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The power of three WHAT3WORDS IS A GEOCODE SYSTEM AVAILABLE VIA AN APP AND CAN PROVIDE THE EASIEST WAY TO FIND OUT WHERE YOU NEED TO BE AS WELL AS IMPROVING SAFETY, AS FRANCINE CARREL EXPLAINS Example – Land’s End w3w: ///screen.offshore.underline Lat/long: 50.069629, -5.7187290 OS Grid Ref: SW 33996 25461 Google Plus: 379J+VG Sennen Cove, Penzance
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The app can pinpoint work sites
any arborists are really good at scribbling directions on a scrap of paper while a customer is gabbling through a crackling phone line. Hands up if this is you. For many in arboriculture, satnav is a godsend, and Google Maps and its ilk have made things even easier. But there’s always room for improvement, and an inventive app is gaining ground in rural industries.
a random spot near my office is cheetahs. avoiding.consoles (excellent). The app is free for most users; it makes money by charging companies for bulk conversions of co-ordinates and works without a data connection. It’s been widely adopted by industries where precision is needed in poorly mapped areas, from emergency services and humanitarian organisations to logistics firms and, of course, arboriculture.
How it works What3words (w3w) has divided the whole world into 57 trillion 3m x 3m squares and assigned each one a three-word ‘address’. Nelson’s Column is beans.again.voting and
A user view “I can tell you two completely different stories demonstrating the same point,” says Halley McCallum, who started vegetation management firm bts Group in 1988. He still
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heads the company as managing director and has a wealth of experience on-site and managing the operations. He’s well aware of the risks involved in arb work and says w3w addresses are simple, memorable and easy to share, making the app a superb tool for safety. He adds that bts made a w3w field mandatory on risk assessments early this year. “One is a tree cutter cutting through his rope on an aerial job, resulting in serious injuries. Unfortunately, he’s on a remote Scottish island and it takes four hours for help to arrive. “For the next story, a lone worker is walking a power line for a district network operator. He’s surveying, following the line and looking up at it, then he falls down a well.” The man
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26/03/2020 11:36