The first St John ambulances were covered stretchers on trolleys pushed along the road and known as hand-wheeled litters.

Horse-drawn carriages were then introduced as ambulances, with the first such carriage brought over from England by St John in 1895.

The first motor ambulance is understood to have been acquired in 1915 in Timaru, setting a high standard St John would follow throughout the country. By 1920, St John had fully embraced the motorised age.

The earliest motorised vehicles held stretchers with rubber mattresses, a box of bandages and splints, a bottle of brandy and a bottle of smelling salts.

Today St John runs a modern fleet of ambulances equipped with the latest in medical technology. In some areas, St John also has Rapid Response vehicles, Health Shuttles and motorcycles.

In the early days of dispatching ambulances, ambulance officers would be summoned by flags on top of hotels and other landmarks, or by sirens or messengers.

Ambulance communications centres revolutionised the way ambulances are dispatched and communicated with, using computers, cell phones, pagers and other electronic forms of communication.

As the lead provider of ambulance communications services, St John uses the latest technology to dispatch road ambulances, air ambulances, Coastguard and other emergency resources to medical emergencies.