We believe the financial,
human & emotional cost
of workplace driver fatigue related accidents is too high.
We reduce this cost by
empowering people & the
companies they work for with
proven driver fatigue technology
to measure & manage driver fatigue
in the workplace - increasing
workforce productivity,
mitigating risk & saving lives.
OPTALERT is the only real-time
safety system in the world that
detects the early onset of driver
drowsiness during a journey by
accurately measuring a person's
level of ALERTNESS - quantifying
to both driver & company their
FATIGUE RISK PROFILE.
Jeff Carr, Sutherlands Transport truck driver with 25 years of experience.
New lease of life at Broken Hill and beyond
FOLLOWING the strategic acquisition of a Canadian mining and exploration company in early 2011, Perilya has extended its focus beyond NSW’s iconic Broken Hill to explore international opportunities. Perth-based Perilya was established in 1987, and has since assembled a diverse portfolio of base metal operations and exploration projects. On top of the newly-acquired Cerro de Maimon mine in the Dominican Republic and the historic Broken Hill mine, Perilya is advancing the Flinders project in South Australia and the Mount Oxide project in Queensland. It also has extensive exploration programs under way in NSW (zinc, lead and silver), Queensland (copper, gold and zinc), ...
In Safe Hands
Safety is a clear focus for the Papua New Guinean Ok Tedi Mining Limited (OTML) mine site, the nation’s largest company. Managing director, Nigel Parker, has spent the last 30 years of his career working outside of his home country of Australia and the past five with Ok Tedi, which opened in 1981. “Ok Tedi is the most complex business I have been involved in, yet this is what makes it so unique and special to me,” says Nigel. “Complexity is one of its greatest strengths, and it means that every day is a different day.” Papua New Guinea’s challenging landscape, its ...
OK Tedi Leads Mine Safety In PNG With Australian Technology
Safety is a clear focus for this mature mine site, which opened in 1981. Ok Tedi Managing Director, Nigel Parker, describes the business as complex yet rewarding. “Ok Tedi is the most complex business I have been involved in,” said Nigel, “yet this complexity is one of its greatest strengths.” The challenging landscape, Papua New Guinea’s remoteness, coupled with 11 metres of rain each year makes safety a very real concern. “The foot print of Ok Tedi is quite extraordinary – It spans from the mining town of Tabubil, which is Ok Tedi’s own town, to the mines 20 kilometres north of here ...
Continuous Improvement
A dedicated in-house Product Development team ensures OPTALERT is continuously releasing new products and enhancing existing ones. OPTALERT’s role as an industry innovator in fatigue management technologies has stemmed from decades of scientific research and product development, but Product Development and Operations Manager, Rob Chapman, says continuing to stay ahead and bring new innovations to market is very much a team effort. And according to Chapman, whose responsibilities include all product improvements from innovation, enhancements to manufacturing and general product upkeep, the sky is the limit when it comes to the OPTALERT technology. The Product Development team also includes a further six staff ...
BIS Embraces OPTALERT to Help Achieve Zero Harm Vision
For OPTALERT customer, BIS Industries Limited (BIS), Zero Harm is more than just a catch phrase – it’s a crucial part of business strategy. Not only is BIS a leading provider of innovative support solutions to the resource sector, the steel sector and their related industries, they’re also recognised as a leader in the embracement of new technologies aimed at achieving a Zero Harm environment. In addition to providing specialised services to primary industries within Australia, the company also has extensive experience in major infrastructure projects and related support activities. BIS’s Director of OHS&E, Tim Gibson believes their positive reputation and success over ...
Understanding the Risk Equation: RISK = HAZARD x EXPOSURE
The term risk is used a lot in today’s business environment. Risk is simply the chance of loss. As there are many different facets of business where loss may occur, there are many different types of risk: legal, reputational, operational, political and regulatory to name a few. Each type of risk may be calculated differently, but no matter how risk is determined, in the business world it can always translated into a dollar amount. This, of course, also includes safety risk. In the occupational, health & safety world, the term risk is often confused with the term hazard. These are two ...
