Supply chain issues are impacting Austin buses and ambulances
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The breadth of pandemic-induced supply chain issues now stretches to city fleets including public transportation and EMS vehicles.
Capital Metro said a bus part shortage is sidelining some of their buses each day, delaying some busy routes like the MetroRapid by a couple minutes, and less busy routes by about 15 minutes.
The public transportation agency said on a typical weekday morning, they need 345 out of their 425 buses on the road. On Tuesday, they started 19 buses short. They said most were sidelined because their air conditioners were broken.
They're not sure when out-of-service buses will be able to join the fleet again.
One supplier, they said, should be sending air conditioning parts within the next week or two, which would fix eight buses.
CapMetro said when possible, mechanics have used parts from idled buses to keep other buses going.
The agency said all schedule changes should show up on CapMetro's app as they happen.
Austin-Travis County EMS said supply chain issues mean they're having a hard time getting in new ambulances.
"It's really a national and even a global issue with delays from manufacturers such as for GM, Ram, Dodge," explained spokesperson Captain Darren Noak.
He's not wrong -- Dallas' mayor, Eric Johnson, wrote a letter about the issue a few weeks ago the to U.S. Department of Transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg
Johnson said they lost more than four dozen emergency response vehicles to flooding back in August, and current wait times mean they'll take more than a year to replace.
Johnson also said his city reached out to the City of Austin, which he said is a year behind new ambulance purchases due to supply chain issues.
Johnson copied the City of Austin and 16 other cities on his letter, asking Buttigieg to step in.
"I am asking that you urge automobile manufacturers to prioritize the production of first responder vehicles and work with Congressional leadership on any necessary action to meet these critical public safety needs without delay," Johnson wrote.
Noak said in the meantime, they're rotating older ambulances to slower stations and newer ones to busier stations to even out mileage on their vans.
"No one has that crystal ball to see how long this issue will last. So, that's why we're trying to be as efficient and effective as we can, with our rotation of the units, the upkeep, the maintenance, extending that, that life of those ambulances a little longer," he explained.
The American Ambulance Association, International Association of Fire Chiefs,
International Association of Fire Fighters and National Association of Emergency Medical
Technicians said manufacturers have indicated these supply chain issues will "continue well into 2023."
The groups also penned a joint letter to Buttigieg.
They said all their members are experiencing a shortage of vehicles, with wait times now 24 months or longer. They said before the pandemic, that wait time was normally 90 to 120 days from order to delivery.
"This means that when an EMS provider loses an ambulance to a crash, or when it exceeds its useful/safe life, they have to wait almost two years to replace it - making it harder to ensure timely responses to 911 calls.
Noak said wait times here have not yet been affected by this supply chain problem.