Over 350,000 vehicles utilize the KESAS Expressway daily, navigating through 4 tolls and 10 interchanges. Ensuring the safety of drivers and their patrol teams is paramount to the highway operator. Therefore, KESAS has recently equipped KATSANA integrated vehicle operation solutions on its 24/7 patrol vehicles, tow trucks, and 4x4s, contributing to Highway Safety through Fleet Management and MDVR Integration. Deployment of this suite of fleet management solutions helps KESAS to create safer expressway patrol operations.
Safeguarding Highways: A Focus on Fleet Management
Running a patrol team for highway operations involves a multifaceted and challenging responsibility. These teams, such as the one on the KESAS expressway, play a critical role in maintaining the safety and security of road users. This responsibility encompasses enforcing traffic laws, responding to emergencies, and ensuring overall order on the highways.
On the Front Lines: KESAS Patrol Team Ensuring Highway Safety
The KESAS patrol team stands at the forefront when it comes to responding to accidents, breakdowns, and other emergencies on the road. Highly trained, this team excels in handling diverse situations, including providing first aid to accident victims, managing traffic, and seamlessly coordinating with other emergency services.
Balancing Safety Priorities: Users and Patrol Team
While prioritizing the safety of highway users is paramount, KESAS, as a highway operator, places an equally high priority on the well-being and safety of its patrol team. This dual commitment ensures a comprehensive approach to highway safety, where both road users and patrol personnel are safeguarded.
Working on the highway round-the-clock exposes patrol officers to various risks, for example:
- Potential for accidents in the line of duty (for example when replacing a punctured tire by the roadside)
- Exposure to Malaysia’s extreme weather conditions (from blazing hot sun to sudden monsoon downpours) and
- Encounters with individuals that may pose a threat
Thus, KESAS has implemented safety protocols and ongoing training to mitigate these risks.
Now to further cement highway safety through fleet management in their operation, KESAS has opted to implement several KATSANA fleet operation solutions, namely:
- KATSANA Fleet Management Platform – a cloud-based fleet operating system that provides a centralized record of all moving assets together with their real-time location and status data. The benefit of the solution is multi-fold:
- A better understanding of asset operational hours, including fuel use and potential abuse
- Improvement of driver’s discipline, ensure strict compliance with safety and job delivery
- Precise monitoring of fleet lifecycles such as service and maintenance records, insurance and regulatory compliance, fuel use, and others.
- KATSANA Mobile Digital Video Recording (MDVR) with real-time streaming – a suite of smart camera solutions that allow KESAS to record, store, and view real-time videos of events around the patrol team vehicle as it unravels. This solution is integrated into KATSANA Fleet Management system as one unified interface, enabling easy review and collaboration among fleet managers.
Getting to know KESAS Expressway
The Shah Alam Expressway Shah Alam Expressway (Lebuh Raya Shah Alam) is a 34.5-kilometre controlled-access expressway in Peninsular Malaysia running between Pandamaran in Klang, Selangor to Sri Petaling in Kuala Lumpur. It serves as a major inter-urban highway that connects major industrial and residential areas within the Klang Valley namely, Kuala Lumpur, Cheras, Petaling Jaya, Subang Jaya, Shah Alam, and Klang, terminating at the access road to Westport.
KESAS highway is well connected to 3 major highway systems:
- North-South Expressway (PLUS) at Sri Petaling interchange.
- Puchong-Damansara Expressway (LDP) at Sunway interchange.
- North-South Expressway Central Link (ELITE) at Seafield interchange.
The highway is part of Kuala Lumpur’s traffic dispersal scheme, namely the Kuala Lumpur Middle Ring Road II (MRR2).
Providing round-the-clock safety for highway users
To ensure safety and a comfortable journey for its users, KESAS provides dedicated road safety teams that patrol the expressway 24 hours a day to assist road users along the expressway. The type of support ranges from helping out stranded drivers due to punctured tires to identifying and clearing road hazards and towing services.
Entirely self-funded by the highway operator, KESAS Ronda team does not use state funds for its day-to-day operations. Tolls fully fund the operations budget.
Solutions for Safer Expressway Patrol Operations
KATSANA® Fleet Management with Mobile Digital Video Recording (MDVR) Integration
KATSANA Live MDVR solution (Read our extensive article on MDVR system for fleet) ensures a complete 360° safety coverage.
KESAS deployed KATSANA’s MDVR solution that provides live video streaming and recording of the patrol vehicle, inside and out. This gives fleet managers the full picture of what is happening on the road, right within their Command Center.
Real-time patrol team location for stranded customers
Knowing the precise location of breakdowns or service requests through effective highway safety through fleet management enables KESAS to offer quick response times. Dispatchers can send the nearest available service vehicle to the location, minimizing customer wait times and enhancing customer satisfaction.