OPTALERT Beats the World to Win the InterSystems Innovator Awards 2011
InterSystems Corporation, a global software leader headquartered in Massachusetts, USA, today announced OPTALERT the winner of their 2011 Innovator Awards. The prestigious annual awards competition, which draws submission from software developers and integration specialists worldwide, recognises those who use InterSystems technologies in new ways to create innovative applications and integration solutions. OPTALERT received the first-place Innovator Awards for its OPTALERT FATIGUE RISK PROFILER. In doing so OPTALERT beat multiple entries from 15 countries including 2nd placed Credit Suisse from USA and 3rd placed Mater Health Services from Brisbane, Australia. "We are excited to see how our customers are using InterSystems' advanced software technologies ...
Account Manager Fuses Passion with Practicality
For newly appointed OPTALERT Account Manager, Lisa Du, a background in Human Resources (HR) and a grounding in the administrative side of the business have enabled her to develop an intimate understanding of the company, its customers and its people from the ground up. But she says it was the knowledge, passion and enthusiasm of the entire organisation that fostered her desire to rise through the ranks to now lead the company’s Customer Support team. “I initially joined OPTALERT in an administrative and HR role, which entailed being organised and efficient while also coming to understand the business, its people and its ...
Alertness Monitoring System on Show at VTA Driver Safety Day
There have been some great leaps forward in the past 10 years in safety systems and safety technology available to the trucking industry. The aim of the Safety Drive Day, organised by the Victorian Transport Association (VTA), was to improve the awareness of people involved in the industry – operators, regulators and other stakeholders – of the importance of safety. The event was also an opportunity to showcase the kind of sophisticated safety technology that can be specified on heavy vehicles on our roads. Major truck manufacturers also demonstrated the efforts they have been making to improve the safety systems available ...
OPTALERT’s Scientists Taking Technology to World Stage
OPTALERT’s two most senior scientists will present research papers at the 8th International Conference on Managing Fatigue in Transportation, Resources and Health, to be held in Fremantle, Western Australia in late March. Underscoring OPTALERT’s dedication to continuous improvement through an ongoing commitment to Research and Development, the respected scientists will individually deliver papers relating to the long term research they have undertaken into fatigue-related driver safety, which has formed the basis for the company’s unique technological point of difference. An established and respected forum for research updates and discussion in the fatigue management community, the ‘Managing Fatigue’ conference series was first convened ...
The Fred Hollows Foundation Restoring Sight in Central Australia
The Fred Hollows Foundation and partners have recently added to the more than 500 sight-saving operations through a program undertaken in Central Australia. The recent week-long intensive surgery session saw 38 people receive eye surgery in Alice Springs, while a total of 41 other procedures on patients in that time took the full number of operations performed under the Central Australia program to 512. OPTALERT and a range of other supporters make regular financial donations to The Foundation, which has already restored sight to well over one million people. The Foundation’s Angus Thornton says the Central Australia program has been a great success, ...
Chilean Takes a Leading Stance Against Latin American Driver Fatigue
For OPTALERT Vice President of Business Development Rodrigo Alvear, promoting the Chilean mining sector on the dangers of drowsy driving is as much a personal mission as it is professional. Born in Santiago yet now based in Australia, Alvear says he feels proud to be educating his home country on the dangers of fatigue and the opportunities for prevention offered by the OPTALERT technology. But according to Alvear, who’s been working to raise awareness of the technology across the Chilean industry since its introduction to the Latin market in 2008, the applications of OPTALERT for saving lives go beyond purely the mining ...
International Year of Forests
The United Nations has declared 2011 the International Year of Forests; the year to celebrate the vital roles forests play in supporting life on earth and, just as importantly, the vital roles that people play in managing healthy forests. Forests are essential to the survival and well-being of every living thing on earth. They provide shelter to people and habitat to wildlife; support biodiversity; are a source of food, medicine and clean water; and play a vital role in maintaining a stable global climate and environment. Since 1997, Greenfleet has planted almost 7 million native trees in Australia. Today, the resulting forests ...
