Chichester,,Sussex,/,Uk,-,20,June,2020:,Seven,Police

The importance of telematics in helping emergency service vehicles respond quickly and safely with complete visibility

Emergency services need to protect the public and their vehicle crews as well as keep their assets secure. In such a high-pressured fleet environment, telematics can help emergency vehicles respond quickly and safely with complete visibility and added peace of mind
Telematics also delivers a range of benefits for the emergency services provider from improved fuel management to improved driver behaviour and improved operational fleet efficiency:

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Identifying savings in emergency services operations

Emergency services that implement telematics achieve a better understanding of vehicle utilisation – a key part of an emergency services’ day-to-day work. Telematics delivers improved visibility of each vehicle ensuring identifying the accurate location of a vehicle and less time wasted in attending an emergency. Telematics plays a big part in how emergency services are able to analyse fleet data and to ensure the best use of vehicles, in particular having the ability to address under-utilised vehicles and thereby make adjustments to the fleet and achieve substantial savings through a reduction in mileage and accurate deployment of vehicles.

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Improve Driver Behaviour and Reduce Collisions

Driving ambulances and other emergency vehicles pose many dangers. According to research released by the Fire Protection Research Foundation, more than 500 fatalities and 28,000 injuries were linked to ambulance crashes between 1990 and 2015. Telematics can monitor driver behaviour and report information on activities such as speeding and harsh breaking to fleet managers. They can then advise drivers on how to drive safer and prevent accidents using this data.

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Digitise your fleet with integration

Data reported from the vehicle can be ingested and integrated with a series of web services. Dependent on your fleet profile and operational requirements, vehicle information such as location data can be in real-time processed to any M2M method. The command and Control team utilise this information to consolidate systems, allowing them to utilise uninterrupted location data from the vehicle, as well as using radios for police officer locations.

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Reduce Fuel and Maintenance Costs

With the current unfavourable financial climate, emergency services are facing considerable pressure to deliver great services while maintaining low operating costs. The use of telematics in this respect has proved to be a powerful and valuable tool. Research conducted by Frost and Sullivan shows that telematics can help reduce fuel expenditure by up to 25%. Therefore, through its capacity to monitor bad driving habits and track fuel usage, fleet managers can monitor and act against driver behaviour that adds to fuel wastage. Moreover, by ensuring that their vehicles comply with maintenance schedules, fleet managers can lower downtime costs and pre-empt costly repairs.

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Effective reporting, including ‘blues and twos’

The reporting suite available enables a raft of journey and event data to be logged and analysed including ‘blues and twos’ reports – incorporating the type of blue light mode the vehicle is operating under – all of which give time and location for on/off operation, together with speed, revs, acceleration and braking. Information is transmitted to a secure server in real-time.

How is Airmax Response installed?

The hardware is available in a turnkey solution throughout the vehicle convertor network and can be installed prior to delivery, reducing downtime. Alternatively, Airmax national coverage of installation technicians all vetted to an NPPV3 level, can install to existing fleets within 20 mins, saving much-needed time for that vehicle to be operational again.

“The introduction of telematics has proved very positive for West Yorkshire Police with no downside. We have had a lot of interest from other police forces and I believe more constabularies will equip vehicles with telematics devices.”

Steve Thompson

Head of Transport, West Yorkshire Police