Where do these workers normally do their thing Sharon? their employers premises, static sites, city locations remote sites? Seems a big ask for minimal outlay, is this the kind of device you have in mind? Seniors Alarm

Based on who Sharon currently works for, my guess is these people are probably cleaners doing late shift in commercial premises in an urban environment.


A little more info regarding requirements may be of help. Are you requiring a panic alarm style, one way or two way communication? In house or out sourced monitoring?

You could try VeriSafe.

Hi Sharon. I have worked with these solutions for over 12 years. The problem with cheap GPS devices is two key things: a) GPS can't see through roofs so if you are working inside, they need to be tracking constantly so that we can see where you are from the breadcrumb trail b) if they are constantly tracking, this drains battery life and effects how safe they are to wear so you might only get 4-5 hours out of a device that is tracking 1-3min c) the cheap small devices as a rule will only send the GPS location WHEN they go into alarm which means we have no way of finding the person (unless they happen to be outside in view of the sky). Qualifying questions for suppliers: 1. Will device last 10+hrs on 1-3min (minimum) tracking rate (sending the location data to a mapping platform... NOT just "being tracked to send info later when it goes into alarm") 2. Has the device been SAR tested in a certified lab (Saturation Absorbency Rating) - making sure it's not going to expose your workers to harm if they are wearing it for hours. 3. When it sends an SOS alert, and if you are choosing to in-house monitor, does it send via SMS/Email or other means (unauthorised electronic messaging act means a lot of SMS/Emails generated from an overseas server are getting caught in Spam filters in both country of origin and in NZ). The bottom line is, you can waste a lot of money for maybe 50% chance of safey in an incident, or you can spend more and know you're as close to 100%, 100% of the time as possible. I'm happy to chat if I can be of help. We don't have our own devices so we are able to provide unbiased guidance. petraatguardianangelsafetydotco

contact Petra at Guardian Angel Safety. They specialise on Lone worker solutions

https://guardianangelsafety.co/

A reasonable suggestion Teena, but the OP doesn't want to use mobile phones/apps that would scoff up personal data or require a mobile free individual being given a mobile phone.

The next question would be why would you send out lone workers without a cellphone?

@Michael Wilson
45% of our operational area is not within cellphone coverage. Maybe they are in a similar situation?

there are solutions for out of cell cover so that’s no reason to not have it in place. In fact “effective works of communication “ is referred to as a PCBU responsibility in reference to remote and lone work in the HSWA.

Thanks Petra, I was responding to Michael Wilson's comment about cellphones.
We can't use cellphones due to the coverage limitations, so our remote and isolated workers have an application that works in conjunction with GPS tracking on their RT's (we have our own RT network).

yes RTs on your own network are a good option especially if you need voice comms or iridium based solutions which are 100% coverage with all the good bits like welfare checks and geofences etc.