ER24, the Emergency Medical Care company, has commenced with a three month trial with eFuel at one of their branches in the Pretoria Region. Installations on the test fleet of nine vehicles, comprising both ambulances and paramedics response cars, commenced at the end of June and the trial is set to be evaluated over a period of three months following which a formal review will be undertaken.

Performance review meetings are conducted between AFS and ER24 every two weeks which will continue throughout the period of the trial. Pending a successful outcome eFuel will then be rolled out to the balance of the 200 ER24 vehicles and possibly extended to include the Medi-Clinic fleet.

ER24 evaluated all the options available and in comparison to BP Fuelmaster but their network in the Northern Cape particularly proved inadequate whereas eFuel boasts 22 enabled sites in the region and almost twice as many sites country wide in comparison to BP Fuelmaster.

Maggie explained that Rhett Davis, the Procurement and Fleet manager at ER24, was previously employed at the Department of Health and was therefore familiar with eFuel. Rhett has evidently introduced a number of new systems and controls to make the management of the fleet as efficient as possible. One of these being eFuel and it is encouraging to learn from Maggie that Rhett and his team have been very cooperative and embraced this pilot with a very positive attitude and loads of enthusiasm.

So far, as with most new projects, there have been the odd teething troubles and one must bear in mind the conditions and circumstances under which a fleet like this operates. One or two installation issues of a technical nature, as well as a couple of site problems.

The most serious of these involved an ambulance patient transfer where the petrol station attendants at a particular site, that normally operates 24/7, decided to leave early, the ambulance arrived at around 03:00 to find the forecourt deserted. Needless to say all sites have been advised that emergency vehicles may be using their sites and the need for their cooperation in this regard emphasized.