The tracking product company Vismo reports that it has added to its ‘Check-In’ function on its GPS-based global tracking app, for use by lone workers. Now users can submit their immediate location information back to the Vismo platform, with an extra Safety Timer.
Vismo says that its app operates on all smartphone and satellite phones, the iPhone, Android and Windows phones, and satellite trackers for use when no mobile coverage is available.
The new feature is the firm says suited to estate agents, district nurses, carers and enforcement officers who face risks whenever working alone on premises other than their employer’s, particularly when meeting people they’ve never met.
The ‘Timed Check-Ins’ allow users to allocate a timer which will automatically trigger an alert if they don’t explicitly cancel it. As the tracking firm says, enforcement officers in particular can be faced with a distressing or confrontational situations when entering a property, to enforce a court order.
Vismo director Colin Dale says: “The safety of lone workers has been in the spotlight since the disappearance of estate agent Suzy Lamplugh in 1986, when she was due to meet a client at an empty property and did not return from that appointment. Our Timed Check-In feature brings lone worker safety into sharp focus, because it enables users to set timescales per job on their phone. If a worker doesn’t check out after checking in, for example for a 30 minute job, an alert will be triggered and the account administrators notified via SMS and email.”
Users can also use the app’s panic button, visible on their device. When a panic alert is activated, the app makes contact with its monitoring station, which can be configured to share information with emergency services if necessary. The app also transmits covert audio to the station, aiding the account administrators and/ or monitoring team to identify any issues facing the end-user.
Besides, the monitoring staff may seek “proof of life” from the user by asking, in case the device has fallen into the wrong hands, questions that, collectively, only the user can answer correctly. Dale says: “Where employers don’t provide the app – or a service like it – they may be considered to be failing in their duty of care. Employers who sign their lone workers up to the app are given their own web-based monitoring system, allowing them to track and respond to staff at any time in the 24/7 cycle.”
