Hi Matthew. Yes I agree. the Starlink option will not replace the need for business applications for a long time yet. Cell phones will not be able to manage tracking / location updates due to battery life and you also won't have all the safety features such as geo fencing and welfare checks with monitoring. They make it sound good though!

Yes it is a minefield! I agree. Just remember that GPS is location. Not communication. You still need a network to carry the location update and messages including SOS to a platform and monitoring provider. It's a common assumption that because you have "GPS" in a vehicle, you'll know where your people are. This is only true if the solution is fitted with an iridium comms modem. If it's cell network reliant, it will give you "last known" location, and when the vehicle is back in cell cover, it will download the historical "breadcrumb trail" but it's not live. Happy to provide assistance if you would like to chat through it. petraatguardianangelsafetydotco . When Gabrielle hit the Hawkes Bay, our solutions on iridium were a lifeline for our clients. Some of our clients (waka Kotahi, Worksafe NZ, Hawkes Bay Regional Council and WSP) all participated in a post cyclone working group to help create a special report on what worked and what did not. The report has just in the last few days been released. If you would like a copy flick me an email and I will send it to you. Cheers

Hi Julie. We are hardware agnostic and know most of the solutions in the market. We have two options for out of cell cover (and you can use a mix depending on the risk profile of the user/team). Blackline Safety G7X is one. the other is Garmin devices on Everywhere Communications. Everywhere has a companion app to make the user experience intuitive, and intelligent routing (wifie, cellular, iridium) and also geo fencing and automated welfare checks plus a stand alone app for staff in cell cover. We are the only company in NZ and Australia with API integrations with both suppliers direct to our monitoring station in NZ (no reliance on sms or email which is not safe). Our trainers and support are our own team in NZ. I'm more than happy to have a chat to give you some guidance or put you in touch with some of our customers, and we have a buyers guide available for download on our website. www.guardianangelsafety.co

Having recently discussed this with my advisory board, and had the time to really think about it, my feeling is that it ABSOLUTELY supports the S in ESG. Safe people are happier and healthier people. Like measuring environmental achievement and footprint with carbon credits, which has taken a few years to find a globally acceptable "standard" that everyone understands, the same it will be for Health, Safety and Wellbeing. If we start now, and find ways to measure our performance we will eventually land on a meaningful way to measure our performance on the S, alongside the E in our governance responsibilities. I for my part, am excited that finally business are being evaluated on more than financial performance. That's how business should be. Have a positive impact on the world, alongside financial success of course.

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.

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.

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

Guardian Everywhere (Guardian Angel) also has an app and inReach devices (with app pairing when required to inReach) with check ins and geo fences with entry and exit alerts. There are great tools available so that you don't have to rely on a manager remembering when someone was meant to exit a black spot, or requiring people to remember to call. Those manual systems are fraught with potential failures and also don't provide "effective communication" as per the HSWA guidelines.

Adding an interesting case study to the thread... we had a person attend our EMA workshop on lone and remote work and they told the story of how they had a team of sales people on the road who organised their own accomodation and travel schedule based on their region and customer visit schedule. One morning a client called the HO and said their rep hadn't shown up for their meeting which was most unlike her. The HO didn't know exactly where she was staying and she wasn't answering her phone (note here that you can't randomly or quickly find GPS location of someone through their phone without authority and it being a known emergency and if the person is in a building it's unlikely to be accurate, and of course their phone can be flat or turned off). The HO phoned around a list of accomodation providers she was known to use until they found where she was booked in. Turned out she had a medical event through the night and was unconscious. She was still alive and recovered to full health which is a great outcome. It did raise some really interesting problems for the company to solve and resulted in an overhaul of calendar management and visibility, the use of welfare checks on a lone worker app etc. If your drivers are in a lot of areas without cell cover, you really do need to have effective communication and there's some good solutions for that too. Vehicle solutions will only give you the location of the car, not the person, and most solutions are reliant on cell cover to send that location information so if your vehicle has left cell cover, you'll only get the last known location and the rest of the trail will download once they're back in cell cover. Some obvious safety issues around that..... its complex but all solvable with the right help and technology.

You get what you pay for is true in most cases. Using solutions with intelligent routing (will use cell/wifi/iridium) will indeed give you 100% cover. So yes, there is such a thing. But of course, it does rely on companies investing in the right solutions and making sure their policies are updated to reflect this and that the staff are trained to use them the right way. You can call it throwing money on it, but if it actually really solves a safety issue, and makes sure you're compliant with the "effective works of communication" responsibility of a PCBU it's worth throwing money on (if the business can afford it of course!). We just heard from a client today who had been audited by Worksafe and they were told they have to have better visibility of their staff. There is no such thing as "out of cover" any more. It's solvable so no excuse.

