Source: Using technology to safeguard the mental health of mobile and field workers‍

Australia is a big country and travelling long distances on deserted roads is all in a day’s work for many mobile and field workers. So is toiling in isolated locations, miles and hours from towns and cities, as many agricultural and resources sector employees do.

While mobile phone coverage has improved in recent times, it’s still far from universal. Black spots remain plentiful in rural and remote locations.

Knowing you’re out of phone range is not a pleasant feeling. For lone workers travelling and working solo, it can mean being stranded by the side of the road for hours or even days, should they experience a breakdown or face other dangers such as human or animal aggression, an unfortunate medical event, or seasonal climate disaster.

And, in the event of a collision or industrial accident, they may well find themselves seriously injured and unable to raise the alarm that they need help urgently.

On the road and on your own

Fortunately, businesses are becoming alert to the fact that knowing they’re off the grid can be extremely stressful for workers. Over time, that stress can have a harmful effect on mental health and wellbeing.

Given mental health is the leading cause of absence and long-term incapacity in the workplace — it costs the Australian economy as much as $220 billion annually, by the Productivity Commission’s reckoning — there’s a clear imperative for businesses to take practical steps to promote worker safety and wellbeing wherever they can.

Doing so is both socially responsible and commercially smart. In recent years, states have strengthened regulatory frameworks around psycho-social hazards; putting the onus squarely on businesses to identify, mitigate and manage them. In fact, directors who fail to take sufficient steps to safeguard workers’ psycho-social wellbeing may find themselves held personally liable for adverse consequences that arise as a result.

Turning to technology to boost worker wellbeing

That’s where technology has an important role to play. It can ensure lone workers, however remote their location, are not left feeling like they’re out there on their own.

Devices today can sense worker environments, deliver precise location awareness and create intelligent connections between devices, systems and people, via connectivity, telematics and applications including lone worker duress and safety alarm tools.

The signals they detect and transmit can be swiftly and seamlessly interpreted and forwarded to key personnel responsible for instigating an immediate and appropriate response.

That’s not always possible when a lone worker is solely reliant on their mobile phone to summon aid. As a safeguarding system, it’s far too vulnerable to single point failure. Should the network drop out, for example, or the phone malfunction, there’s no Plan B for getting word back to base.

Instead, what’s needed are two things:

1. An improvement in reliability where possible, extending coverage, and better high-quality devices, but this only takes you so far.
2. Redundancy, which is infinitely more achievable because no matter how high the quality of a device or network, things can and do go wrong.

However, ultimately, you need a back-up plan, including the use of antennas able to provide back-up signalling methods and back-up connectivity, so if a worker’s phone isn’t working it can get critical information out. Seamless integration with third party applications, such as telematics, can also be a game changer. This can provide businesses with highly accurate collision data on sudden stops and vehicle impact, along with the ability for workers to check in regularly and send an SOS via cabin-mounted and portable duress buttons.

Efficient incident management

If the technology array that’s adopted integrates seamlessly with low-code tools and systems, monitoring and managing remote worker activity can be highly efficient and cost effective. Indeed, by drawing on existing organisational structures, citizen developers can create customised workflows that ensure the right people are alerted, based on the nature of the data received.

Emerging agentic AI capabilities today also enable users to build intelligent virtual agents that can make decisions and issue instructions autonomously, around the clock. In effect, that means someone’s in the office, all the time, looking out for lone workers who are on the road and in the field.

Taking care of the team physically and mentally

Irrespective of the industry, a healthy, high-performing workforce will always be any organisation’s greatest asset. Whether they’re in the office or out on the road alone, it’s vital that steps are taken to show the team the company has their back. Having access to intelligent antenna technology that allows them to share their location and signal for assistance means they can get on with the job, secure in the knowledge they’ll receive speedy support whenever it’s needed.

If providing a mobile workforce with greater peace of mind is a priority, it’s an investment that will stand any business in excellent stead.

Source: Fleet Managers Need To Address Their ESG Metrics In 2026

Warwick Clancy, Chief Operating Officer at Zetifi, discusses why fleet managers must better understand and act on environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics in 2026.

