W707 XVS To move a small amount of blood or people, the NBS use cars and mpv’s. This Vauxhall Zafira multi-purpose vehicle carries a red and yellow chequered stripe with large ‘blood’ wording. The roof is marked with ‘NBS’ to distinguish this vehicle from a police or ambulance vehicle from the air.
LT53 ALD is a Ford Transit Connect diesel van operated by a private courier service. The only marking on the vehicle to signify that it is used for transporting blood is the wording on the roof mounted light bar.
MX03 GUF This Ford Focus TDCi estate is used for the urgent transportation of blood by the National Blood Service.
The front view. Notice the slim blue light bar and the blue strobe light next to the rear view mirror. You can also see the roof markings stating ‘urgent blood’.
The side view of the same car. The NBS originally had a wide blue stripe down the sides of their vehicles (both emergency, and non-emergency), examples of which can be seen in other blood service pages. More recently, they have adopted a (very appropriate) wide red stripe. This rapid deployment vehicle has a third livery of red and yellow battenburg, which is similar in appearance to some fire service cars.
The rear and nearside views. The ‘phone number, website address and ‘NHS’ logo can all be seen.
DX03 MHL The 2003 livery for the non-emergency blood service vehicles replaces the wide blue stripe with a more appropriate red one. This is shown on this DAF LF.
T933 APP This is the 2003 battenburg livery of the National Blood Service emergency vehicles. The car pictured is a police specification Vauxhall Vectra with a V6 2.5-litre engine. It has blue strobes in the front and rear indicator clusters as well as a light bar on the roof.
N667 EUM This Renault 21 estate is used for emergency transportation of blood and hence has blue lights and a siren.
The rear view of the Renault emergency blood transportation car seen above.
The side view.
K822 EWJ is a Ford Sierra estate used for the emergency transport of blood products. This is one of the last Sierras before the Mondeo replaced it.
P86 YJR is not a blood service vehicle, but it does do a similar job. This ambulance is used solely for the transportation of human organs. The drivers are on call to respond to organ transportation emergencies. There may be a liver at ‘A’ wanted by a patient at ‘B’; and it’s life span outside of a human body is severely limited.
R982 CYG This is a non-emergency blood service Mercedes van, which carries the same livery as the emergency cars from the same era do.
This is a smaller Mercedes Vito van which serves the same purpose. Notice the defunct telephone number starting ‘0345’.
S869 BUB is a mk.2 Ford Mondeo. Note the extra blue strobe lights mounted next to the headlights.
LT57 MXO This Ford Transit Connect is operated by London-based Medical Services and is fitted with blue lights as it is used from time to time for urgent blood transportation work.
E1 AWV This Mercedes Vito has been converted to an Emergency Response Vehicle for communications at a major emergency on the London Underground. Three such vehicles are kept in secure garages and can respond with 30 minutes notice. They are run by the company O2 as they operate the Airwave service.
The side view of the same vehicle. It is fitted with blue lights and another obvious addition is the telescopic mast protruding from the roof (with the top covered by a bag). A small amount of advertising for the company that run it can be seen along the side skirt. Inside is an array of communications equipment, including 1km of cabling, that can allow radios to work underground.
The final version of the van on field trials with its telescopic antenna partially erect.