How to Choose Personal Tracking Devices for Oil and Gas Rastrac Team | Nov 20, 2018 11:24:15 AM

Working in the industrial park environment is a dangerous place for oil and gas workers. These on-shore oil and gas industry locations may contain oil refineries, offices, warehouses, and a variety of other related facilities. Additionally, you have oil and gas workers who also operate vehicles, driving products, equipment, and supplies to and from the industrial park.

For fleet managers, keeping tabs on all of your employees can be challenging. This is where oil and gas personnel tracking can come in handy through the use of GPS personal tracking devices.

This article will address some of the different personal tracking device and software options that exist for oil and gas personnel tracking. These solutions work for employees to carry with them in the field to increase safety. Whether your employees are working inside buildings, at an oil refinery, or are driving transport vehicles, there are GPS personal tracking devices that can meet your oil and gas personnel tracking needs.

GPS Tracking Solutions for Oil and Gas Personnel Tracking

GPS tracking solutions use satellite technology to triangulate pinpoint-specific geographic locations of any portable GPS tracker. These solutions come in a variety of forms, including:

• GPS tracking devices,
• GPS tracking software, and
• Mobile tracking applications.

RastracGo Portable GPS Tracker

As technology continues to advance, tracking devices are getting physically smaller with each passing year. RastracGo is our smallest, thinnest, and lightest GPS tracking device to date. Its compact size makes it easy for employees to fit the personal tracking device in their pocket or wallet for safe keeping. Because of its unique size and design that features a loop, the device also can easily be attached to a lanyard or other ID card holder for easy access.

With the device set to GPS mode, it will provide the most accurate and timely location data. Unlike some tracking devices, RastracGo can detect a variety of conditions around the card, including:

• Humidity
• Temperature
• Pressure
• Noise

GL300VC Personal Tracking Device

GL300VC is a versatile and water-resistant GPS tracking device that can be used for tracking people, vehicles, and assets. The portable GPS tracker is equipped with several key features, including:

• A thumb-sized button that allows emergency alerts and instant geographic coordinates to be sent in the event of an emergency;
• Internal GPS/CDMA antennas;
• Internal 3-axis accelerometer for motion-detection monitoring and alerts and power saving;
• Preset time schedules for reporting position and status updates; and
• Full power management and low power alarm.

These features make the GL300VC an ideal personal tracking device for oil & gas workers.

PocketRastrac Apps Turns a Phone into a Portable Tracking Device

If you don’t want to deal with the hassle or expense of investing in purchasing individual personal tracking devices for all of your employees, there is another option. You can use the technology that your employees are almost guaranteed to already have available: smartphones. According to Pew Research Center, the overwhelming majority of people in the United States — 95% — now own a mobile device. Specifically, the research center’s study indicates that 77% of American adults now own smartphones in particular.

PocketRastrac, Rastrac’s version of a mobile employee location tracking system, is a mobile app that enables fleet managers to track their employees during work hours easily. As long as your employees are running iOS and Android-based smartphones, you can use their mobile devices as people tracking solutions that can be used to locate employees in an emergency.

If you or your employees are concerned about the risk of employee privacy, it’s important to note that the vehicle tracking system app can be set to report only during work hours. This means that they don’t have to worry about being spied on while off the clock. Learn more about our GPS tracking privacy policy for both PocketRastrac and PocketRastrac Lite.

Since 1993, Rastrac has been a fleet and asset management tracking solution for businesses worldwide. Speak with one of our project consultants today to see how our personal tracking devices and software can help you to increase the safety of your oil and gas workers.