Background
Charnwood Borough Council covers a 108-square mile area between Derby, Nottingham and Leicester and is based in the borough’s largest town, Loughborough. The local authority’s civil parking enforcement officers are tasked with reducing congestion, keeping roads obstruction-free for emergency access, ensuring parking space turnover and carrying out high visibility patrols for public safety.
Challenge
Charnwood Borough Council sought to equip its parking enforcement officers with improved communication abilities in a region with some hard-to-reach locations. The local authority needed an affordable solution that provided instant, individual and group voice communication as well as precise locating capabilities for officer safety. Traditional radio systems required costly hardware investments like repeater masts to enable reliable functionality in all areas.
Solution
Charnwood Borough Council partnered with Storm, a European reseller of push-to-talk over cellular (PoC also known as PTT) technologies developed by Mobile Tornado, to improve safety and communications for parking enforcement officers. The solution is ideal because it is able to leverage existing mobile networks to avoid the expensive infrastructure costs associated with two-way radio systems.
The PoC application enables instant voice communication, push to message, image and video sharing, geo-fencing, location tracking and SOS alerts. The workforce management solution enables workforces, including lone workers, to be managed in a simple and effective way.
Charnwood Borough Council equipped its parking enforcement officers with RugGear725 devices – Android handsets rugged beyond military standard and optimised with Storm’s push-to-talk over cellular technologies. The local authority used Mobile Tornado’s dispatch console to ensure the safety of staff on the streets, communicate instantly with individuals or groups and direct operatives to locations where needed.
Outcomes
Mobile Tornado’s PoC solution delivered enhanced critical communications and safety protections for parking patrols across the borough.
The combination of instant, reliable communication, detailed location positioning, SOS alerts and rugged devices increased parking enforcement efficiency while prioritising officer safety. Streamlined coordination translated to better public services regarding parking availability, traffic flow and community patrols.
Key improvements included:
- Expanded communications using existing mobile infrastructure, thereby avoiding expensive investments associated with two-way radio systems.
- Range of features on one device to avoid the need to use multiple devices.
- Rugged smartphones for reliability.
- Improved supervisor coordination.
- Individual and group push-to-talk abilities.
- Emergency alert activation with precise GPS locating to protect parking enforcement officers.
Scott Sims, street environment manager at Charnwood Borough Council expressed his satisfaction, stating, “We operate over a large borough with some challenging locations where traditional radios won’t work without significant investment on repeater masts and infrastructure. Storm’s PoC solution, powered by Mobile Tornado, suited our needs, not only by utilising existing mobile data networks but also by offering valuable mapping software for lone worker support“.
