Over the past 4 years there has been a considerable rise in ‘man on site’ work within the TM industry, where a single operative attends a site, such as a set of temporary traffic lights that require manually controlling, or a team of operatives attend a site, but are stationed alone on a specific location within the works such as a road closure point for example.
For work of this type it has proved over the years to be problematic for operatives and management to provide proof to clients that someone is on the site at the times they are required to be, especially when there is no-one else there to vouch for them.
Common issues encountered are;
- Client representative arrives on site to find nobody there
- Road authority or someone else reporting that nobody is on site
- Worker has left site for “X” reason and not told anyone
- Worker hasn’t turned up at all and nobody is aware of it
If you have workers on remote sites you’ll be all too familiar with these issues and the problems they cause.
When issues like this arise it is almost always a time-consuming process trying to contact the worker in question and find out where they are, if they’ve left site for a valid reason such as going to the toilet and how long will they be, or anything else that may have happened.
These situations lead to a lack of trust and we started to look into various methods that workers could use to provide proof they are on remote work sites when they are required to be.
Initially we implemented the use of the messaging App WhatsApp and created separate groups for each remote work site with the worker, our management team, and the client in the group. Site photos were required to be sent in every hour and the WhatsApp group could also be used to report things like battery levels, missing equipment, when they had left site for a break, when they returned, or anything else that the TM Provider needed to know about. This worked well for a short while, until it was discovered that some disingenuous workers were taking lots of photos in the morning when they arrived on site, going home for the day, and sending a different image in every hour to the WhatsApp group. It couldn’t be relied upon on its own, we needed to find something else.
After a little research we came across some phone camera applications that time stamp your pictures for you. We trialled some of the best ones on the market, settled on the one to use, and made it our policy that all images from remote workers had to be time stamped to prove that they were on site at the time the photo was sent in. Images without the time stamp would no longer be accepted as proof of work/attendance.
For a good while this seemed to have done the trick, there were less issues with remote work sites, the proof of work/attendance was being accepted by clients, and all seemed well…. Until we were informed of a work around that had become common knowledge and was being used by some workers. If you changed the time on your mobile phone it changed the time on the time stamp in the camera app, and it was the same for every other similar App we tried.
At this stage remote work sites were starting to really cause us some issues again. The lack of trust was once again increasing, we’d lost some previously good staff who were dismissed for stupidly altering the time on their site images, and in some cases clients were now refusing to accept any of this as proof of work/attendance too which was costing the business money, and causing stress to genuine workers who were having their work questioned as well.
The demand for this type of labour supply is still increasing, and we had to find a solution.
We consulted with our own software development team at Adjuvo Digital, and an external mobile app developer. We needed something that was 100% tamper proof which we could confidently stand over.
It had to provide the following as a minimum;
- Tamper proof date and time stamp on all images
- Accurate GPS location address on all images
- GPS location map
- Photo & Video recording options
- Guarantee it could not be forged
- Is not difficult to use
After a period of R&D, and an extended period of testing in the field we are pleased to say that we finally have a solution that delivers all the above and more!
The time and date in the app are locked to the mobile network provider, and if you change the time and/or date on your device a warning shows up telling you that it has been corrected. (see image below
The time and date are 100% tamper proof, the app will only ever use the time and date set by the network which nobody has access to. RESULT!!
The GPS location is accurate to within a few meters, and you have the option of a map to be added to the image as well as the written address and postcode as shown below. The app can also detect anyone using a virtual GPS or VPN and will confirm the correct GPS only.
There is the option of using video if required which helps when workers need to show/explain a site issue. It will also be useful for RTC’s and other items that occur from time to time at TM sites.You can even turn on a photo verification code option so that every image has a verification code stamped below the GPS location too. You can then use that code in the app to verify the original time, date, & GPS location of the image. This protects against images being altered in photoshop and other image editing applications if photos are provided or requested some time later.
The app is produced and backed by a 3rd party organisation who guarantee that it is 100% tamper proof. We’ve tried everything we can to change any aspect of it and nothing works.
All workers at Adjuvo Group are now using this mobile app for any remote site work. We do not accept time stamp images from any other application than this one and we are able to provide 100% proof of work/attendance anywhere in the country that can be verified.
