For institutional use, the advantages of the transport wheelchair over the standard self-propelled wheelchairs (which are designed for personal use) are vast when it comes to longevity and cost savings. For instance, the transport chair is designed to be pushed by an attendant and cannot be budged by someone who is sitting in it. This variation on design limits its desirability for theft by someone who could otherwise just sit in a standard wheelchair and push off under their own steam.

The fact is that annually as many as 40% of standard wheelchairs are lost or stolen. Hospitals and airports on average spend between 20% and 30% of their wheelchair budgets on extra wheelchairs in order to account for the number of chairs that they count on to go missing annually.

For institutions that have made the change to transport chairs, theft is no longer a problem. According to Solomon Ayeneababa, Manager of Parking and Transportation Services at Sunnybrook Women's College Health Services in Toronto, they have used transport chairs since 1994, having made an initial investment in 200 chairs. To date, he has spent less than $500 to maintain them. The lifetime of these chairs have far outlasted their initial 3-year warranty, and are still in use today. Sunnybrook Women's College has seen a return on their investment many times over since 1994.

Longevity is key, because unlike the standard wheelchair, transport chairs do not have removable parts that can break or be misplaced. They do not fold or compact, so they do not fit into cars, which serve as a primary method of wheelchair theft. Each transport chair comes with its own unique serial number which can be traced back to its owner if indeed a chair somehow gets misplaced.

Misplaced wheelchairs in an institutional setting can clutter hallways and passages, causing confusion in an emergency situation. Transport wheelchair systems can come with their own rack, allowing them to be stacked neatly and locked until the next use. The chairs actually take up 1/3 of the space of standard wheelchairs.

Another feature is that transport chairs can be supplied in many colors. This allows a hospital or airport to color code the transport chairs according to which wing, unit, or terminal they belong on, eliminating the question of which chair belongs where.

Unfortunately, patients can find themselves waiting for hours for the right sized wheelchair so that they can be transported in safety. The transport wheelchair largely eliminates this need for a specific size, because the standard transport chair is designed to hold up to 500 pounds. This eliminates the need for bariatric wheelchairs for clients who weight under 500 pounds, so there is no waste on spending for expensive, specific-use wheelchairs within a wide weight range. As of 2009, a bariatric transport chair has been developed which can hold up to 1,000 pounds. That's 200 pounds more than the standard bariatric wheelchair.

Longevity, return on investment and theft-resistant attributes are some proven unique advantages that the transport chair has over the standard self-propelled wheelchair.