Tuarangi Home, Ashburton’s aged residential care facility, cares for people needing hospital-level care as well as those living with complex dementia. For many, the outings these two services organise are the only time in a week they leave home or residential care, and getting people with high mobility needs there and back safely takes more than a standard van.
Working with IVECO, which supplied the base vehicle, Auto Transform sat down with the Tuarangi Home team to understand exactly how residents needing hospital-level care and complex dementia support would move in and out of the vehicle day to day. That conversation shaped an Iveco Daily 50C ELWB fit-out built around access and restraint as much as seating: four wheelchair positions, each secured with manually-fixed restraints and loaded via a single underfloor cassette hoist, five fixed seats, and certification to New Zealand’s PSV standards for heavy mobility vehicles.
“Getting wheelchair positioning, restraints and access right gives providers the flexibility to transport people safely and comfortably, whatever their mobility needs,” says Auto Transform’s Mark Lloyd
The bus now ferries community members and residents to and from Elizabeth Street Day Centre and Tuarangi Home, picking up people who require full-time care from their homes or residential care and bringing them along to activities and outings. Nurse Manager Integration Julie Broker says the bus opens up more opportunities for people who might otherwise miss out:
“It will mean more of our community with high mobility needs will be able to engage in the day centre and Tuarangi Home activities and outings, which is important for supporting their overall care.”
With daily morning pick-ups and afternoon drop-offs across Ashburton, the bus is already changing the shape of the week for the people who use it. It’s transport built around the people who need it most: safe, comfortable, and bringing a little more normalcy back to their week.
