Future-Proofing the Fleet - The Ortus Group

18th June 2020

The Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust invests in brand new rapid response vehicles with Insight Telematics to drive operational effectiveness.

The Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust (WAST) and the Ortus Group have an established business relationship spanning over five years. In keeping with the ever-changing technologies and demands, WAST is currently upgrading its fleet with 137 brand new vehicles including 51 Hybrid Toyota Rav 4 vehicles operating as Rapid Response Vehicles (RRV). As part of this investment in the latest technology, the Trust is working alongside the Ortus Group to install the latest Insight Telematics system into these vehicles.

These vehicles have been carefully selected to improve the Welsh Ambulance Service’s fleet, and to ultimately provide its staff with the latest technology to enable them to continue their exceptional patient care. With the increasing demand to reduce the Trust’s carbon footprint and expenditure, these hybrid vehicles, alongside the advanced capabilities of the Insight Telematics platform, will help the Trust achieve its targets. The Toyota Hybrid Rav 4 emits less CO2 when compared with a conventional petrol or diesel-engine vehicle; but this factor doesn’t affect its performance, making this model perfectly suited to the role of a Rapid Response Vehicle.

The Ortus Group has specially designed Insight to meet the important needs of the emergency services. Insight collects comprehensive and highly accurate vehicle data; multiple stakeholders within WAST can review this data to improve the operational effectiveness of the fleet, and ultimately reduce costs. Real time data processing offers essential data such as: live ambulance availability, location, speed, fuel consumption, AdBlue levels, vehicle health, and blue light use – to name a few! Reports can be exported and reviewed to pinpoint areas of improvement, and new strategies can be easily implemented to achieve KPIs.

David Holmes, National Fleet Manager for the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust, has commented on which functions first attracted him to Insight, and how he can see it making vital improvements to the WAST fleet:

‘Insight is a bespoke blue light system that has much more functionality than any standard off-the-shelf system. Insight has been tailored specifically to meet my demanding requirements. Ortus Telematics systems have already assisted greatly in improving efficiencies within WAST over the last five years. I know that by investing in the latest technology we will make further improvements. Having the ability to differentiate between blue light mileage and non-blue light mileage is key to me and my team as it enables us to proactively adapt our planned preventative maintenance to suit each individual vehicle based on the live information Insight provides. Another essential functionality that Insight provides is remote battery monitoring. The ability to actively manage the battery condition on the emergency vehicles especially now we have entered the self-charging hybrid world for our RRVs is crucial. We have equipped the RRVs with solar charging panels in an attempt to reduce the requirement for shoreline charging and having the ability to monitor the performance of the solar panels assists greatly in how we operate those vehicles. The operational staff are still bemused when they receive a telephone call from fleet asking them to go plug the vehicle outside the station into a shoreline, they always ask how we know it’s not plugged in!’

Craig Hall, Managing Director of the Ortus Group has also commented on this continued close business relationship:

‘It has been a pleasure to build our business relationship with WAST since the very beginning of the Ortus journey. WAST was one of the first ambulance services to understand the true benefits of this specialist telematics system, it is incredible to get this further commitment from its Fleet Team. Having strong partnerships in this specialist industry is the key to making it a success, and we definitely have that with WAST. We are thrilled to be doing our bit to ensure there is a reduction in the Trust’s carbon footprint and expenditure.’

Here at the Ortus Group, we are thrilled to be chosen to support the emergency services on the frontline with our mission critical technology. We strive to help our customers operate to the best of their ability and improve patient care where it is most vital.

To find out more about our Telematics portfolio click here