Blinded by debris and unable to drive, an Alaskan field technician was unable to help direct rescuers to his remote location. Fleet Manager found him with a mouse click.
Temecula, CA April 6th, 2015 – There are many challenges facing the field workforce, no matter where they are. But when that workforce is in Alaska, there’s a good chance they may be 600 miles from the nearest city. Which means 600 miles from the nearest hospital in an emergency.
Linda Peters, General Manager of ProComm Alaska, knows this all too well. ProComm is the premier two-way radio dealership in Alaska. Two weeks ago one of their employees was deployed to a remote location to perform various maintenance tasks.
“He was working on a communication system and debris flew into his face and eyes,” said Peters.
The vehicle was equipped with a first aid kit and the tech was able to use the eyewash to clear some of the debris.
“He thought he could drive himself to the hospital,” continued Peters. “But as he started driving it became apparent that his vision was too impaired. He finally had to pull over and stop .”
The driver radioed his dispatcher that he was stranded, in terrible pain, and couldn’t see where he was.
“Wade Long, our Service Manager, realized Nick was in trouble and that serious damage to his vision might be increased by further delay – he needed help right away,” said Peters. “Wade went straight to the Fleet Manager console in our office and had the tech’s location in seconds. We sent help straight to the coordinates provided by the system and got him to the Emergency Room.”
Doctors determined that the debris had lacerated his corneas and extracted the remaining bits.
“He will be fine,” Peters said. “The doctors say he should have a full recovery.”
Isolation greatly increases the risks faced in remote workforce management. Having a GPS tracking system monitoring the vehicles in a fleet is a great way of reducing those risks.
Peters recognizes this very clearly.
“It’s fortunate that he was able to get medical attention as quickly as he did,” Peters concludes. “Without the Fleet Manager system, we had no idea where to start looking. We thought we installed the system to reduce our fleet management costs. Who knew it’s safety features would become so critically important.“
About GPS Trackit
GPS Trackit was established in 1999. For over 15 years it has been a leading North American supplier of GPS tracking and fleet/mobile workforce management services. Located in Southern California, GPS Trackit is dedicated to providing the most innovative, cutting-edge GPS technology backed by the best customer service in the industry today.
