Emer­gen­cy GPS

Deve­lo­pe your own emer­gen­cy GPS navi­ga­ti­on with the Map­Trip SDK — a User Sto­ry of Safe­tyCT Netherlands

Spe­cial requirements

To deve­lo­pe a emer­gen­cy GPS navi­ga­ti­on app for ope­ra­tio­nal dri­ving requi­res a very spe­cial exper­ti­se. While a wrong turn nor­mal­ly only means an annoy­ing delay, it takes on a com­ple­te­ly dif­fe­rent mea­ning during an emer­gen­cy dri­ve — human lives can depend on it. Every minu­te counts and the most important goal is to gui­de the dri­vers to the sce­ne of the emer­gen­cy as quick­ly and safe­ly as pos­si­ble. This can only be done effi­ci­ent­ly if all tho­se invol­ved recei­ve all rele­vant infor­ma­ti­on as quick­ly and cle­ar­ly as pos­si­ble from the moment an ope­ra­ti­on is repor­ted. In addi­ti­on to opti­mal rou­ting, it is also important to crea­te a clear view for dri­vers and  so that they have all the neces­sa­ry infor­ma­ti­on at a glance.

Next Gene­ra­ti­on View­er and Navi­ga­ti­on from the Netherlands

Based in Gro­ni­chem in the Net­her­lands, Safe­tyCT designs, deve­lo­ps and inte­gra­tes solu­ti­ons and appli­ca­ti­ons for con­trol cen­ters, emer­gen­cy ser­vices, secu­ri­ty regi­ons, cri­sis teams and com­pa­nies for and with its cus­to­mers. In doing so, safe­ty-ori­en­ted action is in their DNA. The ulti­ma­te goal is to make ope­ra­ti­ons bet­ter, faster and safer.

Shared values

The cont­act bet­ween Onno Stum­phi­us, CEO Safe­tyCT, and Vol­ker Wicken­kamp, Sales Mana­ger info­wa­re, came about, even befo­re Coro­na, quite clas­si­cal­ly at an event of the VFDB (GFPA Ger­man Fire Pro­tec­tion Asso­cia­ti­on), in which both com­pa­nies are actively involved.

It quick­ly beca­me appa­rent that the­re was a gre­at deal of com­mon ground bet­ween the two orga­nizati­ons. info­wa­re and Safe­tyCT both pur­sue a cul­tu­re that con­tri­bu­tes to safe­ty and are both very ser­vice-ori­en­ted. And so, step by step, a new col­la­bo­ra­ti­on began to take shape and Safe­tyCT deci­ded to deve­lop its own GPS navi­ga­ti­on appli­ca­ti­on based on the Map­Trip navi­ga­ti­on SDK.

Thou­sand­fold pro­ven qua­li­ty — deve­lo­ped from the input and expe­ri­ence of end users

Onno Stum­phi­us explains here again the aspects that led to the decis­i­on of Map­Trip from his point of view.

„Map­Trip is a pro­ven navi­ga­ti­on soft­ware used by thou­sands of emer­gen­cy vehic­les in Europe.

At the same time, the soft­ware has a modern look and feel and the ope­ra­ti­on is very user-fri­end­ly and intui­ti­ve for the user, so they don’t need any guidance.”

Simp­le and fast integration

This ease of use and user-fri­end­li­ness con­ti­nues for deve­lo­pers as well.

“It was very easy for our deve­lo­pers to inte­gra­te the GPS navi­ga­ti­on fea­ture into our app using the Map­Trip SDK. They were well gui­ded through the deve­lo­p­ment pro­cess thanks to the exten­si­ve docu­men­ta­ti­on. All in all, we were alre­a­dy done with the inte­gra­ti­on in about 2 weeks.”

For Android, iOS und Windows

Sin­ce all of Safe­tyC­T’s apps are plat­form inde­pen­dent, it is very important to them and their cus­to­mers that the soft­ware runs on all plat­forms such as Android, iOS and Windows.

 „This gives our cus­to­mers the abili­ty to con­ti­n­ue using their exi­sting hard­ware, no mat­ter what type of hard­ware they purcha­se in the future. Sin­ce the appli­ca­ti­on can be used on PCs, mobi­le data ter­mi­nals, pho­nes and tablets, the appli­ca­ti­on can be used on dif­fe­rent devices and dif­fe­rent plat­forms within a customer.”

Design fle­xi­bi­li­ty and quick customizations

The Map­Trip SDK pro­vi­des a pro­fes­sio­nal and com­pre­hen­si­ve deve­lo­p­ment tool­kit. The­r­e­fo­re, deve­lo­pers are com­ple­te­ly free to design the GPS navi­ga­ti­on accor­ding to your com­pany­’s design gui­de­lines or pur­po­se of use. For exam­p­le, Safe­tyCt could adopt the lay­out of your vehic­le infor­ma­ti­on system.

