Utilities run on field staff who work alone: meter readers on doorsteps, engineers at substations and pumping stations, network technicians in the street and across rural infrastructure. They face electrical, gas, confined-space and traffic hazards, often in places with no mobile signal, and usually with nobody else on site. Protecting them means a fast way to raise the alarm, automatic fall and man-down detection, check-ins on higher-risk jobs, and cover that still works where the network does not.
Why utilities is a lone-working problem
A utility field force spends its days spread across sites nobody else is at: substations, pumping and treatment works, exchange cabinets, rural pipelines and overhead lines, and thousands of customer doorsteps for metering. The hazards are serious and specific, electricity, gas, confined spaces, working at height and roadside traffic, and the worker is usually the only person there to notice when something goes wrong.
On top of the hazard, a lot of utility infrastructure sits exactly where mobile coverage is weakest, so a worker who has an accident at a remote asset can be both hurt and unreachable.
What good cover looks like
One-tap and voice-triggered SOS plus automatic fall and man-down detection, on the phone and the watch the engineer already wears, so an engineer knocked out at a remote asset is not found hours later. Timed check-ins on higher-risk jobs, and a safe-task timer that escalates when a declared job runs over.
Cover that survives the network: where there is no mobile signal, an SOS should still get out over a paired satellite communicator into the same escalation chain. And an escalation plan that reaches a controller and, for emergencies, an accredited response, with every alert logged for the safety record.
How Vygard fits a utilities field force
Vygard gives field staff one-tap and voice SOS, automatic fall and man-down detection, timed check-ins with automatic escalation, live location, and a dispatcher console that shows who is out and where, on the phone and the watch they already carry, with dedicated devices for roles that need them and satellite SOS for off-grid assets. Every alert and response is logged.
To see it across a real field diary, book a short demo at /demo or talk to us at /contact.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the law require utilities to do for lone workers?
- The Health and Safety at Work Act and the Management Regulations require employers to assess and control lone-working risks. For a field force that means a real way to raise the alarm, fall and man-down cover, check-ins on higher-risk work, and a response plan, proportionate to the serious hazards utility work involves.
- How do you protect engineers at remote assets with no signal?
- Cover has to survive substations, rural networks and blackspots. Vygard works across phone and watch, and where there is no mobile network an SOS can still go out over a paired satellite communicator into the same escalation chain.
- Does it cover both metering staff and engineers?
- Yes. Door-to-door metering and site-based engineering face different risks but need the same core, SOS, fall detection, check-ins, escalation and audit, configured per role and managed from one console.
- Can it handle higher-risk tasks differently?
- Yes. Tasks can carry a risk level, so an overdue high-risk job escalates faster than routine work, keeping the controller's attention on the job most likely to be a problem.
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Last updated 2026-11-13