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This is one of a selection of general interest articles relating to the application of GPS tracking.
To find out more about how Zest Tracking helps its clients to exploit GPS tracking, whether it is for vehicle tracking, mobile phone, or Blackberry tracking or dedicated tracking units please explore the rest of this site, or contact us for an informal discussion
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The improvement in functionality over our previous system is amazing ...we
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Lone Working
Man Down Safety Alarms Depend on Sound End to End Procedures
See also: Zest Traking's Lone Worker Solutions
"Man Down" is a concept rather than an actual gadget, and as such the term has taken on a perhaps disproportionate status and should be used with care.
Nevertheless, there are many examples where a member of staff or sub-contractor works alone and could face a potentially hazardous situation, and in such a situation devices that can communicate the user's location back to a monitoring team at base, as well as send alarms can be extremely valuable. That said, there is no way that any device, on its own, can ever be totally relied upon to protect anyone without corresponding supervision and a tailored scenario-based action plan.
For example, no "Man Down" GPS device will work if any one of Battery, GPS or GPRS is unavailable. In dangerous situations this may be a relatively common situation, and the device may suffer in the same incident that causes the worker to become a "man down" in the first place. A so-called "Man-Down" device, on its own, is unlikely to be of any use to a security guard who falls down a hole on a building site for example.
A more balanced and pragmatic approach has intelligence based in the monitoring team and their systems to monitor the movement of tracked people and draw inferences based on the observed behaviour, and where necessary take pro-active steps to intervene. The procedure will also need to involve detailed assessment of the signal coverage in the specific area to be monitored. If the device suddenly stops sending data, or the location data it does send indicates an unexpected lack of movement, then the monitoring operator can elect to initiate a "Man Down" procedure, just in case. The response is then driven from the monitoring team with responsibility to oversee the care and safety of the field staff, and is likely to involve relaying alerts on to other tracked people.
"Man Down!" is really a command for everyone to stop what they are doing and help someone who may be in trouble because, for example, they have not moved for ten minutes, has entered a known danger area or left a safe one.
Most commercial GPS tracking devices will provide the location reporting element of a "Man Down" system and support sending of single press panic alarms.
Some suppliers do offer devices with built-in motion detectors, such as an accelerometer that would activate on a sharp fall. This may be built into a GPS tracking and communication device - or be a second smaller device worn by the lone worker, which communicates over Bluetooth with a communication device.
So in conclusion, the quality of a "Man Down" system will be highly dependent on the quality of the reporting and response procedures, and the solution must factor in the likelihood that any device issued to the lone worker may not be able to function at the instant a "Man Down" incident actually occurs.