From July 1 this year, mid-sized enterprises, defined as those with annual revenue greater than $200 million or more than 250 staff, will have to join the top end of town in reporting their ESG efforts.

Another year on, on 1 July 2027, it will be the turn of the next tier down – businesses with $50 million revenue and more than 100 staff.

The legislation has put the onus on businesses to take action and prove they’re doing so.

That means developing a rigorous Environmental, Social and Governance framework and policies, measuring the success of activities to promote optimal social outcomes and reduce the entity’s footprint on the planet, and disclosing progress across all aspects of operations via an annual sustainability report.

Focusing on fleet efficiency

For businesses which run sizeable fleets, minimising their vehicles’ impact on the environment makes excellent sense and it’s an area where progress can be measured and built on in real time, not just reported annually.

Putting formal policies in place that mandate employees drive to conditions and avoid speeding can enable them to create a collective difference over the long term.

That’s because it’s been proven that smooth, safe driving results in lower fuel consumption, fewer incidents and accidents, and reduced wear and tear on vehicles.

Efforts to minimise risky and inefficient driving are more likely to be effective if aberrant behaviours are detected in real time and offending drivers prompted to correct them.

Carbon emissions can be cut by this and other straightforward measures, such as reducing vehicle idling time and facilitating carpooling for workers who need to travel to the same location at the same time.

Measuring what matters

Making changes such as these – and demonstrating you’ve done so – necessitates having access to up-to-date insights into how workers behave when they’re behind the wheel of company cars, utility vehicles and mobile machinery, as well as information on the condition and fuel consumption of those vehicles.

That’s where technology has a vital role to play.  When fitted to vehicles, connected trackers and telemetric devices can sense their environments, deliver precise location awareness, capture granular data on how those vehicles are being driven, and create intelligent connections between devices, systems and people.

The signals devices detect and transmit can be sent to the corporate governance team who can use that intelligence to develop comprehensive ESG metrics for the company fleet.

The evidence generated can, for example, be used to build detailed pictures of driver behaviour; identifying individuals who regularly exceed the speed limit and those whose driving patterns are erratic or unsafe.

Interventions can be triggered once pre-determined thresholds have been reached and evidence of offending drivers’ subsequent behavioural changes measured and documented in Environmental and Governance reporting.

Fuel consumption and usage data can also be captured regularly and married with service and repair histories, for every vehicle in the fleet.

Using data to drive ESG improvements

Once in possession of these insights, an ESG team can develop a comprehensive set of fleet metrics and then instigate initiatives to improve them.

A compliance program for individuals who regularly drive unsafely can, for example, be an effective means of modifying their behaviour behind the wheel.

The detection of a risk event in real time means they can be given immediate feedback followed by coaching and counselling, to prevent a recurrence of the incident.

For example, should an employee contravene their employer’s ‘no mobile phone use while driving’ policy, their vehicle’s telemetrics system could detect the breach, prompt a correction, alert their manager, log the real time coaching that occurred and preserve the evidence for ESG reporting purposes.

In the long term, such positive actions can reduce fuel consumption and vehicle wear and tear while lowering the risk of incidents and injuries for the individuals involved and those with whom they share the road.

That’s a social outcome that’s in everyone’s interest, given the devastating impact of serious and fatal accidents on families and communities.

Meanwhile, having the capability to monitor lone worker settings and respond quickly to incidents involving danger and duress make for a significantly safer working environment.

Driving ESG improvements in 2026 and beyond

Monitoring and improving sustainability is a moral imperative for responsible Australian enterprises of all stripes and sizes and a legal one for many.

Fleet operations offer one of the clearest pathways from policy to measurable proof, at a time when reporting expectations demand greater transparency and defensibility.

The smart deployment of tracker and telemetric technology can help businesses reduce the environmental impact of their fleet vehicles, while creating safer conditions for employees and other drivers on the road.

It enables them to not only measure their vehicle emissions but to show the actions they’ve taken to minimise them, while at the same time safeguarding workers and the public.

