The Vehicle Incidents feature provides your agency with a comprehensive incident-tracking solution that incorporates details from various sources into one convenient location.
TIP: Editing incidents is based on permission settings.
The Vehicle Incidents form collects all necessary information to successfully track your agency's vehicle incidents. The form consists of 6 main elements:
Incidents created from the myAvail Dispatch application will include pre-populated data, such as the timestamp, vehicle Id and vehicle operator. See Creating a Vehicle Incident from the myAvail Dispatch Application for more information. See ETMS Structure for details about navigating and saving forms.
Basic Info Tab
The Basic Info tab collects the foundational incident information. The Title, Incident Date, Incident Time, and Status fields are required and must be filled out in order to save the incident.
Incident Status
New - This is the default state when the user starts creating a new Incident, but it can be manually changed to something else if desired on the initial save. Assuming the user has the needed permissions, they can select "New" as the status even after an incident has already been saved with Active or In Review, or if permissions allow, even Closed.
Active - Manually assigned. Up to the user to determine when to change to this status. Has no impact on things overall.
In Review - Manually assigned. Up to the user to determine when to change to this status. Has no impact on things overall.
Closed - Manually assigned. Up to the user to determine when to change to this status. Prevents further changes from being made to the Incident for users without the Edit Closed or Close/Reopen permissions. Users with Close/Reopen permissions have the ability to change the status back to another status - thereby allowing anyone with edit permissions to modify them. Likewise users with Edit Closed permissions can change anything at any time regardless of status.
Click Next to continue to the next tab.
Vehicle Info Tab
The next tab collects vehicle information like Vehicle ID, Operator, Vehicle Incident Type, and Vehicle Problem Code. If the incident was created in the myAvail Dispatch application, the Vehicle ID and Operator fields will be pre-populated.
The Vehicle Incident Type drop-down contains options such as Replace Vehicle, Vehicle Problem, or Accident.
The Vehicle Problem Code drop-down contains many options that you can pick to describe a vehicle problem. This menu auto-adjusts based on the information you selected for 'Vehicle Incident' type
The Tow checkbox is used to indicate if the vehicle is being towed.
The Roadcall Severity drop-down contains options such as Not Reported (the vehicle is going to complete the scheduled trip), Major Mechanical (if the vehicle is a safety hazard, disabled or movement restricted) and Other Mechanical (if the vehicle is not a safety hazard, disabled or movement restricted).
The following fields will become available if the Vehicle Incident Type is Accident.
Damage - is an open text field.
D&A - is used to indicate if the operator received a Drug and Alcohol test.
Injury - is used to indicate if there was an injury involved.
Replay Vehicle in Geographic Tools
The Replay Vehicle in Geotools button is located in the Vehicle Info tab of a saved incident:
Clicking the 'REPLAY VEHICLE IN GEOTOOLS' button will auto-launch Geographic Tools to the specific Replay for the vehicle, including vehicle information, such as its Id, the date and timestamp, etc., for further review.
Click Next to continue to the next tab.
Notes Tab
In this tab enter any additional incident details that have not yet been captured, such as the events that lead to the incident or any actions taken. Refer to the Attachments section below that provides more information.
Any information already entered and saved is date and time stamped, meaning the information cannot be edited or deleted. If several notes were entered in the past, you will be able to see them as a valuable conversational history with author names/positions and time stamps for those notes.
NOTE: Incident Notifications are now being sent when a deactivated operator/vehicle is used in the Incident. The offending field(s) will be cleared and an automated message will be generated in the Incident Notes tab.
Click Next to continue to the next tab.
Service Info Tab
The Service Info tab is most beneficial for agencies using Avail's CAD/AVL products. Enter service interruption information for the affected vehicle; including any additions, missed miles/hours, etc. This functionality allows you to reference the information for use when you are entering system adjustments to account for any incident-related deviation/ interruptions in scheduled service. This tab requires manual inputs.
After selecting a Service Date and Block, the information displayed below will be filtered based on the route/block selected.