Deve­lo­pers can make adjust­ments just as quick­ly using the Map­Trip SDK:

„Map­Trip also allo­ws us to cus­to­mi­ze to spe­ci­fic cus­to­mer requi­re­ments very easi­ly. For exam­p­le, we can easi­ly inte­gra­te map mate­ri­al spe­ci­fi­cal­ly for emer­gen­cy services. “

Net­work con­trol cen­ter and emer­gen­cy vehicle

Mis­si­on con­trol with net­work­ed rele­vant inci­dent infor­ma­ti­on is for a must have for suc­cessful mis­si­on con­trol. Thanks to the inter­faces in Map­Trip, the con­trol cen­ter soft­ware and the mobi­le appli­ca­ti­ons for dri­vers and Officer’s in Char­ge can be easi­ly synchronized.

„Ano­ther big plus is that Map­Trip’s deve­lo­per tool allo­ws us to reu­se all our expe­ri­ence in con­trol cen­ter connectivity. 

The inte­gra­ti­on bet­ween our vehic­le infor­ma­ti­on system in the con­trol cen­ter and the ope­ra­tio­nal infor­ma­ti­on system, an app for the Offi­cer in Char­ge, also works perfectly. “

To brief­ly explain, the GPS navi­ga­ti­on and the ope­ra­tio­nal infor­ma­ti­on system are both used in the emer­gen­cy vehic­le. The GPS navi­ga­ti­on for the dri­ver, the ope­ra­tio­nal infor­ma­ti­on system for the Offi­cer in Charge.

Through the inte­gra­ti­on, the Offi­cer in Char­ge also sees the rou­te on the ope­ra­tio­nal infor­ma­ti­on system in front of him, which is of gre­at help.

Dis­play vehic­le posi­ti­on of all vehic­les involved

The over­view of all important infor­ma­ti­on is cru­cial for the fast and safe exe­cu­ti­on of a mission.

“We were also exci­ted about the pos­si­bi­li­ty of using so-cal­led “live points of inte­rest”. This allo­ws us to dis­play the vehic­le posi­ti­ons of all vehic­les asso­cia­ted with the ope­ra­ti­on in both the GPS navi­ga­ti­on system (for the dri­ver) and the ope­ra­tio­nal infor­ma­ti­on system (for the Offi­cer in Char­ge). So ever­yo­ne can see at a glan­ce whe­re the other vehic­les are.”

Spe­cial func­tions for emer­gen­cy use

Most of the employees at Safe­tyCT are vol­un­teers in the fire depart­ment. Tha­t’s why you can also quick­ly tell whe­ther tech­no­lo­gy and usa­bi­li­ty are opti­mal­ly aligned.

„We quick­ly noti­ced that the GPS navi­ga­ti­on was deve­lo­ped for use in the field. For exam­p­le, spe­cial func­tions such as emer­gen­cy rou­ting make things a lot easier in the event of an emer­gen­cy. This makes it pos­si­ble for dri­vers to dri­ve against the direc­tion of traf­fic on the last stretch of one-way streets, for exam­p­le, during emer­gen­cy trips.”

Draw roads and trans­fer them ad hoc into the GPS navigation

Map­Trip also offers num­e­rous spe­cial func­tions that have been deve­lo­ped spe­ci­fi­cal­ly for the use of emer­gen­cy vehic­les. The­se have evol­ved from the expe­ri­ence and input of num­e­rous fire depart­ments and are con­ti­nuous­ly deve­lo­ped and adapt­ed accor­ding to cus­to­mer requirements.

For exam­p­le, roads unsui­ta­ble for use can be blocked or cle­ared, or prio­ri­ti­zed or avo­ided. As more and more cus­to­mers have been loo­king for a way to draw and add miss­ing roads to the map them­sel­ves, this fea­ture has now been pro­vi­ded by Map­Trip as well.

With the func­tion live dra­wing of roads, e.g. important access roads can be drawn into the map and the chan­ges are taken over ad hoc into the navi­ga­ti­on. This is real­ly uni­que, becau­se thus the navi­ga­ti­on real­ly knows every pas­sa­ble road and access road.

Easy to inte­gra­te — quick imple­men­ta­ti­on — quick start

The Map­Trip SDK comes with num­e­rous inter­faces and exten­si­ve docu­men­ta­ti­on. Just as easy and user-fri­end­ly as the appli­ca­ti­on is for dri­vers, it is also pos­si­ble for deve­lo­pers to imple­ment it.

“We lik­ed the abili­ty to easi­ly inte­gra­te with other systems, such as Tal­king Traffic/mobilidata, a system for crea­ting a green wave at traf­fic lights.

Last but not least, and still just as important for us, we were con­vin­ced by the very fast and easy imple­men­ta­ti­on. If you want to start a test tomor­row, you can do that too.”

And if you have any que­sti­ons, Map­Trip Sup­port is also hap­py to help at any time.