If increasing transparency, managing risk and demonstrating solid environmental and social credentials is important to your business this year, it’s an excellent addition to the company toolkit.

Zetifi’s Smart Antenna platform combines high-performance UHF and 4G/5G antennas with Bluetooth tracking and GPS logging, offering seamless integration into existing telematics platforms.

It delivers the kind of infrastructure needed for real-time carbon accounting and verifiable sustainability metrics as ESG reporting shifts from voluntary to mandatory.

This article was originally published on Safety Solutions and is republished here with permission.

‍Source: Safety Solutions – On the road and in the field — how technology can safeguard workers

___

‍

For businesses with mobile and field workers, occupational health and safety obligations can be harder to meet. Zetifi founder and CEO DAN WINSON sets out how connected fleet safety can help.

While Australia’s stringent occupational health and safety frameworks have helped ensure our country’s workplaces are among the safest in the world; in recent decades, workplace fatalities remain a sad reality of life.

In 2024, 188 workers across the country lost their lives due to traumatic injuries incurred at work. Four in five fatalities occurred in just six industries: agriculture, forestry and fishing; public administration and safety; transport, postal and warehousing; manufacturing; health care and social assistance; and construction.

Machinery operators and drivers accounted for 32% of those fatalities, with vehicle incidents the leading cause of fatal injuries (42%), according to Safe Work Australia.

Ensuring the businesses they work for don’t add to these tragic statistics in 2026 should be an overarching goal for all occupational health and safety teams.

Tackling risk head on

How best to do so is the question, particularly for businesses and organisations which employ large teams of mobile and field workers.

For many of these organisations, identifying the gamut of potential risks their workers face when they’re out on the road is a sensible place to start.

And then there are the incidents and events over which employees have rather more control — think erratic braking, speeding events and unsafe overtaking.

Developing policies to mitigate these unavoidable and avoidable risks should be a priority for businesses that have not already done so. Mandating employees drive to conditions, avoid speeding and seek shelter during severe storms, for example, is a straightforward way of reducing the likelihood of them coming to grief on the road.

Obtaining insights from the field

But having policies in place that require workers to take sensible precautions is just one piece of the puzzle. Being able to enforce them is the other. To do so necessitates having access to up-to-date insights into how workers behave when they’re behind the wheel of company vehicles.

That’s where technology has a vital role to play. Devices today can sense worker environments, deliver precise location awareness and create intelligent connections between devices, systems and people through connectivity, telematics and applications such as duress and lone worker safety alarm tools.

The signals they detect and transmit can be swiftly and seamlessly interpreted and sent on to key personnel, who can use that intelligence to enhance worker safety on several fronts.

However, what’s required is reliable coverage anywhere, with alerts able to be transmitted kilometres away across the likes of a farm, mining site or national park. Smart antennas and seamless integrations with third-party applications such as telematics can help here and provide robust information on issues such as driver speed, braking, acceleration and cornering performance.

This type of connected fleet safety is ultimately about visibility and proof. By combining radio-based safety features with telematics, organisations can better understand risk, improve behaviour and demonstrate that safety controls are operating in practice.

Striving to improve worker safety

That’s reassuring for workers, particularly those who are regularly sent out on the road solo. For businesses, meanwhile, it demonstrates a willingness to walk the walk when it comes to occupational health and safety.

The data collected can also be used to build detailed pictures of driver behaviour; identifying individuals who regularly exceed the speed limit and those whose driving patterns are erratic or unsafe.

Training and coaching can then be employed to help these drivers modify their behaviour. In the long term, that can foster a more accountable, safety-oriented workplace culture, while reducing the risk of accidents and injury for the individuals involved and those with whom they share the road.

Creating a safer future for your team

An engaged, high performing workforce is the most powerful asset any business can have. Protecting the people whose contributions are pivotal to your organisation’s success is a moral imperative and one that makes excellent commercial sense too. Technology can help you do so, when they’re in the field and on the road.

If creating a safer workplace is a priority in 2026, it’s an investment that will pay dividends now and for many years to come.

‍

‍Source: Safety Solutions – On the road and in the field — how technology can safeguard workers

‍