The term ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) is commonly banded about and increasingly forms part of everyday life without us even considering it. Extending internet connectivity so they become integral features of our everyday objects and devices enables instant communication and interaction supporting remote monitoring and controlling.
In the design, safety and buildings of our modern world, smart buildings using building information modelling (BIM) have been much talked about as the discussion and debate around tall and intelligent buildings continues.
Fire appliance manufacturer, Emergency One have seized on the opportunities of integrating technology to support firefighters and fire and rescue services in their responsibility to maintain a swift and efficient 24/7 emergency response.
Emergency One’s integration of vehicle and equipment using the expertise of Vodafone and the IoT ensures that the vehicles and equipment they supply are monitored to ensure they are ready to use whenever the need arises.
Fire and Rescue Services operate advanced tracking and dispatching systems to allocate the right resources to an incident. Fire Control staff take information from the caller to determine the appropriate and closest appliances required for the type of call they are responding to and at Emergency One our aim is to provide the very best backup that can support our customers.
Emergency One are producing around 200 fire appliances and specialist vehicles per year. When a new vehicle enters service, Emergency One consider this as a transition to operational use in which the company’s relationship with the purchasing service changes from supply to support.
With the numbers of vehicles being produced, the geographic spread of fire appliance fleets, the diverse nature of fire and rescue service work and appliance use providing real-time support presents a challenge, and to meet this Emergency One engaged with market-leading telecommunications company Vodafone.
Whilst Emergency One is rightly proud and confident in the quality of its products, it recognises that telecommunications expertise and opportunities exist within its own sector and to get the best it needed to work with the sector. Emergency One knew what it wanted, which in simple terms is the ability to monitor its vehicles at all times. The company also had experience of vehicle diagnostics in a workshop environment but wanted that extended to provide a remote capability.
Bringing Vodafone on board to discuss the company’s needs opened the door to opportunities that not only met but exceeded the original needs. Vodafone provided an insight into the opportunities that the IoT presented, which critically included advanced telematics technology providing a remote capability to track engines via an online portal, enabling Emergency One to have virtual engineers in the cab of any vehicle every minute of the day or night.
The remote, real-time capability supports the identification of issues before they impact on the operational effectiveness of a vehicle. The chances are that if a problem is identified, it would be resolved before the customer had even became aware or reported it. Furthermore, the company can use the information gathered from a single vehicle in a fleet to carry out analysis of similar vehicles to compare any concerns. This means that the operators of Emergency One fire appliances fitted with e1Fleet computer consoles benefit from proactive fleet monitoring and a scale of fleet intelligence far beyond their individual service capability.
Conventional servicing regimes also benefit from immediate technical support. If an operator or fleet engineer in a fire and rescue service has a concern over an element of their vehicles operation they can contact Emergency One who are able to remotely analyse and either respond to reassure the customer.
Emergency One are not a company who plan to rest on their laurels. They have ambitious plans to expand into international markets and this technology supports that expansion. The use of connected technology enables the company to offer a global standard of service level.
Elliot Boyce, Project Manager at Emergency One ‘We are proud to be working in partnership with Vodafone, who are industry leaders in IoT technologies. Utilising our in-house software & design engineers, we have been able to develop bespoke solutions for Fire & Rescue services- not only in the UK- but across the world. Introducing IoT to our bespoke solutions has allowed us to connect these innovations to the cloud. We aim to be at the forefront of technology development within the fire market and will continue to work with services across the globe to develop these- this continued innovation allows us to meet our vision of supporting the fire & rescue services with the critical tasks that they face on a daily basis.’
Whether an Emergency One vehicle is in North Scotland or the Northern Territories of Australia, we can now provide our customers with both the right vehicles to meet their needs and a level of 24/7 ongoing support that matches the demands of their critical services.
For more information, go to www.emergencyone.co.uk
