Water Consultancy and Contractor implements StaySafe to ensure lone worker safety.

Hydrosave has introduced StaySafe to ensure the safety of their lone workers. Hydrosave, an operational consultant and specialist contractor within the water industry, regularly sends fieldworkers out to locations across the UK to provide leak detection, water audits or sewerage surveys. With these lone workers at risk of numerous hazards, such as working below ground or in highways, Hydrosave has rolled out StaySafe to employees across the UK.

Fieldworkers can now use the StaySafe mobile app to log their arrival and safe departure from each external visit with the simple press of a button. This app is linked to a secure cloud-based monitoring Hub which accurately locates lone workers on a map and provides managers with real-time updates on their movements. If an employee fails to check in safely during a lone working session, has an accident or raises an alert, managers will be able to locate them and get help straight away. 

Previously Hydrosave relied on a buddy system for their staff, with employees pairing up and taking it in turns to check in with each other to ensure that their ‘buddy’ was safe. However, managers noticed that there were often discrepancies and they had very little control over how employees were carrying out the buddy system. This process also involved a high amount of paperwork which was inconvenient and time consuming for all employees. 

To overcome these issues, Hydrosave began looking for a lone working system that was more automated, easy-to-use and could be managed by head office. The company also wanted a method that was flexible and simple to operate and implement. Hydrosave trialed other company’s solutions but none of them proved to be as simple or effective as StaySafe’s solution.

After a very successful trial with StaySafe over a one month period, Hydrosave’s fieldworkers found that there was a significant reduction in  time spent trying to get hold of colleagues. It has significantly reduced the need to fill out time-consuming paperwork every day. Managers now have insight into where their workers are at any given time and can ensure that their staff are safe throughout their working day. Hydrosave employees feel much safer knowing that if an incident were to occur, managers are aware of their whereabouts and assistance can be sent directly to their location. 

Connell Shannaghan, Project Manager at Hydrosave comments, “Our overall experience with StaySafe has been really positive. We were initially looking for a safety solution that could help minimise the amount of paperwork management we were having to do. We also wanted something that was simple to implement and easy to use. StaySafe has fit into the company structure very well, it's much easier to supervise and track staff and our employees enjoy the simplicity of the app.”

Don Cameron, CEO at StaySafe, adds: “Latest HSE statistics show that the risk of an employee being injured from a fall or using machinery is present in nearly 50% of workplaces in the UK. Lone workers are particularly vulnerable if an accident occurs as there is no one to raise the alarm. We are proud to offer a lone working solution that helps keep employees safe whilst working in dangerous areas.”

One of the unfortunate aspects of modern times is the increasing rise in mental health challenges as our society becomes more and more pressurised. Field service engineers and technicians, who are often lone workers are particularly vulnerable to such pressures and we need to be doing more to monitor and assist in this area. This was the consensus at the latest FSN ThinkTank held in London, UK at the end of 2019. Mark Glover, who attended the session reflects on the day’s conversations… 

Recently, a societal shift towards mental health has identified the workplace as a potential trigger point. Employers now recognise the importance of their workers’ wellbeing. In the UK alone, staff absence from mental health issues accounts for 70 million workdays lost, costing employers approximately £2.4 billion per year.  

In the service sector, workers who operate alone are more susceptible to having their mental health affected, given the remote nature of their environment. As a manager, it can be difficult to keep tabs on an engineer therefore creating the right touch points to ensure a dialogue is taking place can be vital when it comes to monitoring the mental health of your technicians. Too often, field engineers are just sent out and forgotten about.  

The technicalities of health and safety for lone workers are slightly different to the traditional version of what we see as safety. Incidents, such as slips and trips and cuts in the office, are approached with a traditional risk-assessment, however lone workers should approach their tasks, which are generally more fluid, with a dynamic risk-assessment; the process of mentally observing, assessing and analysing an environment to identify and remove risk. This allows individuals to identify a hazard on the spot and make quick decisions regarding their own safety.   

It’s an approach that requires a certain amount of trust on the part of employers who must be certain that these checks are taking place in their absence. However, this must be balanced by allowing the engineers a level of autonomy, something they value enormously. Looking over their shoulder from afar and monitoring their performance will only push a worker away. Everything comes back to time for an engineer; it is probably the most precious commodity and the challenge is to blend safety into their routines while not affecting their productivity. Mark Wilding, Director of Global Aftermarket Operations, Hexagon Marketing Intelligence spoke to this point very eloquently saying: “If you don’t know your workforce you don’t know their mental health, you don’t know their mental capacity. If you’re not close enough to them, you’re not looking after those elements. Ultimately their mind isn’t on the game and they make mistakes.  And I think we overlook this area quite a lot.” 

