About
To better prevent maritime risks, Generali has become a strategic and exclusive partner of Rescue Zone, the 1st free application for community mutual aid between boaters that allows an optimized connection with the rescue services at sea.
Innovation presentation
The founders of Rescue Zone have created an effective, free and user-friendly tool that answers a real need for greater safety for the many pleasure crafts in our waters (over one million boats just in the UK alone). In case of a real emergency having registered with the app allows transmitting automatically all the relevant information needed for an effective rescue: type and size of boat, number of passengers at risk, and location. All such critical information is hard to transmit by VHF radio and even by regular calls. In addition to these key features the app promotes mutual support and assistance between boaters for topics such as sharing information about risks leading to a reduced burden on rescue services that receive frequent calls such as “running out of gas”, or “I need a rope to tie my boat” .
Generali's partnership with Rescue Zone is motivated by a common goal: saving lives as well as promoting risk awareness and community sharing of information. This goal is particularly important with the increase multiplication of different types of pleasure crafts on the water.
This application, available on smartphones, allows the user to:
- Issue a geolocated and qualified alert (Mayday, Pan-Pan, other) without using the VHF radio or making a call;
- Automatically provide all the relevant critical information to rescue services;
- Provide multiple levels of assistance (from minor to critical) to a nearby boat and thus build a community of mutual aid without involving overburdened rescue services;
- Contact or be contacted by emergency services, or by the boat rental company if this is a rented craft;
- Set localized tags for dangers (rock, floating obstacle) or polluted areas;
- Be notified as well as share information to nearby boats for a community alert.
It works very simply: beginning a journey at sea boaters activate the application by specifying its duration and the number of people on board. Should they suffer a breakdown or a more serious alert, in a few clicks, they can notify automatically the boating community in the area and/or the rescue centers (national emergency services).
Rescue Zone also can provide emergency services with an incident monitoring console that gathers the data needed for active management including calling nearby boats that use the app to arrange assistance when appropriate.
In addition to the mutual aid and rescue service features, users can join and sail to other boats (friends) on the map. They can make themselves visible or invisible to other boaters or record their best confidential fishing spots.
Finally, there are potential commercial uses, particularly for boat rental businesses who wish to make sure some renters do not go too far or stray into prohibited boating areas.
Uniqueness of the project
Rescue Zone is the first free application for pleasure craft risk management, for mutual aid and assistance between boaters, directly interconnected with the rescue services. This smartphone application, intended for millions of small crafts, including some equipped with VHF, includes an innovative and proven dynamic geolocation technology to better support rescue centers. This application also works as a community where all the boats can see each other and exchange with each other in real time on an animated map. In the end the partnership of Generali and Rescue Zone will save lives and make pleasure boating even more fun and secure.
