eNewsletter - April 2011
Worker Safety: Do you know where your people are?

Mobile Resource Management is more than AVL – tracking laptops as well as vehicles means workers outside of their cars or trucks can still be monitored for safety

Utility company fleet managers have a somewhat unique problem: their customers don’t always want to see them. In fact, when inspectors and meter-readers go to some properties, they may be walking into a hostile, unsafe situation.

Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU), decided two years ago to install CompassTrac® into its ruggedized laptops, so inspectors could be tracked even away from their actual vehicles. Using CompassReports® in tandem with CompassTrac, managers could monitor their personnel in real time, in neighborhoods that have been pre-identified as potentially hostile.

CSU geofenced those areas, and CompassCom created custom codes within CompassTrac so that managers can know immediately if they need to send a second inspector (“Buddy Assist”), a police officer (“Officer Assist”) or a stronger law enforcement presence (“Warning, Call Dispatch”). If an incident occurs in an area not previously geofenced, the system updates to create a new geofence at a 25-foot radius, so no one goes into a location unaware that there could be an issue.

Using CompassReports enables more than just safety monitoring, of course. While safety remains the main concern, they are benefiting from the other features, including vehicle-idle reports, stop logs, and activity reports, so they can better manage the fleet in general.

For workers going into potential hostile locations:
• Know where your workers are – in real time, all the time
• Reduce the likelihood of mishaps, whether accidental or not
• Provide peace of mind for both workers and managers
• Mitigate risks of lawsuits or fines

Personnel Safety is a crucial concern. Use your AVL system to ensure it’s part of your company culture! For more information, contact Michael Kovacs at mgkovacs@compasscom.com or 303-999-3024.

Don’t miss CompassCom at the
Cityworks User Conference,
May 16-18 in St. George, Utah!
For more information go to Click Here.
 
 
Fleet Safety: The Right Thing To Do

Here’s a scenario: a snow plow on an icy rural road flips, spilling into a ravine and pinning the driver, who is hurt. It takes two hours for the snow plow fleet manager to even know the driver is missing, and then more time to find him and get him medical attention.

It could have been worse, but the county employees were shaken, and the fleet manager was disgusted, because the GPS system that the county had expected to help prevent such incidents, did not.

CompassCom has since implemented an Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) system in the county’s snow plow fleet. Come next snow season, drivers will have the reassurance that if such an accident happens to them, their manager will know instantly that something is wrong and will know exactly where they are, to send help.

This Colorado county did the right thing because they felt strongly that their personnel need to be safe. CompassCom has clients in many areas of the country where blizzards and white-out conditions are common, such as Wyoming, Michigan and Illinois. Drivers alone on the roads – whether in snow plows in the winter or in any kind of vehicle that is sent to remote areas – need to know that if there is an accident, their AVL system serves as an emergency alert.

In Canada, where many a government-employed driver is on remote and rural roads, “Lone Worker” legislation was passed three years ago, requiring technology like AVL that ensure personnel safety on the roads. The same kind of legislation is being studied in the United States today.

For personnel safety, asset protection and risk mitigation, consider the new standards in AVL solutions, including real-time vehicle tracking, panic buttons and completely accurate GPS, available from CompassCom. Know where every vehicle is, its status and its driver’s condition.

For more information, contact Mike Kovacs here or 303-999-3024.
 
About CompassCom
CompassCom®, an ESRI business partner, enables fleet management, ensuring worker safety, efficiency and accountability through reliable AVL solutions that integrate GPS, Geographic Information System (GIS) and wireless technology. CompassCom clients currently manage more than a hundred thousand vehicles, allowing government agencies, utilities operations, oil and gas companies and service fleet managers to monitor in real-time and provide reports for every asset with a push of a button. Our AVL systems are the most flexible in the industry, allowing customers to use their preferred wireless carriers, leverage their investment in GIS, host data on or off-site, choose a variety of hardware options and even work with their existing two-way radio systems. Training, consulting and partnering with our clients, we’ve been optimizing Return on Investment since 1994. For more information, visit us at www.compasscom.com or call 303-680-3311.