How can your technology stack help save lives?

With over a billion cars operating on roads around the world annually, we’re experiencing new found levels of traffic congestion. This congestion places strain on emergency management response teams as they dispatch vehicles in time-poor and life-threatening situations. Your technology stack can help save lives.

Currently, the systems many emergency management organisations use to plan, schedule, dispatch and monitor their assets and emergency responders are disparate. These systems include an organisation’s case management system (CMS), computer aided dispatch (CAD) system and in cabin mobile data terminals (MDT) and it’s crucial all of these systems align to provide consistent information across an entire supply chain and speed up emergency response times.  

At a macro level, each emergency management agency working within a jurisdiction (police, ambulance, firefighters) are operating across different road networks and response systems. More than likely, these legacy systems cannot be integrated for rapid information exchange and agencies need to look at how they can improve these systems. 

HERE Technologies provides the underlying data that can help optimise operation centres’ computer aided dispatch (CAD) systems capture the entire emergency response process. Centralising the information, such as points of interest and live traffic across the same road network and location status across different (police, fire, ambulance) agencies during an emergency situation will improve their situational intelligence and in turn, reduce the response time to a life-threatening situation.

HERE Technologies powers it’s services using rich sensor data from vehicles, alongside an array of third party location data sources to capture, analyse and visualise an incident clearly - prior to teams being dispatched. 

Here are three ways HERE Technologies can be leveraged to make faster, more informed decisions.

Connecting the closest driver

To the human dispatch officer, a static map may show assets such as ambulances or fire trucks that look close in proximity. However, these assets may not necessarily be the closest in distance or have access to certain routes. Static maps don’t take into account real time estimated times of arrival (ETAs), height and weight road restrictions for trucks, island cut outs for u turn opportunities or weather conditions that may impact the routes available to a driver.

Dispatch centres can quickly assess and validate multi-routing calculations in real time, prioritising the closest driver using network positioning via telco cell IDs and WIFI.  HERE Technologies’ has also collected data on mobile network coverage and strength, effective in regional areas and mobile dead spots. This data can be pushed into mobile data units so field crews can download and access critical data both online and offline. 

Pairing this information with HERE Technologies’ Location Services means users have access to billions of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) data points and over 100 data sources including vehicle sensor data, connected cars and road sensors, which can make all the difference in an emergency situation.

Coordinating a timely response  

Road incidents vary in nature and it’s important to understand quickly where an incident has occured, what emergency response teams need to be contacted and how this impacts the road network surrounding the incident. With multiple agencies at the scene of an emergency, it’s also important to ensure these responses are coordinated. Operating across the same data sources and road networks is integral to agencies making strategic and operational coordinated responses.

Geofencing can enable emergency management teams to delineate clear incident boundaries and set up reporting requirements across teams. This gives dispatch teams the visibility to understand when a vehicle has entered and exited an emergency site and then report on responses using HERE Technologies’ Fleet Telematics Geofencing capability. 

During post emergency response efforts, teams can identify and assess response times and how long each team was stationed at the site. This information can then be used to build more efficient response plans for future incidents. 

Improving driver’s visibility 

Emergency vehicle drivers need a clear view of traffic congestion and ETAs on their way to the incident site. 

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and traffic prediction models are becoming more advanced and it’s imperative that driver’s have access to ‘to-the-minute’ driving routes.

HERE Technologies provides real-time traffic information that leverages over one trillion GPS data points, alongside historical traffic data and seasonal patterns, to provide an accurate driver ETA to the incident site. 

For heavy vehicles that need to reach the incident location, HERE Technologies can provide information on heavy vehicle height and weight restrictions and route the driver more safely and efficiently through metro and regional road networks.

How can Next Mile Location Technology help your team?

Next Mile Location Technology is a distributor of HERE Technologies and can provide the guidance and implementation needed to build a centralised emergency response CAD system.

If you would like to explore how HERE Technologies can benefit your business, reach out to our team.

Source: HERE Real-time traffic data available on HERE Traffic Dashboard.