Hi Cheryl. That's a lot of manual processes and reliance on people to remember. The right technology allows you to automate all these things in and out of cell cover. With tracking, comms, welfare checks and geo fences on an iridium connected solution and/or app you have 100% cover absolutely everywhere so there's really no need to rely on manual processes any loner.

apps only work off line if they have intelligent routing that allows them to use wifi/data. There is no other way for an app to work. Iridium is the only network globally with no black spots and there's a range of devices for comms and SOS and tracking that you can use. It's 100% achievable and not financially prohibitive any longer.

@Don Ramsay - most vehicle solutions rely on cell cover to send alerts. If your vehicles don't leave cell cover that's of course fine. There's often a misconception that GPS means it has cover everywhere... it does but it needs a network to send the data/alert out. It stores the info until the vehicle is back in cell cover (unless the solution has been iridium connected which some can be). It's just worth understanding as we often come across solutions that people think "have cover everywhere" but they don't. We've also seen alerts be sent to people who are both away from their phones, on leave or their phones are flat or the message never got there (sms and emails are unreliable and shouldn't really be relied upon for critical alerts).

of course :) There's a bunch of info on this link: https://guardianangelsecurity.co.nz/guardian-everywhere-hub/ happy to have a chat as well if you want to get in touch. Our council clients use a variety of different solutions including a group/bulk messaging gateway but this of course doesn't give the visibility on a map. good luck!

Hi Rebecca
This is a conversation we're having with a lot of our clients over the last year. Our speciality is lone and remote worker solutions but most of the solutions we use have a group messaging capability. The Everywhere solution allows satellite and apps to be visible in the same mapping hub and you can geographically or by groups mass message and co-ordinate (users in the field can also send "feed messages to colleagues by group or all etc). It has a lot of our useful functionality such as geofencing and welfare checks etc. It's not free unfortunately but it is very good.

Hi Sandra. We have a few policy samples and process for use we can send you. Email infoatguardianangelsecuritydotcodotNz

Hi Andrew. Good to see a post like yours. We work with panic solutions and have been talking to our existing clients (a lot of councils) and other organisations about the increased risk in the community which a lot of them are seeing first hand. I'm so worried about all the things you mention, and dismayed that we're not hearing any mention of those numbers in the press briefings. We need to know so that we can all be aware and try help. I'm a business owner (small business with 3 staff) so it's easier for me but I'm speaking to all 3 regularly about how they're coping (two have children at home) and how their finances are looking with their partners work etc. It's real and it's raw. We're fortunate that we're in a good position and not at risk of going under, and while I know that, as the owner, I've made sure I'm reiterating that to my team regularly. And I'm making sure I'm buying local as much as i can! Anyone in charge of teams, or with influence has power, and should make sure they use that power for good (always, but in particular right now) which you clearly are. Well done you. Take care and be safe.

As a business owner, it is frustrating to have competitors copy what you do, knowing what they are doing is not the same at all, but to someone who is not specialised may appear that way. And the motivation could be that the caller you had, actually genuinely wanted to protect people from wasting money and even having a false sense of security. Unfortunately it is relatively easy in NZ to sell non compliant "anythings" without too much recourse. I know in our industry, there are still non compliant devices being sold (operating on an illegal to use MhZ bands). And if you try to call it out, you're seen as being "anti competitive". But actually a lot of companies, passionately care about the difference they can make. I think assuming they're trying to "play dirty" is cynical. And yes, there is still a lot of box ticking going on. Even surprisingly from companies that have had close calls. The disconnect between operational staff and directors is evident weekly to us.

That's really just not sensible is it.... You'd think at a minimum they would contact the driver and advise them to return immediately or their vehicle would be immobilised. I've heard of vehicle lease and finance companies using immobilisers if the user has fallen way behind on payments and won't respond to communication which to me seems the only real application (along with theft) and even then it should be when the vehicle is motionless so that they can come and retrieve it.

Hi. Yes we're a supplier (albeit hardware agnostic but we do supply some devices). I'm sure Peter knew I'd be wading in, uninvited :) Because I'm passionate about knowledgeable advice based on real experience. We are not fans of Spot devices in a commercial environment.

There are a number of independent reviews which have been done; copy and paste the link below for a really thorough review.
https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/topics/camping-and-hiking/best-personal-locator-beacon