Utilities & Service Providers

High-risk environments, all must be serviced by utility workers

At some stage during the year every borough, every housing estate and every home will be visited by a utility worker.  Meter readers and field based engineers are required to ensure continuity of supplies, visiting premises for installation, data collection, fault evaluation, repairs and termination of services.  All the time they are exposing themselves to the risk of abuse and accident.

A complex risk assessment has to be made by every utility company, whether they are providing essential services such as gas, electricity or water, or communication services such as telephone, broadband or television.  Their lone workers are required to work openly, maintaining the delivery of services up poles, down manholes or at kerbside boxes.  Additionally, they will visit individual homes following a schedule of services or on emergency call-out.  These are highly vulnerable situations where the worker can find themselves behind a closed door, inside someone's home, with no immediate recourse for assistance.

Field engineers are commonly working alone in environments where colleagues will not be immediately aware if they are injured or otherwise incapacitated.  In such a situation time is critical, the sooner they can summon help the greater the probability of their situation remaining less critical.

Utility workers at risk include...

• Field workers in gas, electricity, water, telephone and other essential services
• Meter readers
• Workers repairing services in an individual's home
• Workers maintaining delivery of services in the field
• Emergency call-out workers not working off a schedule

SoloProtect benefits for the utility sector

• The Identicom device provides a visible deterrent that clearly demonstrates violence against staff will not be tolerated and any person who attacks staff will be prosecuted.
• SoloProtect helps in the detection of assaults by facilitating a way in which staff can confidently report an incident.
• Identicom's 'Red Alert' activation function provides staff with a way to discreetly raise an alarm without further compromising their personal safety during an attack, unlike trying to use a mobile phone.
• Based on mobile phone technology, workers are not limited to only being able to raise an alarm when they are at their vehicle.  Facilities also exist to support a worker's dynamic risk assessment on arrival on site.
• Through Identicom's amber alert function, workers can record their location and job details on arrival.  These details are stored by SoloProtect's 24 hour monitoring centre and will be used to aid support in case of an incident.
• Identicom allows more incidents to be investigated - as a direct result of more audio evidence of verbal assault being recorded.
• SoloProtect provides employers with additional information about the nature of attacks that can be used to support sanctions and redress on lone worker polices and procedures.
• SoloProtect will proactively report, back to the employer, statistics and facts about usage of the service and any areas needing improvement.
• Comprehensive training ensures that workers are able to use Identicom and the SoloProtect service confidently and correctly.
• Identicom can be pooled to provide a cost effective solution per vehicle, per shift, per department, etc.
• SoloProtect with the Identicom i770 with Man-Down can be used to automatically raise an alert in case of injury.