Uepaa Safety App at KONE in Austria: “Often out of sight and call range in the shaft, but protected”

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KONE fitters in Switzerland have been using the Uepaa security app for three years. This modern version of the dead man device is now also being introduced in Austria.

Safety Manager Patrick Matzinger successfully introduced Uepaa in Switzerland in 2021. “The app has major advantages over the old Totmann devices. It also triggers an alarm where there is no cell phone reception, without employees having to set up antennas and wire up shafts. The highly professional external alarm center is also a big plus,” says Patrick Matzinger.

At KONE Switzerland, 50 own employees and around 30 employees from subcontractors are already using the app, usually fitters or customer service engineers. “The Uepaa app is a good thing because I'm often out of sight and call range in the shaft,” explains Artur Krein, fitter at KONE Switzerland.

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An app that gets help when you can't do it yourself

“When I work alone on the construction site, I use the one-time check function. This is the function that works without reception. I set a countdown that is stored in the background of the emergency call center,” says the Swiss fitter. After the entered time has elapsed, he has five minutes to confirm or search for a location with cell phone reception. The emergency call function via motion detection is less suitable in the lift shaft, as workers there often spend longer in one place.

In the event of an alarm, the person concerned is called twice; if there is no answer, the emergency call center will contact you in accordance with the specified escalation levels. “If that doesn't work either, the ambulance is alerted. In addition, all Uepaa users within a radius of 2 kilometers are asked whether they can help,” adds Krein. In over 99 percent of cases, a problem is solved directly with the employee or within the team.

Uepaa works with the Medicall emergency call center — a professional emergency call center that helps people around the world 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Austria will also be connected to it. Uepaa serves numerous large companies, such as Swisscom and Swiss Federal Railways. Fortunately, KONE Switzerland has never had to request an ambulance from Medicall.

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Starting signal for Uepaa in Austria

The teams of Andreas Schlögl (Operations Director for the South Region) and Robert Fröhlich (Field Support) as well as the two works council colleagues were open to the project right from the start and supported the project unconditionally. Eugen Ramoser (Safety Specialist in Austria) had already done the best preparatory work, and the app was already familiar to many. “It is very important to have the full support of management and other stakeholders for such a project,” says Matzinger.

The first training course starts today on 20.03.2024 at the KONE location in Innsbruck, followed by more in Austria.

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