"How do you understand the state of mind of a guy that you haven’t seen for months because he’s been out in the field..."

It is indeed an often overlooked, yet absolutely crucial part of understanding the wellbeing of our field workers, especially if they are often isolated in a lone working role. Everyone within the ThinkTank session was in agreement that this should be an area of greater focus and also that there were still some societal taboos that needed to be overcome. 

“I know that there’s this still much of stigma associated with mental health, but I think it’s more prevalent than any time now we’re in a litigious environment where you make a mistake and there’s quite significant corporate penalties now as opposed to before.  But the fact is if we still don’t pay it enough attention and remote workers is hard.   

How do you understand the state of mind of a guy that you haven’t seen for months because he’s been out in the field for that long? All too often in field service, companies don’t have the right team, team leader and management ratio structures. If they don’t have the right touch points the how can they be close enough to be keeping tabs with their individual team members? How can they be close enough to understand what they’re going through?  

It’s really tough and those are the things, I think, we tend to forget about. Sadly, it often feels that it is the case that they’re just the job, a field engineer. We sort of just send them out and forget about them and we shouldn’t be doing that.” 

From a management perspective, creating a more sensible management framework that develops capabilities and structures can contribute to a more productive and efficient working environment.   

If you are really are serious as top management around safety, you should start working on relieving pressure on people by putting in place better tools, mechanisms, processes and structures so they can be performed without sacrificing safety.

"We are building the evidence base that proves government must act on air quality," says British Safety Council.

An app developed by King College London as part of the British Safety Council’s Time to Breathe campaign is building on a growing evidence base that proves outdoor workers are exposed to air pollution well above the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommended limits. However, huge variance in quality and coverage of air quality measurement across the UK suggests the problem could be greater than previously thought.

The app gathers data based on London’s air quality monitoring stations and gives individual users a read-out of the air pollution they are exposed to at work. The first data release from British Safety Council confirms that outdoor workers are put at more risk than average Londoners. The WHO says that air pollution is now the world’s largest single environmental health risk and that reducing air pollution could save millions of lives. As well as campaigning to improve ambient air quality the British Safety Council is working on practical solutions to reduce the risks for outdoor workers.

Over six months the Canairy app has gathered data from a sample of Londoners. Outdoor workers were exposed to air pollution averages higher than guidelines for NO2, particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) and Ozone. Some maximum exposures were nearly two thirds higher than recommended WHO limits. The workers were in two groups, some mostly working in offices and others mostly working outside. Although both groups were exposed to high levels of air pollution, those working outside are exposed to worse pollution than the average Londoner.

The British Safety Council launched Time to Breathe in March 2019. The campaign offers the Canairy app free to give workers and employers information about air pollution exposure as well as providing free advice and guidance. The British Safety Council has called on the government to adopt WHO guidelines in the new Environment Bill. In March 2020 the British Safety Council will be taking the campaign to Manchester to highlight the limitations of air pollution monitoring outside London.

The British Safety Council’s Head of Campaigns Matthew Holder said:

“The first data release confirms that outdoor workers are being exposed to high levels of air pollution with all the health risks that carries. Canairy confirms what we also thought – if you work outside in a city or near a busy road you are putting your health at risk. What is new is that we now have the technology for individual workers to record their exposure. With Canairy and other forms of measurement we are building the evidence base that makes the case for change. As a first step we must urgently adopt the WHO guidelines on PM2.5. But we also need investment in measurement so we can understand who is at risk and how people can limit their exposure to harmful air pollution.”

Number of Devices set to reach 2.2 million by 2023.

According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, the market for lone worker protection solutions and services in Europe and North America is forecasted to grow from € 154 million in 2019, to reach € 284 million in 2023.

The number of users of dedicated lone worker safety devices based on GPS and cellular technology on the European market is estimated to grow from 645,000 users in 2019 to reach 1.1 million users at the end of 2023. In North America, the number of such users is estimated to grow from 205,000 in 2019, to reach 380,000 at the end of 2023. In Europe, app-based solutions are estimated to account for around 25 percent of all solutions, while in North America more than 40 percent of the solutions are based on apps for smartphones and tablets. In both regions, app-based solutions are forecasted to account for an increasing share of lone worker safety solutions in the coming years.

