ZF and the Berlin Fire Department have reached a major milestone in the digitalisation of emergency response and fleet management, with the German capital’s entire fire service fleet now connected through the ZF Rescue Connect platform.
Just two and a half years after the project launched in 2023, around 1,100 vehicles across more than 100 locations are now digitally connected to the cloud-based system.
Digital emergency response network
The Berlin Fire Department operates in one of Europe’s most demanding emergency response environments, serving more than 3.8 million residents across a dense urban infrastructure and numerous large-scale events.
In 2025 alone, the service responded to more than 558,000 calls, equating to almost one emergency every minute.
ZF Rescue Connect links vehicles, emergency responders, control centres and equipment through a single digital platform designed to improve operational transparency, efficiency and safety.
Fleet management and real-time data
ZF said the platform extends beyond traditional fleet management through the integration of workshops, control centres and medical equipment.
The system collects data from drivetrains, chassis systems, special equipment and vehicle bodies through several hundred tags and more than 700 telematics gateways and connectivity devices installed over the last 12 months.
Across the entire fleet, Berlin now generates between one and 1.5 million data points every minute.
The Berlin Fire Department has also integrated boats into the routing system, enabling real-time location tracking.
Long-term partnership
ZF Rescue Connect provides vehicle and status management, mission documentation, resource overviews and interfaces with existing IT and control centre systems.
The manufacturer-independent platform is designed for fire departments, emergency medical services, disaster response organisations and other emergency agencies.
ZF said it will unveil a fully revamped product portfolio at Interschutz in Hanover in June under the slogan “New Digital Operations World”, featuring more than 25 existing and planned applications for emergency response agencies.
Markus Kaiser, Key Account Manager at ZF and responsible for the Berlin Fire Department account, said: “The demanding operational environment of the Berlin Fire Department provides us with an almost ideal setting to demonstrate the wide range of applications for ZF Rescue Connect.
“Here, it becomes impressively clear how far our platform extends beyond traditional fleet management – for example, by integrating workshops, control centres, and even medical equipment into a single digital solution.”
Maximilian Krause, Project Manager for Digital Fleet Management and Head of Vehicle Product Management at the Berlin Fire Department, said: “In Berlin, we can truly say that, thanks to our excellent ability to ‘read’ data, we are increasingly able to stay ahead of the curve.
“During operations, we are already anticipating many developments today. This increasingly puts us in a position to act rather than react. For fleet management, data-driven decisions are worth their weight in gold.”
“We can now assess areas whose significance we did not fully recognize in the past.”
