Ambulance service

About the business

Renting out a vehicle to move patients and bodies. The demand never falls, but there is no national fare list for this work. Rates are set hospital by hospital. Under Chattogram Medical College Hospital's Patient and Body Transport Policy 2025, an AC or freezer van from the hospital to Fatikchhari was Tk 3,071, with Tk 500 more for going into a lane or village road. On 8 June 2026 a meeting chaired by the city mayor raised those rates by 30 percent in one step: a minimum of Tk 1,144, and at the furthest point, Lohagara, Tk 5,400 for a large non-AC ambulance and Tk 5,785 for an AC one. What actually happens is different: a March 2026 receipt for carrying a body to Fatikchhari showed Tk 8,000, more than double the chart. The papers are also irregular. Of twelve ambulances checked at CMCH, seven were registered with BRTA as microbuses and had neither a fitness certificate nor a current tax token. Ambulance registration numbers start with 71 and microbus numbers with 11 or 51, so the plate alone gives it away. The hardest barrier in this business is not the paperwork but the owners' association and the touts sitting at the hospital gate.

Unit economics

What you need to start

• The vehicle and what goes in it: stretcher, oxygen cylinder and mask, suction unit, drip stand, siren and lights. CMCH's chart prices AC and freezer vans separately, so those two fittings directly raise the fare. Equipment prices could not be verified in this research.Equipment
• Motor vehicle registration from BRTA in the ambulance class. Ambulance registration numbers begin with 71 and microbus numbers with 11 or 51; a private microbus plate carries the Bangla letter 'cha' and a for-hire microbus 'chha'. Running an ambulance on a microbus registration is what BRTA drives look for.Licence
• Fitness certificate from BRTA. For a motor vehicle other than heavy, issue and renewal is Tk 450, inspection Tk 450 and a duplicate Tk 150. A current tax token is also compulsory.Licence
• Trade licence from the city corporation or municipality: form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000 by trade type. Issued in 3-5 working days.Licence
• Route permit (contract carriage) from BRTA. Annual fee: Tk 325 for one district, Tk 483 up to three, Tk 645 up to six, Tk 970 up to twelve and Tk 1,290 beyond; the application form is Tk 150.Licence
• A licensed driver and, ideally, an attendant who knows how to handle oxygen and a stretcher. Families' commonest complaint is the absence of trained staff.Skill
• A dependable source for refilling oxygen cylinders and a garage. Calls come at night, so both need to be reachable round the clock.Supplier

How the work is done

1. 1Decide which hospital you will work from. The market for this business is one hospital gate, and the first thing to find out is who is sitting at that gate.
2. 2Buy the vehicle and register it with BRTA as an ambulance. An ambulance registration number starts with 71; registering it as a microbus gives 11 or 51, and BRTA drives catch that.
3. 3Get the fitness certificate and renew it every year - Tk 450 for a non-heavy motor vehicle plus Tk 450 inspection - and keep the tax token current.
4. 4Take the route permit. As a vehicle carrying people for hire this is a contract carriage permit - Tk 325 a year for one district, Tk 483 up to three and Tk 645 up to six. If you want long-distance body transport, take the wider permit.
5. 5Take a trade licence from the city corporation or municipality.
6. 6Fit the vehicle out: stretcher, oxygen cylinder and mask, suction, drip stand, lights and siren. For bodies you need a freezer van - CMCH's chart prices freezer vans separately.
7. 7Hire a driver and, if you can, a trained attendant. Families complain that most ambulances carry neither life-saving equipment nor trained staff.
8. 8Get the fixed fare chart for the hospital you work from and keep it in the vehicle. At CMCH the mayor said the chart would be displayed prominently and that the owners' association would be fined for overcharging.
9. 9Give a printed receipt for every journey and keep the counterfoil. When a fare is disputed the receipt is the only proof - at CMCH the overcharging was proved from one.
10. 10Learn the toll exemption. Ambulances carrying patients pay no toll on Roads and Highways roads, ferries and bridges, but the condition is that the saving must be passed on in the fare.
11. 11Build customers away from the hospital gate too - regular dialysis and chemotherapy patients, private clinics, old people's homes. That is the only way to reduce dependence on the association at the gate.

Sources

• বিআরটিএ'র মোটরযান আইন ও বিধির অধীনে ধার্যকৃত বিভিন্ন ফিস (নিবন্ধন, মালিকানা বদলী, ফিটনেস ও রুট পারমিট) বৃদ্ধির তালিকা — হার কার্যকর ০১-০১-২০১৪

  Collected: 16 Sept 2026

  Supports: Starting capital · বাংলাদেশ

• সিটি কর্পোরেশন থেকে ট্রেড লাইসেন্স প্রাপ্তির ধাপ সমূহ

  Collected: 16 Sept 2026

  Supports: Starting capital · বাংলাদেশ

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