Scottish Water Safeguards Lone
Workers with 250+ SPOT Gen3 Satellite
Devices
December 10, 2019
Globalstar Europe
Satellite Services Ltd., announced that
Scottish Water has deployed over 250 SPOT
Gen3 satellite messengers to safeguard
employees who work on their own in areas
with unreliable or non-existent mobile
coverage.
Hundreds of Scottish
Water employees work in remote parts of the
country, often solo, managing assets
including the reservoirs that supply water
to over 2.54 million households and 152,000
businesses. While 49 remote-working teams
are already using SPOT, Scottish Water is
also offering devices to all other employees
who are registered as lone workers. These
employees now have a communications lifeline
wherever they are, with small, robust SPOT
Gen3 devices that communicate reliably over
Globalstar’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite
network.
Scottish Water has
pre-configured the SPOT Gen3 devices with
two services: if an employee has an
emergency, they can press SPOT’s one-touch
SOS button; there is also a help button for
non-life-threatening situations, such as a
flat tyre. Pressing either button
automatically transmits the user’s precise
GPS location to Scottish Water’s internal
communications centre (ICC). The ICC either
contacts the emergency services or locates a
nearby Scottish Water team who can help
their colleague.
Scottish Water chose
SPOT Gen3 because of its ease of use, its
robustness and the accuracy of its GPS
transmissions. Before deploying SPOT earlier
in 2019, Scottish Water relied solely on a
system where employees registered their
planned movements by phone then, if they did
not call back by an agreed time, the issue
would be escalated through their line
managers.
“With winter around the
corner we expect SPOT to come into its own
as an important part of our health and
safety strategy,” said Kes Juskowiak, Water
Operations General Manager at Scottish
Water. “With reliable satellite
communications, we can get help to our
employees whenever it is needed and wherever
they might be. SPOT is a lifeline providing
reassurance to families and colleagues that
each lone worker is in safe hands.”
Scottish Water procured
the SPOTs through UK specialist wireless and
satellite reseller, Global Telesat
Communications (GTC), a subsidiary of
Orbital Tracking Corp. (OTCQB: TRKK). GTC
recently surpassed the milestone of selling
15,000 SPOT devices.
“With staff welfare
moving up the corporate agenda, we are
seeing significant adoption of SPOT by
commercial and non-commercial organisations
worldwide,” said Gary King, Globalstar EMEA
Sales Manager for SPOT. “By deploying SPOT,
Scottish Water is demonstrating its
commitment to safeguarding its employees as
they go about their work in some of the most
remote parts of the UK.”