Prepare Your Public Fleet for Wildfire Season

As of February 11, 2022, 3,120 wildfires had already burned 54,170 acres across the United States.¹

Although wildfire season in the U.S. typically begins in July², these early incident numbers indicate now is the time to prepare your fleet. 

3 ways telematics can keep your fleet ready

Emergency response fleets must be ready at a moment’s notice to respond to a wildfire. Using telematics technology can help ready vehicles before and during a fire event.

1. Stay on top of maintenance. Your vehicles must be able to respond to wildfire emergencies at a moment’s notice. Use telematics to set up preventative maintenance schedules and service reminders based on calendar or mileage intervals. In addition, receive alerts to confirm vehicles are in good condition when an emergency strikes. And rely on diagnostic trouble codes to help reduce the chance of unexpected breakdowns.
2. Keep tabs on vehicle locations. Knowing where vehicles are during a wildfire emergency helps improve response times. It also helps you know if responders are in an area where they might need help. Telematics technology has a live map feature that lets you see where vehicles and workers are in near-real time. It also has GPS tracking that can help you plan faster routes and identify heavy traffic or accidents blocking the way.  
3. Ensure equipment assets are on hand. Whether it’s equipment to cut and clear trees or to help fight a wildfire itself, in an emergency you need all your supplies available. You can use telematics to monitor asset movements and program geofence alerts to create a virtual perimeter that lets you know if equipment has been lost, stolen or used without consent. You can also get near real-time movement alerts to help you recover your assets quickly, and view asset tracker battery life on a live map to ensure equipment is powered and ready. 

 Telematics helps city fleets stay operable

The City of San Jose understands the importance of ensuring vehicles can respond to emergencies. With Verizon Connect, the city is able to track trouble codes, so they know if a vehicle needs to be pulled in for service. Their Fleet Technology Manager explains the importance of that: “If a vehicle has trouble codes, we want to be able to pull that out and put it in the shop and get it repaired right away. Our whole goal is to efficiently manage these assets so that our clients, which are the different departments, have vehicles when they need them to respond to emergencies.”

Investing in a fleet management solution is a big decision for public sector organizations. This buyer’s guide will provide the information you need to decide on a solution that is just right for your fleet. 

To learn more about how telematics can help your public safety fleets prepare for the upcoming wildfire season, request a demo. 

 ¹https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information/nfn

²https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-wildfires