Dennis Eagle, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of refuse collection vehicles, has launched StaySafe, a lone worker alarm app which monitors both staff safety and GPS tracking location
The company has a number of service centres and contract sites throughout the UK, providing servicing and maintenance of customer vehicles.
Mobile engineers also provide servicing at workshops, customer sites and roadsides across the country. The nature of their work means that direct supervision cannot be guaranteed and work environments can be unpredictable, leaving staff vulnerable to common workplace risks.
Dennis Eagle had a long standing lone worker policy in place before implementing StaySafe. However, whilst the lone worker policy was sufficient on paper, Dennis Eagle felt they needed more structure and practical procedures in place to ensure staff were adequately protected in the ‘live’ work environment
The company already had systems in place for tracking their employees but needed a way to monitor their safety while providing them with a tool to signal for help. Through carrying out a risk assessment, the company recognised the roles where there was a potential for lone working, and decided StaySafe should be implemented across those areas.
StaySafe was rolled out to Dennis Eagle’s mobile engineers across the UK. An additional app was also set up on a shared mobile device, for employees working alone in the office in the evenings.
A check-in interval of one hour was set up to monitor the engineers’ safety as they travel and work. Failure to check-in at any point will notify all monitors within the Hub who can begin following response procedures.
Man-down alerts have also been activated to alert a monitor even when the employee can’t. Due to working in sometimes dangerous and unpredictable environments, lone working engineers are at risk to some of the top workplace accidents, such as; slips trips and falls, being struck by a vehicle and strain from heavy lifting.
StaySafe’s man-down alert works by detecting a period of non-movement and sending a notification to the Hub and monitors.
Richard Young, Health and Safety Manager at Dennis Eagle comments; “For us, the check-in and man-down features are great as many of our employees are working in high risk areas. We know that if they suffer an accident, they may not be conscious or able to signal for help but now we can rest assured that StaySafe is able to do that for them.”
Dennis Eagle decided all service managers should be set up in the Hub – with monitoring responsibly for all teams.
Due to 24/7 working hours, across board monitoring means that even if an employee’s direct manager is not available, there is always someone to respond to an alert.
