Rural Ambulance Victoria's cases can be grouped into two main areas of activity:

Emergency Work
RAV’s primary function is to provide pre-hospital emergency care by responding to situations where a person’s life is at risk or their health is of concern.

Emergencies can either be time critical where a condition is acute or non-time critical where a condition is non-acute.

Non Emergency Work
In addition to its emergency transports, Rural Ambulance Victoria performs a large number of patient transports between hospitals or health facilities where the condition of the patient requires expert medical care which is not time critical.

RAV also provides stand-by cover at a wide variety of events. This involves an ambulance being located on scene to increase pre-hospital care in an emergency. These include horseracing and high-risk sports events ranging from the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix to smaller regional events and large music festivals and concerts.