Portable ramps at pickups: threshold ramps, folding ramps, and when a driver should not use one

What a portable ramp can and cannot do

A portable ramp bridges a small rise between the ground and a rider’s doorway. It does not replace a built ramp, a lift, or a crew trained to carry a rider down stairs. The useful question at every pickup is how high the rise is, because that number decides the ramp length, and the length decides whether a driver can carry and set it up.

Two kinds of ramps fit in a van:

• Threshold ramps. Short wedges for door sills and single small steps. PVI’s rubber threshold ramps cover rises from 1/2 inch to 2 inches and are cut to fit. Its aluminum threshold ramps cover rises from 1/4 inch to 4 inches, and most are rated for 600 pounds. EZ-ACCESS makes modular threshold ramps in heights from 1 inch to 6 inches, rated for 700 pounds.
• Folding ramps. Aluminum ramps that fold in half or into sections and carry like a suitcase. PVI’s singlefold and multifold ramps run from 2 to 8 feet long, weigh 10 to 76 pounds, and carry 800 pounds. EZ-ACCESS’s SUITCASE ramp carries 800 pounds.

The 2010 ADA Standards show why a threshold matters at all. Under section 303, a change in level up to 1/4 inch may be vertical, one from 1/4 to 1/2 inch must be beveled, and anything over 1/2 inch must be ramped. A front-door sill that is “only an inch” is already past the 1/2-inch point where the ADA Standards call for a ramp.

Slope: built ramps follow the ADA, portable ramps follow the maker

The ADA’s ramp rules are written for buildings, and they are strict. Section 405 of the 2010 Standards limits a ramp run to a 1:12 slope, a 1:48 cross slope, a 36-inch clear width and a 30-inch rise, with 60-inch landings at the top and bottom and handrails once the rise passes 6 inches. In existing buildings with no room, it allows 1:10 for a rise up to 6 inches and 1:8 for a rise up to 3 inches.

A rider’s home usually sits outside those rules. Federal rules exclude the part of a private residence used only as a residence from the ADA’s public accommodation requirements (28 CFR 36.207). That is why portable ramp makers publish their own limits:

• PVI. Always have a qualified assistant present. Never exceed 2 inches of rise per 12 inches of ramp with an occupied chair or scooter, or 3 inches per 12 with an unoccupied one. PVI does not recommend anything steeper than 3:12, and lists 1:12 as the ADA figure for long home and commercial ramps.
• EZ-ACCESS. Check the mobility device’s owner guide for the acceptable slope and chair direction and never exceed it. Its incline calculator calls the ADA’s 1:12 a good place to start and says a rise over 30 inches may need a platform.

The arithmetic is simple. Divide the rise in inches by the rise-per-foot you can use. Here are worked examples for common home entries.

Read the table with the weight of each ramp in mind. PVI’s 8-foot multifold weighs 52 to 76 pounds depending on width, and the driver has to carry it to the door, open it, set it and fold it back. Past two steps, a portable ramp stops being a practical tool for a van driver, even before the slope question.

Weight ratings: read the axle figure

The headline capacity is not the whole story. PVI rates its 800-pound folding ramps at 400 pounds on one axle and 800 pounds on two, and its longer Wheel-A-Bout ramp at 300 pounds per axle, 600 in total. A wheelchair crosses a ramp one axle at a time at the ends, and the heavy drive wheels of a power chair can put most of the load on one.

As an example, a 350-pound power chair with a 250-pound rider is 600 pounds in total. If 70 percent of that rides on the drive wheels, one axle carries 420 pounds, which is over a 400-pound axle rating while the total looks fine. Ask the rider or family for the chair’s make and model at booking and look up its weight, or use the figure from the power wheelchair guide.

The attendant counts too. Both makers require a qualified helper, and anyone standing on the ramp is part of the load. Accessories can lower the rating: EZ-ACCESS’s top lip extension for the SUITCASE ramp cuts its capacity from 800 pounds to 500.

Setting up on real porches and walkways

The setup instructions are where most pickups fail. EZ-ACCESS’s SUITCASE instructions require all of the following before use:

1. Both top lip plates fully overlap a secure, unobstructed, level landing that can carry at least the ramp’s 800-pound capacity.
2. The ramp is anchored to the landing, either with the supplied clevis pins in quarter-inch holes drilled into the landing or with semi-permanent hardware.
3. The surface is clear of ice, snow, dirt and leaves, and the user takes extra care when it is wet.
4. There is room to maneuver at both ends.
5. A qualified helper is present and the rider wears a lap belt.

