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Bringing Emergency Vehicles to

Incidents Quickly and Efficiently

“We know where all our emergency service

units are at any given time. The system does

not assume a truck is sitting in the fire station,

but it actually dispatches the nearest truck

based on where the trucks are at the time of

the call.”

—Jim Arbagey, Fire Division Chief,

Deployment Services, Phoenix Fire

Department

Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) systems

relay the positions of emergency vehicles to a

central location, allowing dispatchers to:

• Quickly find the closest available unit to

repond to a call

• View all vehicles as they travel emergency

routes and evaluate the route’s efficiency

• Adjust directions to accommodate traffic

conditions

Automatic Vehicle Location Has Many

Possible Applications To Benefit

Emergency Vehicles and their

Dispatchers

Combining automatic vehicle location

systems with technologies for displaying

information, automating routing, and

communicating between dispatch and the

vehicles, greatly expands the uses of the

system for all users.

Depending on presently available resources,

installing a working automatic vehicle

location system can be as sophisticated as

installing a complete computer-aided

dispatch system with geographic information

system software. It can also be as basic as

purchasing individual transponders for each

vehicle, which can then be used as

components to an existing system, possibly

owned by other public agencies.

With Automatic Vehicle Location,

Emergency Responders Reach Precise

Locations Despite Challenging

Conditions

Automatic vehicle location uses global

positioning systems to pinpoint the precise

location of emergency vehicles. This satellite

based technology provides real-time

location, latitude and longitude coordinates,

and direction of traveling vehicles.

“A trooper—just three days after having the

AVL system installed in his vehicle—used it

to give coordinates to an Airlife helicopter.

The coordinates helped reduce the time of

arrival at the scene of a major accident by

about six minutes.”

—Jim Stewart, Sergeant, Texas Highway

Patrol

Automatic Vehicle Location Maximizes

Emergency Resources and Response

With the increased coordination automatic

vehicle location provides, emergency

agencies are:

• Expanding their service area and setting

up links with other agencies

• Increasing operating efficiency of

existing vehicles and staff

• Quickly addressing and resolving

emergency situations

“AVL in our Highway Helper trucks is an

invaluable enhancement to the two-way

radio we use. From the dispatcher

perspective it makes our job much easier.

When we are alerted to a problem, we can

see where the trucks are and send the closest

one to help.”

—Melanie Braun, Traveler Information

Supervisor, Minnesota Department of

Transportation

Because automatic vehicle location enables

dispatchers to track the location of vehicles

with greater accuracy, they can more

effectively coordinate emergency efforts

with other agencies.

“With the old system, you could park a fire

truck across the street from an incident and

a truck from a fire station two miles away

would be sent to respond. We didn’t have

the technology to know there was a truck

across the street.”

—Jim Arbagey, Fire Division Chief,

Deployment Services, Phoenix Fire

Department

An automatic vehicle location system also

helped the Red Cross reach victims after a

tornado devastated Jarrell, Texas, in June

1998.

“We knew where the community was, but all

the street signs had been blown down.

Without our AVL tracking system, we might

never have found them.”

—George Snell, Director of Disaster

Services for the San Antonio Area Red

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With automatic vehicle location, sending

assistance to resolve a variety of crises, from

medical emergencies and man-made

disasters to hazardous weather conditions, is

occurring with increased accuracy and

speed.

“When a state trooper reports an icy area,

dispatch can locate the maintenance trucks

working the area via AVL and directly contact

the truck that is best positioned to provide

service. At the same time they are arranging

this service, they are communicating those

arrangements to the trooper. This has

improved response time to incidents, and in

many cases, maintenance forces are able to

be proactive rather than reactive, servicing

the areas before accidents happen. Being

proactive has reduced accidents, improving

both safety and efficiency overall.”

—Richard Maddern, ITS Coordinator,

Minnesota Department of Transportation

“When looking at the benefits of AVL

technology, cost is certainly a factor, and we

are certainly concerned about it, but our real

measure of benefits is what it means to the

citizens of Dallas.”

—Ron Kirk, Mayor of Dallas

“The highest rate of return for an investment

is when lives are saved. We know our AVL and

vehicle preemption systems have saved lives.”

—John Nelson, Phoenix City Councilman