Anglian Water

Anglian Water, who has been using LookOut call for its 1,700 field workers since 2000, has expanded the service with the introduction of a location based system which helps pinpoint the mobile phone of a lone worker in difficulties to within a few meters.

The company was concerned that given the 54,000 sq km covered by its field force, simply relying on voice descriptions from staff who could have had an accident may not be accurate enough to locate them in time to prevent an accident turning into something more serious.

Working with Cambridge based C3, providers of ‘LookOut call’ which Anglian Water has been using as its lone worker safety system, the company has integrated an additional feature which can identify the location of a mobile phone by calculating its relative position to one or more base stations.  This information is then plotted on a map which, if necessary, will give the emergency services the precise location of an injured worker.

Richard Luke, Telecoms Manager with Anglian Water says: “We were concerned to minimise the potential for human error when our staff record their work locations.  It is sometimes difficult to be precise, particularly when staff are working in remote areas.  The greatest benefit of this new location-based system is that we can now find staff even if they have moved from their last recorded position. For example, if they move to help a colleague in a nearby location.

 Previously, our field workers would use a series of one-touch speed dials on their mobiles to confirm their location and how long they would be there.  They would also set reminders at set intervals of 30 minutes or as long as four hours.  If these reminders were ignored it would trigger a response from our monitoring centre which could result in the emergency services being called. This new system provides an extra level of security and reassurance for our field staff.  And it has been achieved at minimal cost and with no extra infrastructure back at base.”

Says John Wood of C3, “One of the main attractions of a location based system like the one adopted by Anglian Water is that it has similar performance criteria to a GSM system, but is much more cost effective for the customer.”

An additional benefit the positioning system gives is that in a situation involving one of the company’s assets, for example a pumping station or sewage treatment plant that needs attention the engineer closest to the site can be located and dispatched rapidly.