Digi’s iFleet to provide time critical tracking for Medilife Ambulance Services and eCall systems

• With iFleet, Medilife could potentially flag roads that have a high probability of accidents
• Medilife’s central office can alert ambulances nearest to the area and estimate the time of arrival

MEDILIFE Ambulance Services announced its partnership with Digi’s iFleet on Jan 8 to provide time critical tracking and greater visibility of its operations based in Sepang.

iFleet is a B2B solution targeted at commercial vehicles, the first IoT solution Digi is introducing from its range of Connected Vehicle offerings. The intelligent fleet tracking solution enables businesses to track their fleet in real-time. 

Time critical services

Between 2010 and 2013, the public complained that ambulances were taking up to 45 minutes to arrive at emergency scenes. In line with the Health Ministry’s pilot project to station ambulances at toll plazas and other hotspots, Medilife Ambulance Services expects to significantly reduce response times with iFleet.

The average waiting time for an ambulance is now 15 minutes and this could potentially go down even further now that Medilife’s central office can alert ambulances nearest to the distress area and estimate the time of arrival - elements that can make a crucial difference in an emergency.

Medilife Ambulance Executive Director Dr A Rasheed Ahamed MD said, “Being able to track an ambulance in real time also gives us greater visibility to ensure patients arrive at hospitals safely. This convinced us that iFleet could potentially reduce any downtimes or adverse situations significantly, as we operate across the nation, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.”

Adverse situations such as accidents involving ambulances are all too common in Malaysia – between 2006 and 2014 ambulance accidents averaged at 129 per year, with nine fatal accidents and 636 non-fatal accidents in five years.

70.4% of ambulance accidents occurred during day time, 55.7% on weekdays, 49.7% accidents in a straight road and 35.4% happened on federal roads.

Using iFleet, Medilife’s central office could potentially flag roads that have a high probability of accidents and alert ambulance drivers to safer routes while also tracking other parameters such as vehicle speed and driving behaviour.

Supporting the move of emergency services to use intelligent tracking solutions

While still in the proposal stage, the government has already expressed its intention to move forward with an emergency call (eCall) system to be installed in all vehicles at a tentative date of 2020.

In the event of an accident, the system will notify the Malaysian Emergency Response Services or MERS999, with accident data available in the shortest time possible.

iFleet is poised to support the government’s move towards intelligent vehicle tracking solutions, given its ability to flex its usage in many different scenarios, both in a commercial (B2B) and consumer (B2C) context with a completely customisable set of data parameters to set risk criteria and allow for precise premium calculations.

Praveen Rajan, Digi’s chief digital officer said, “With Medilife Ambulance Services, we are now seeing the usage of iFleet in time critical services, where close to zero downtime and adverse situations are a desired outcome. iFleet is easy to integrate and easier to use in comparison with traditional GPS systems, which are bulky and difficult to install in vehicles such as ambulances. We look forward to supporting businesses that are considering an intelligent tracking solution that can meet the factors above.”