The construction industry has the highest fatality rate of any industry in the UK. This troubling fact is truer than ever given that fatalities increased by around 50% in 22/23.
But it’s not about fatality. There were 53,000 non-fatal injuries during the same period, ranging from the minor to the life-changing.
Maybe this isn’t surprising, construction sites are inherently dangerous, as are the roads - both of which are workplaces for construction industry workers. However, in a golden age of health and safety regulations, why are fatalities increasing? And what can construction leaders do
Modern Construction Pressures Need Modern Solutions
There is a risk involved in construction fleets moving around the country collecting and distributing building materials. There’s also a safety risk of fleet and construction vehicles travelling around building sites. Looking at the UK specifically, the construction sector is falling short of the government's target of building 300,000 new homes a year.
So there is always pressure to build faster and more efficiently, which creates risk for construction industry workers- from labourers to drivers.
Telematics offers construction industry stakeholders the opportunity to significantly limit this risk, and here’s how.
Examples of Telematics Enhancing Safety
Telematics can provide real-time data on the location, status and usage of equipment. This makes it possible for potential issues to be immediately detected. Potentially dangerous issues such as overheating machinery or mechanical failures can be identified and accidents can be prevented.
Operator Performance
Telematics monitors and reports on operator and driver performance. For drivers, this might include speeding or harsh braking. For plant equipment of construction vehicles like diggers, this could include the unauthorised use of equipment. Fleet managers can use this data to identify risky behaviours and provide targeted training to operators, enhancing overall safety.
Rest Breaks
Driver fatigue is a major cause of accidents. A rested workforce is a safe workforce. Monitoring rest breaks is a surprisingly effective way of preventing driver fatigue. Telematics flags when drivers are not taking sufficient breaks. This has the joint benefit of improving safety and ensuring compliance with safety regulations.
Wear and Tear Reduction
Wear and tear slowly eats away at the safety of vehicles, creating more risk. Through the provision of accurate data concerning vehicle usage and health. Telematics helps managers to schedule regular maintenance, which reduces wear and tear as well as the likelihood of accidents.
Incident Reporting and Analysis
If an accident does happen, telematics gives health and safety officers the data they need to stop a similar event in the future. Telematics provides detailed data that can be used for incident analysis. This includes vehicle speed, driver actions, and exact incident location, all of which helps determine the cause and implement measures to prevent history repeating itself.
Better Safe Than Sorry
The construction industry has always been one of the more dangerous, for obvious reasons. But, the ever-increasing pressure to answer housing shortfalls by building faster, better and more cheaply creates risk. Fortunately, this is 2024 and we now have the sophisticated tools to mitigate risk- making building safer for workers and for business. Telematics give companies injury-avoiding predictive powers through real-time monitoring, enhancing operator safety, ensuring optimal driver behaviour, and generally promoting a safer work culture.
So, telematics technology is an indispensable tool in the fight for safe work environments in the construction industry. However, the companies must be proactive about adopting data-led telematics solutions to truly provide the kinds of predictive insights that reduce accidents and fatalities.