If you decide to change the Route or Block after entering all service modification information, a pop-up warning message displays to confirm your action. Pressing 'YES' will clear all entered data from the incidents screen:
Service Interruption
Use this area to add service interruption information. The calculation of interrupted mileage will take into consideration the current schedule data. The user will manually add any interruption service and it will be calculated based on the active/ current schedule.
- Time, Route, Trip, Stop: Start/end time of the interruption, set to the time of the event associated with the interruption. Route, trip, and stop associated with this incident.
Service Addition
Use these fields to enter the time and place where service was resumed if an interruption is identified with the incident.
The calculation of additional mileage will take into consideration the current schedule data.
The user will manually input any additional service and it will be calculated based on the active/ current schedule.
- Time, Route, Trip, Stop: The time that service starts/ends. Route, trip, and stop associated with the resumed service
Using the Calculate Button:
After entering new Service Interruption and Addition data manually, you should click Save to save the incident. The software will calculate any differences after you save your work.
Reopen the incident and navigate back to the Incident/Service Info tab and click the Calculate button. The system will calculate any additional or reduced revenue miles and minutes.
The missing information (miles, hours) can be generated if you use Business Intelligence Self Service Reporting
Click Next to continue to the next tab.
Roadcall Tab
In the event of a vehicle breaking down, for example, and you've created an incident to track this, you can use the Roadcall tab to enter the time when a mechanic leaves to assist on scene, and the time when they arrive to the location.
Save Button
Once you have completed the required fields and any additional incident information, click to save the incident. You'll receive a message at the bottom of the page confirming that the incident was successfully saved and added to the Vehicle Incidents list.
Attachments
After your incident is saved, the Attachments feature allows you to include additional documentation for an incident. Attachments may include customer reports, driver's reports, police reports, photos, and notes. Supported file formats that may be uploaded include pdf, doc, docx, jpg, jpeg, png, gif, and csv.
To add an attachment, click Add Attachment button to add any necessary documents pertaining to this incident (e.g., customer report, driver's report, police report, photos, notes).
You can drag and drop a document or browse for it. You must fill in the Category and Attachment Title fields, however, the Optional Comment field is not required. Click Save to finalize the attachment.
After the attachments are uploaded, you have two ways to exit the attachments screen: Back to Incident or Back to Incident List.
Clicking Back to Incident button will lead you back to the current incident showing how many new attachments were added to the incident. In this example, 2 attachments were added.
Clicking the Back to Incidents List button will take you back to the section with the list of
all the vehicle incidents:
Closing an Incident
To close an incident, navigate to the Basic Info tab, change the status to Closed and click Save:
The popup will appear confirming that you want to close this incident:
Click the Save and Close Incident button.
Video Demos
In these videos, we'll show you how to complete this process in myAvail ETMS.
Creating a Vehicle Incident in myAvail 9.2 and earlier versions:
Creating a Vehicle Incident in myAvail 9.3+:
Access and Security
Based on your position security permissions, you will be able to create new, or edit, close, reopen, and delete existing incidents. The Incidents checkbox checkboxes grant permission to all aspects of incidents. The Vehicle Incidents checkbox gives you permission to access the Vehicle Incidents card specifically.
Create
- This adds/removes the Add Incident button from the Vehicle Incidents list.
- This gives you the ability to create and save a new Incident regardless of other permissions. None of the fields will be disabled.
- Exception: The Incident status drop-down might be disabled. This is based on Close/Reopen, meaning when creating the Incident, it will be set with a status of new.
Edit
- If this is not enabled when viewing an Incident, you will not be able to change any Incident information. All the form controls are disabled.
- Note: Having Edit enabled will not allow you to edit a closed Incident. See Edit Closed.
Close/Reopen
- This enables/disables the Incident status drop-down in the Edit Incident control.
- This affects new and existing Incidents.
Edit Closed
- If this is not enabled when viewing an Incident with a Closed status, you will not be able to change any Incident information. All of the form controls are disabled.
- Note: Having Edit enabled will not allow you to edit a closed Incident.
Delete
- If not enabled, you won't have the option to delete an Incident from the Incident list.
Attachment Controls
Edit
- If not enabled, you will not be able to add new attachments to an Incident.
- If not enabled when viewing an Incident attachment, you will not be able to add/remove files from an attachment or change any other details about it.