Want our Help?
WANT OUR HELP?
If you already registered and have an MOU with us then please go to the Callout Page to contact the duty controller. If you are not sure please check with your Emergency Planning Officer as they will have the details for calling us.
If you are Category 1 or Category 2 Responder, Voluntary Agency (as defined by the Civil Contingencies Act 2004) or A Government, NHS, Commercial or Private Organisation where there may be a risk to life if a failure or unavailability of transport would prevent you from providing your own service. Then please read the information below.
Who are we, and what do we do?
Surrey 4×4 Response is an organisation formed of 4×4 owners who volunteer their time and use of privately owned vehicles to assist Britain’s front line emergency services in adverse weather conditions. We operate in the areas of the Surrey, South & South West London. We are an active member of the Local Resilience Forum in Surrey. Surrey 4×4 Response, and other 4×4 Response groups in the national 4×4 Response UK network, can also operate out-of-area in mutual support when required.
We are available 24/7 to provide emergency transport when your own resources are depleted or rendered unable to operate; This could be from volume of demand during major incidents, in adverse weather (snow & ice, heavy rain, floods, gales, landslide,…), or any other cause (damaged road infrastructure, remote off-road locations,…) affecting your ability to move staff or supplies. All our Responders undergo a formal identity check and attend mandatory training before we will deploy them, and all are DBS checked. We can normally deploy and have a first responder on scene within 30 minutes of your call. Our Control Team provides a complete incident management function, just tell us what, where and when to collect and deliver, and we manage everything. We have a resilient callout and control system, with built-in redundancy to ensure mission continuity.
Who can use our service?
Surrey 4×4 Response can only be called directly by a Cat 1 or Cat 2 Responder (as defined by the Civil Contingencies Act), or other voluntary agencies within the LRF with whom we have a formal agreement. All other statutory, voluntary and commercial agencies should direct all requests to the appropriate Local Authority Emergency Planning or Civil Contingencies Unit duty officer, or Police control for their county, who can call us as per our agreement with that body. We do make a modest charge for our service, which is provided by volunteers using their own 4×4 vehicles. This comprises fuel used at the standard authorised rate, which is recompense to the volunteer Responder, and a charge per vehicle deployed per day that pays for our administrative overheads such as telephone costs.
Contact your Emergency Planning Officer
We ask that all organisations who are not Cat 1 or Cat2 Responders to please contact their local Emergency Planning Officer before you need to call us. Your Emergency Planning Officer will be able to provide information and advice about Business Continuity Planning, and explain the preparations that you might make, and the resources that are available generally (not just for transport) to prepare for unexpected emergencies.
How to call us?
Once you have registered with us, if you are a Cat 1/2 Responder, we will provide you with a 24/7 phone number to call our controllers directly. Other organisations can call us out by contacting their Civil Contingency Unit`s emergency number. When calling us, we can provide you with an email address that will reach all of our Control Team. When calling us to respond, please confirm telephone instructions to us with an email; When emailing, always confirm our receipt of such emails with a phone call. Please do not pass our Controller contact information to staff outside of your Operations Management Team, this helps with managing the response in both of our organisations. We will not accept calls from your staff not authorised to call us. (authorisation normally at Silver command level)
We ask that you triage calls before calling us. We will also triage calls received from you and will prioritise (or even refuse) depending on need and demands. When requesting our services, please specify the number of passengers and/or size/weight of supplies to be moved, and we will make the decision of how many vehicles are required based on capacity and risk. In many situations we will deploy a minimum of two vehicles, in order to ensure safety in the conditions that we are deploying into.
For operational and resilience reasons, our Controllers may call you from lines other than the main callout number. Likewise with emails from our control team. Unless replying immediately, please consider that a controller may have just finished a shift (at any time of day or night) and be sleeping if you call his personal number, and an email to a personal address may not be read for some hours for similar reasons. It will always be appropriate to use the main callout number and control email that you will be given.
Assistance with Non Emergency Event
Non emergency contact – for planned assistance with fund raising, events or exercises
Surrey 4×4 Response is always happy to assist other charities and charitable organisations with fund raising by providing transport, marshals and other assistance, under the understanding that operational requirements may mean our non-attendance or early departure. We make no charge for our time. However, depending upon the nature of the assistance and the distances involved we normally request a reimbursement of mileage and other reasonably incurred expenses. We also require you to provide all necessary public/employers liability insurance. We would also ask that consideration be given to donating to our general operating costs.
If requesting assistance, please advise…
- Your organisation, and the nature, location & date of your event.
- Whether you indemnify Surrey 4×4 Response for public and (if appropriate) employee liability.
Please fill out our Contact Form if you want to get in contact with us.