Vehicle Tracking could help your business comply with Health and Safety Regulations
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, all employers have a duty to ensure, as far as is reasonably possible, the health, safety and welfare of their employees (NB taken from RoSPA’s website, www.rospa.com). For any business involving a fleet of vehicles and/or staff working away from the office, and possibly alone, the risks to employees become even more difficult to manage, due to the fact that the employee is often mobile, and out of direct supervision.
The risks to employees while driving include not only the risk of being involved in a road accident, but also of incurring back problems or suffering from stress due to driving for long periods. There could also be a risk to personal safety, especially for drivers transporting valuable goods, or working with the general public.
Businesses therefore need to place a high priority on ensuring that their drivers or mobile workers are not put under undue risk while at work. The tracking systems produced by CMS SupaTrak include vehicle tracking, asset tracking, and the tracking of mobile workers through gps systems and could help you to minimise these risks or reduce the impact if an incident occurs.
SupaTrak vehicle tracking allows you to pinpoint the whereabouts of your drivers at all times. Through GPS tracking you can be sure of providing assistance as quickly as possible. Problems can be identified immediately due to the real time vehicle tracking and help can be sent directly to the vehicle.
EcoTrak is a fuel saving technology that provides more detailed information on driver behaviour, allowing you to identify any bad driving habits that may increase the risk of an accident (such as driving above the speed limit, excessive braking and acceleration, and driving for long periods without sufficient rest). This information can be used to provide better driver training.
Not only can this lead to a reduced risk of accident, but also, by ensuring regular breaks are taken, stress and potential back problems may be avoided. A further benefit to the business is that driving more safely usually also leads the vehicle to increase MPG, in other words less fuel consumption, and therefore carbon reduction.
JobTrak is another tracking system that tracks the mobile workforce, usually through a mobile hand-held device. This GPS tracking method allows you to send jobs directly to your mobile workers and receive immediate updates on the status of jobs as they are completed. This can improve efficiency by assisting in allocating resources and reducing paperwork.
By allowing you to monitor where your employees are and what they are doing, it also provides an extra safety measure for employees working alone. For example, lone workers dealing with members of the public can be assured that they could easily signal for assistance from head office, who would be able to pinpoint through the GPS system the exact location to which they need to send help.
When dealing with staff who are working away from the office, it can be difficult to assess whether a risk perceived by an employee is real or just imagined. During the recent heavy snowfall across the UK there were high numbers of absences from work due to staff not feeling it would be safe for them to drive. The use of a car tracking device could provide peace of mind for employees and employer, since the real time vehicle tracking means that assistance is available if needed.
