When the phone rang at a private ambulance center in Tehran, a famous Iranian soccer player was on the line. The operator recognized him instantly and expressed sympathy for the presumed medical emergency in his family.

The soccer star laughed and said nobody was sick. He was requesting a reservation for an ambulance for a day to run errands around the city. He wanted to avoid the choking traffic that can turn a 10-minute ride into a two-hour trek. The money he was offering was equivalent to a teacher’s monthly salary.

For wealthy Iranians and even private tutors preparing students for national university exams, hiring an ambulance as one’s own private car and chauffeur has become the latest trend in a country with no shortage of time-consuming and frustrating traffic jams.

The practice is illegal. All the ambulance companies reached by phone this past week expressed concern that the abuse of the emergency-services vehicles — with their ability to run through red lights and be allowed a clear path to their destinations — would create a serious breach of public trust and impede the speedy transfer of patients to and from medical facilities.