Introducing James Walker FCA
Becoming part of an Australian success story is at the heart of James Walker’s decision to join OPTALERT as their new Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Company Secretary. “I’m really excited about helping to take Australian technology and innovation to the global market,” says James, whose experience is grounded in commercialising Australian businesses and technology globally. James has worked in Germany, the US and Australia building his sound experience in business operations. Prior to his appointment at OPTALERT, James was a founder of Fluorotechnics, an ASX-listed life science company. Commencing as their CFO and COO in 2003, he moved into ...
It’s official. OPTALERT is a “Cool Company”!
Breaking news! Optalert is named Innovation Award winner at Anthill’s 2010 Cool Company Awards. Leading Australian entrepreneurs and business builders gathered last night at Melbourne’s 24 Moons Bar in AC/DC Lane to celebrate Anthill Magazine’s 2010 Cool Company Awards. The ‘Cools’ were launched in 2006 to help recognise Australian organisations that are doing things differently to bring about positive change. In addition to finalists from the Award’s eight categories, the 2010 awards ceremony was also attended by participants from Anthill’s 30under30 and 5over50 awards to create what Anthill’s founder and editor-in-chief James Tuckerman playfully described as a ’shin-dig and end of year ...
OPTALERT Finalist in “Cool Company Awards”
OPTALERT has been named one of Australia’s ‘Coolest’ businesses in Anthill Magazine’s Fifth Annual Cool Company Awards. OPTALERT has been named a Finalist in Anthill Magazine’s Fifth Annual Cool Company Awards, a national program developed in 2006 to recognise Australian companies that are doing things differently to bring about positive change. Over 700 aspiring ‘cool companies’ were nominated for the 2010 awards, making ‘The Cools’ one of Australia’s largest business awards programs. The winners will be announced at an award’s function on Thursday 16 December 2010 and published on AnthillOnline.com. “The Cool Company Awards are extremely egalitarian,” said James Tuckerman, Editor-In-Chief, Anthill Magazine. ...
Chile World #1 for Driver Alertness
Chilean mining has been in the world spotlight in recent times following the miraculous rescue of 33 miners trapped underground for a record 69 days. But despite recent events at the San Jose mine in Chile seeing it labelled third world by some, and Chilean President Sebastian Piñera vowing to bring mine safety in Chile up to developed world standards, those assessments are far from fair when considering Chile’s forward thinking approach to mine site driver fatigue. That’s the opinion of OPTALERT Vice President of International Business Development – and native Chilean – Rodrigo Alvear. Alvear points out that Chile is in fact ...
Global Real-Time Alertness Monitoring
The launch of the online Fatigue Risk Profiler by OPTALERT will empower management of mine sites around the world to more effectively manage the safety, productivity and wellbeing of their driving workforce. Billed as the next step in the evolution of fatigue management technology - in the blink of an eye - the OPTALERT-Fatigue Risk Profiler makes visible via the internet the current state of alertness and fatigue risk profile of one or many drivers anywhere in the world. The technology means those responsible for the safety of others will now be able to effectively share the burden of responsibility with their ...
ALLRig Transport Traction
As Australia’s largest distributor of truck and trailer parts, PACCAR Parts (operating under the brand name ALLRig in Australia) completed the Seed Program to demonstrate OPTALERT technology among road transport companies across Australia. PACCAR Parts Regional Sales Manager, Trevor Dickson has been with the company for nearly thirty years. Trevor and his colleagues championed the Seed Program increasing the awareness of OPTALERT’s safety focused technology – a process he firmly believes has the capacity to fundamentally alter the safety landscape of the road transport industry. “OPTALERT was chosen by PACCAR because it is an innovative system that can accurately – and in ...
GPS Not the Answer to Fatigue Management
As notable fleets like Toll and Linfox prepare to push legislation through supporting GPS as a mandatory tool for curbing fatigue related accidents, OPTALERT Chief Executive Office, John Prendergast has called the move dangerously misguided. Australia’s foremost thought leader on the topic of Behaviour Based Safety (BBS) and its effects on Chain of Responsibility and fatigue management, Prendergast says he fully supports fleets such as Toll and Linfox for wishing to actively implement a system that will decrease fatigue-related accidents in the transport industry. But he warns that the proposed use of GPS to achieve that goal is fundamentally flawed. “OPTALERT’s sole purpose ...
