do not permit payment of healthcare if needed.
VSL and conventional taxis are used to ensure safe transfers between healthcare centers, with or without patients onboard, in an adapted state. They are particularly suitable for transports of sick, injured people with reduced mobility and elderly individuals not needing ongoing medical support.
Experimentation allows biphasic companies to restructure their transport offer and enhance access to healthcare, improving access. Expanding VSL parks throughout their service territory contributes to fighting the uptake of non-essential ambulance transportation solutions when needs arise.
Increased activity from these organizations also helps offset competition between taxis. Nationally increasing their capacity of activity created a replacement of old conventional taxis with new VSL taxis to lower maintenance and operation expenses; economic benefits were realized for traditional taxi drivers as their costs did not increase with use of either VSLs or conventional taxis; voluntary participants in experimentation did not wish to incur additional expenses related to this initiative.