The lone worker safety market is led by a handful of specialist companies based in the UK and Canada, where legislation specifically addressing the safety of lone workers has fostered growth. SoloProtect and Send For Help Group have grown to become two of the world’s largest providers of lone worker safety solutions and services. Send For Help Group mainly serves the UK market and operates under the three subsidiaries Peoplesafe, Skyguard and Guardian24. SoloProtect is active in the US, Canada and other parts of Europe in addition to its main UK market. Both SoloProtect and Send For Help Group, also operate their own alarm receiving centre (ARC).

Additional companies with notable market shares in the UK include Lone Worker Solutions, Reliance High-Tech, Orbis Protect and Safe Apps. In Canada, the main providers of safety devices and services for lone workers are Blackline Safety, Tsunami Solutions, Roadpost and Aware360. Blackline Safety is known for developing technologically advanced safety devices for lone workers using both cellular and satellite communications technology.


The market drivers for lone worker safety solutions includes occupational safety regulations, increasing employee insurance costs and higher awareness of risks associated with lone working. The number of individuals working alone is also expected to grow as businesses strive for increased efficiency. A job previously performed by two persons or more is now being done by a single worker. “Traditionally, lone workers exposed to the highest social or environmental risks have been found in industries such as security services, social care, field services and in heavy industries such as oil & gas and construction” says Martin Backman, IoT Analyst at Berg Insight. He adds that companies in other industries are now also starting to see the benefits of these services. “There is now an increasing demand for lone worker safety services from workers in retail, financial services, education and more, which fuels market growth”, concludes Mr. Backman.  

Leading tool hire company experienced a 56% reduction in overall risk year-over-year...

Brandon Hire Station, one of the U.K.’s biggest tool and plant hire companies, has significantly improved its drivers’ safety records after installing video telematics and analytics solutions from Lytx. Collisions and risky driving incidents fell by approximately 56% in one year, while following-distance events were down almost 75%.

Lytx^® is a leading global provider of machine vision and artificial intelligence-based video telematics, analytics, safety and productivity solutions. The company has also helped Brandon Hire Station to improve driver safety and use video evidence to make it simpler to resolve insurance claims in the event of an incident. Harnessing Lytx video, Brandon Hire Station can provide drivers with a video clip of exactly what went wrong during a risky event, which allows for a more productive and personalised conversation.

Over a twelve month period, Brandon Hire Station saw the following improvements:

• 56% reduction in overall risk frequency and severity

• 77% reduction in following distance <1 second
• 74% reduction in following distance 1-2 seconds
• 46% reduction in collisions
• 31% reduction in late responses
• 25% reduction in other distracted driving incidents

Increasing the safety of your field service workers

“Our drivers have responded brilliantly to the introduction of Lytx,” said Stuart Conway, fleet manager at Brandon Hire Station, and highly commended ‘Commercial Fleet Manager Of The Year’ at the 2019 Commercial Fleet News Awards. “Overwhelmingly, they saw it as investment in their safety and their future and in the safety of other road users too. I’d like to think the very strong results we’ve already achieved are only the beginning.”

As well as implementing its video and analytic capabilities, The Lytx Driver Safety Programme has delivered prescriptive and customised coaching insights to Brandon Hire Station’s fleet managers. Lytx leverages video, motion and engine control module (ECM) sensors to present a superior and accurate view of risk, with greater than 95% accuracy across more than 60 risky driving behaviours – helping to filter out the noise and helps fleets focus on what’s most important.

“One major factor in our decision was that Lytx reviews the 12-second clips captured and uploaded by the cameras, and only sends us what we need to see,” Conway said. “Some of the other systems send you 15 hours of footage a day and we simply don’t have the capacity to go through all of that.”

Brandon Hire’s safety improvements were recently recognised when the company was awarded Commercial Fleet News’ 2019 Most Improved Fleet. The company has also achieved silver accreditation from the Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS), and is aiming to achieve gold accreditation soon.

Moving forward, Brandon Hire Station is looking to develop its driver training further, as the company fully implements Lytx’s best-in-class Driver Safety Programme.

Health and safety is becoming more prominent in service. Engineers who work remotely are more susceptible to risk and firms are now recognizing the hazards they face daily. Following a Field Service News Think Tank held in London last year which had the issue of health and safety at the top of its agenda, Mark Glover – who attended the meeting – reports on some of the safety challenges that firms encounter.

Mates in Mind are urging transport and logistic organisations to lead the way and prioritise the mental wellbeing of their workforces in light of above-average suicide rate.

Mates in Mind highlights recent mental health statistics as a stark warning to employers of the cost to workers and businesses if workplace mental health is not properly understood.

The UK-based global software firm announce £1.8 million acquisition of Optima Diagnostics Ltd.