The same instructions say that if a secure, level landing cannot be found, do not use the ramp. PVI’s guidelines say the top of the ramp must be secured on the step or landing before use, and that it may be necessary to pin it to the landing surface with the supplied steel security pins.

That creates a practical problem for a NEMT driver. Drilling into a rider’s porch is not something a driver should do, and many entries have a storm door, a sloped walkway, or a step with no landing at the top. A self-adjusting lower plate, like the one on EZ-ACCESS’s GATEWAY 3G, settles the bottom edge onto the ground. It does not fix a top edge that rocks, a landing narrower than the ramp, or a door that swings over the ramp’s top.

Check the use label before you buy

Read the warning page before you buy a ramp for the van. EZ-ACCESS labels its SUITCASE ramp “For wheelchairs and scooters only; not for commercial use,” its TRANSITIONS threshold ramp “not for commercial use,” and its GATEWAY 3G ramp “For residential use only.” Its warnings add that ignoring them waives all liabilities and the warranty.

A transportation company carrying a ramp from trip to trip is using it commercially. If you keep one in the van, buy a model whose maker allows that use, keep its instructions with it, and ask your insurer how the policy treats injuries on equipment you supply. The NEMT liability guide covers how these claims usually start.

Store it properly in the van too. Under 49 CFR 38.23(c), stowed ramps, portable ones included, must not crowd a passenger’s wheelchair or pose a hazard in a sudden stop. A portable ramp used to board the van itself is a vehicle ramp. The Access Board’s guide notes that the ADA’s legislative history names portable ramps as an option for some vehicles, but they must attach firmly, with brackets or a hole-and-pin connection, so the gap between van and ramp never exceeds 5/8 inch.

What brokers and Medicaid programs expect at the door

Program rules describe help between the door and the van, and none of the ones below ask drivers to lift riders:

• MTM Virginia (May 2026 handbook). Door-to-door means helping the member from the door of the pickup point to the vehicle, and it does not include lifting any member. Only ambulance and stretcher van crews should go inside a residence.
• Louisiana Medicaid (section 10.3, July 2025). The provider gives door-to-door assistance to and from the main entrance when a rider asks for it, and does not touch a passenger unless the passenger asks for moderate assistance.
• CareOregon (February 2024 manual). Drivers help members manage stairs when needed or asked, but physically assisting or carrying a member on the stairs is not allowed, and the driver must tell the NEMT manager when a trip needs it.

The body explains the rules. Tipping a chair back to bump it over a step means lifting part of the rider’s weight. OSHA, citing NIOSH research, has noted that 35 pounds is recommended as the upper limit for manual patient transfers. A rider in a chair weighs far more than that. The driver scope of duties guide covers the rest of what drivers can and cannot do, and the door-to-door entry explains the service level.

When the rider needs a home ramp or a stair chair crew

Send a different answer when any of these is true:

• The rise is over two steps. The ramp gets too long and heavy to carry, and the slope limits get hard to meet.
• There is no level landing at the top. Every maker above says not to use the ramp.
• The chair and rider exceed the ramp’s axle rating. Heavy power chairs are the usual case.
• The ramp would have to be drilled or pinned into the rider’s property.
• The rider must be carried. That is a stair chair trip with a trained crew, booked that way from the start.

For riders who use a wheelchair every day, a permanent ramp is the real fix, and the rider or family arranges it. Renters have a right to make that change: under 24 CFR 100.203, a landlord may not refuse a tenant with a disability reasonable modifications needed to use the home, at the tenant’s expense, though the landlord can ask for a description of the work and proof it will be done properly.

Find out before the first pickup. At intake, ask how many steps lead to the door, roughly how tall they are, whether there is a ramp or landing, the chair’s make, and who will be home to help. Note the answers on the rider’s profile so every driver who gets the trip sees them.

Booking the right service

The intake answers only help if they reach the trip. In HealthRide, record the rider’s needs on the trip when you book it. Wheelchair, stretcher, oxygen and stair-chair requirements are matched on every assignment, and if someone tries to put a wheelchair rider on a van with no lift, the board stops them and explains why. See how the dispatch board handles it.