SiteSorted is a web application that allows workers to report health and safety incidents to the office from a construction site in real time. It was developed by University of Canterbury engineering students Matt Cobham and Ashok Fernandez.

The application can be accessed from almost any device capable of browsing the internet, allowing it to be used by site workers on their existing mobile devices, according to the university.

The app was trialled and field tested by Worthing Contracting to discover what improvements SiteSorted would have on a real construction site.

“During the trial, site workers spent no more than a minute filling out the smart form and all events reported were actioned within the hour and closed within a day,” Cobham said.

“The average time for completing a paper-based health and a safety form onsite was around 10-20 minutes and after the paper work was done it took a further one to three days to complete an investigation and close the event out.”

Through the use of SiteSorted Cobham said the number of incidents reported by workers on site went up by 200%.

He added that the company now wants to become the “industry standard” for managing construction sites and aims to take the technology offshore.

“We hope to expand into overseas markets in the future, to tackle issues faced on worksites around the world,” Cobham said.

“We believe that the technology we’ve developed will be easily adaptable for the different compliance standards of foreign markets.

“We are excited to see where this can go.”