Emergency Setup

Emergency Setup 🛠️

Emergency Mode is designed to work out-of-the-box by automatically detecting your country and linking to local services. However, a few minutes of setup before you travel will ensure that secondary features—like Breakdown Recovery and Medical Documents—are ready the second you need them.

Here is how to properly prepare your app for an emergency:

1. Enable Location Permissions (Crucial)

Emergency Mode relies heavily on knowing exactly where you are to provide GPS coordinates and the correct country dialling codes (e.g., 911 vs. 112 vs. 999).

• Ensure Vanlife Assistant has Location Permissions enabled in your device’s settings.
• Note: The app caches your last known location, so even if you lose signal in the mountains, Emergency Mode will display your last recorded coordinates!

2. Add Your Breakdown Recovery Number

The Emergency Dashboard has a dedicated “Recovery” button, but the app needs to know who your provider is!

1. Go to the Settings tab.
2. Open your Vehicle Details (Van Editor).
3. Enter your provider’s phone number in the Breakdown Phone field.
4. The Recovery button in Emergency Mode will now be activated.

3. Prepare Your Document Vault

If you call an ambulance, you will likely need your Health Insurance or GHIC card. If you call the Police, you will need your Passport and V5C. To ensure these documents appear instantly during an emergency, tag them properly in your Glovebox:

1. Open the Glovebox tab.
2. Edit your important documents (Passports, Insurance, V5C).
3. Add the tag Medical to health documents, Vehicle to van documents, and Border to ID/Passports.

(Learn more about this in How to securely store vehicle and travel documents).

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What happens if I have no signal?

Emergency Mode is built with an Offline Vault. Your cached GPS coordinates, downloaded documents, and local emergency dialling codes will all load instantly even if you are in airplane mode or deep in a forest without a cellular connection.