Custom EMS Command Truck Aids Rapid Response of Paramedics

The City of Allentown Paramedics serves over 125,000 residents in eastern Pennsylvania, answering roughly 20,000 emergency calls each year. Their team delivers vital on-scene medical care, safely transports patients to medical facilities and assists in disaster response and public safety throughout the community. While ambulances are the most familiar part of their fleet, they also rely on a range of specialized emergency vehicles—each designed to handle unique situations and challenging environments.

"We have to be efficient because I show up on a call, I don't have time to think or go find that thing. I need to be able to open a cabinet, pull it out and put it in service," said Matthew Brett, Assistant Chief of EMS - 3rd Platoon for the City of Allentown.

Matthew Brett, Assistant Chief of EMS - 3rd Platoon for the City of Allentown, demonstrates how their new EMS truck allows them to quickly access emergency medical equipment and supplies.

One of those specialty response vehicles is the EMS Command Truck, a mobile operations and equipment hub that is dispatched for:

• On-site EMS coordination
• Backup medical support
• Technical rescues
• Natural disasters
• Hazardous scenes
• Mass casualty incidents

This emergency vehicle is a custom Knapheide service body installed on a Ford commercial truck chassis cab. Knapheide handled the custom body design and manufacturing while Levan Machine and Truck Equipment took care of the vehicle upfitting. Some notable features of this particular unit include its:

• Fully enclosed body design
• Built-in side compartments with shelving
• Roll-up & hinged doors
• Truck bed drawer system
• Cargo stowing & locking system
• Interior, emergency & scene lighting
• On-board power supply

For a more in-depth walkthrough of this emergency vehicle, watch the video tour below.

Frank Blatt, Inside Sales Rep at Levan Machine and Truck Equipment, and Matthew Brett, Assistant Chief of EMS - 3rd Platoon for the City of Allentown, tour the new EMS Command Truck.

Assistant Chief of EMS - 3rd Platoon Matthew Brett from Allentown Paramedics worked with Frank Blatt, an inside sales rep at Levan Machine and Truck Equipment, to figure out exactly what this emergency vehicle needed to do—who and what may be aboard and other necessary requirements.

It quickly became clear that a standard service truck just wouldn’t cut it. So, the team turned to Knapheide, who engineered and fabricated a custom setup that would go on to become the Allentown Paramedics’ EMS Command Truck.

"We've had this truck in service for 6 months. It's probably been on over a thousand calls in that time and happy with the functionality and how it's turned out for us," added Brett.

Before this upgrade, the City of Allentown Paramedics were using pickup trucks with slide-out beds, but the gear wasn’t really properly mounted—it would shift around or even fall out when opened. This new setup fixes all that, keeping everything secure, organized, and way easier to grab when every second counts.