Herongrange, providers of security solution systems, have created an impressive access control system which allows contractors to track their work and rest hours in a reliable fashion.
The system came into being during a development project at Northampton Castle Railway Station.
Network Rail impose strict rules on contractors work hours and rest periods which are usually enforced with paper based systems or by manually calculating it. Buckingham Group Contracting, main contractors on the new Northampton Castle Railway Station project, wanted to enforce working hour rules on operatives and so approached Herongrange.
Herongrangeās product records operatives rest, travel to site and travel from site durations which had previously been unachievable with other access control solutions. Before a system could be created a mock product was required to check it was fit for purpose; after successful testing procedures Herongrange went on to develop the real terminal interface.
The terminal designed by Herongrange resembles a cash machine screen with buttons. It displays full colour graphics, customised text and plays sound and music files.
Buckingham Group wanted a terminal on the turnstile covering the entrance to site so operatives could not enter their workplace without keying in their commute times. The terminal was required to use a simple and quick user interface so that speed through the turnstile by staff was not impacted too much.
When an operative enters the site each working day, the terminal asks them to select the time taken to commute to work from a list of selections. Following their inputted answer they are then asked to enter their expected commute to place of rest. On every other attempt to access the site they are not asked to provide the information again.
The system allows contractors to monitor operatives work and rest times during a working day; and also enables any issues to be noticed via a reliable tracking system.
Herongrange has suggested that the control system could also help to enforce working and rest time rules by preventing access to site for people who have had inadequate rest time. In addition to this, the solution system could be rolled out to other Buckingham Group/Network Rail sites, and could check that rest times are monitored from site to site. This would prevent someone from working on one site, then travelling to another site and not having sufficient rest in between.
Buckingham Group Contracting Ltd, in partnership with National Rail on this project, is an owner managed, multi disciplinary contractor. Based in Silverstone, with offices in Warrington and Bristol, the company have been in operation for over 55 years.
The company offer a range of services to their clients including building, civil engineering, demolition, land remediation and restoration, facilities management, sports and leisure and rail.
