Guardian Angel GPS solutions are helping keep remote and isolated staff safe in areas such as ports, transport and forestry.
The business was founded in 2014 and now protects around 2000 lone workers across NZ and Australia.
Managing director Petra Hakansson says the technology provides layers of protection with solutions best fit for the risk.
It’s easy to use, end users are well trained, response is guaranteed to be immediate and its tested monthly.
“While we are hardware agnostic, we do have a core range of products we have put through our rigid testing, from leading suppliers around the world.
Two options for out of cell cover and three options for cell cover, including one with gas detection.
Man down, two-way voice, no movement, automated welfare checks are all functionality options,” Hakansson says.
Customers all have different user cases but the “golden hour” is the same for all when it comes to remote and isolated staff.
In New Zealand and Australia, businesses have a legal responsibility to provide an effective solution.
“If someone needs help, we need to know we have 100% connectivity and immediate response.”
Among customers is TIL Freight which needed a device the drivers and storemen could use when loading or unloading when no one else was around.
TIL Whanganui branch manager Dave Corlett contacted Guardian Angel for a solution and within weeks all the staff had been trained on the new policy and process and the use of the device.
“I can go home and know we have a system in place that if there is an incident, with a lone worker, we would have the emergency services dispatched in less than a minute.
What is exactly required in a life-ordeath situation,” Corlett says.
Hakansson says the first few weeks TIL had the device “were interesting”.
“We got calls from one particular driver every time he was alone.
He always wanted to check that the man down function was working.
“It was sort of nice for us to realise that he had clearly felt very vulnerable and now all of a sudden, he was so conscious of it, every time he was alone, he wanted to be sure the pendant was working before he started the jobs.
We were fine with that.
We’d run a test, and he’d happily carry on,” Hakansson says.
“After a few weeks his confidence grew, and he was happy with just the normal monthly testing we do.
“It’s rewarding for us to know we’re making a difference to how staff feel every day.”
The Port of Tauranga is another client who had some manual systems in place butknew there were gaps and it
wasn’t efficient.
“They wanted to automate the worker’s safety as much as they could, and remove the reliance on colleagues to monitor their work mates.
“They also wanted to make sure they were meeting their legal obligations.
Their staff were working on call or 24/7 and often in bad weather.
The port wanted the peace of mind that their staff would get help immediately if required,” Hakansson says Panic pendants werepurchased for each team of electricians, fitters, property engineers and the rail desk.
GPS systems typically send the nearest street address to responders which doesn’t work in a port environment.
Guardian Angel set up the port’s 24/7 call centre with fast links to the devices so that if there was an incident, the Guardian Angel operator calls the port’s on-duty call centre with the device ID.
Port staff can then quickly use the fast link which takes them to a map of the port so that they can very quickly locate their worker.
On site security staff are then sent to assist.
The pendant updates the location to the server every 60 seconds so that if the worker is under a wharf or in a building, a clear breadcrumb trail of where a worker left view is followed.
Regardless of the environment, there is a solution that will be effective, provided it’s thoroughly thought through.
The port is now looking to expand the use of the lone worker device across the wider workforce.
*Go to guardianangelsecurity.co.nz for more information.
