I agree with you Tom, I work in a rural area with long distances to hospital, which means that the ECA 'driver' is going to be spending a long time at the wheel - how safe is that? And I will be spending all my time in the back, which on a busy shift will be hard going. Also how will ECAs progress? - they won't be having the same experience that trainee techs do at the moment where they start off going in the back with 'safe' patients and gradually build up experience. It will make it a long leap between ECA and paramedic. We all know this is a money saving exercise, techs are currently at the top of band 4 (in most places) for A4C, and my trust is advertising for ECAs somewhere in band 3. I guess they are trying to claw back the payrise that occured when A4C was introduced.