Digital Cloud base solution manage remote breath alcohol testing

Breathalyser specialist Alcohol Breathalysers is in the early stages of rolling out its iSober Breathalyser App & Cloud Service which is a breath alcohol test management tool and can be downloaded from the Google Play Store, Apple App Store or Huawei App Gallery.

This application (app) is a new offering that has been in development for two years. The service was designed and developed locally by the company to enable businesses to remotely carry out and monitor employee alcohol testing, explains Alcohol Breathalyser director Angus MacArthur.

He highlights that the solution can work with three different digital breathalyser models – the Alcoscan AL8800BT t, the iSober S Pro BLE Premium and the Alcoscan ALP1 BT for industry and law enforcement.

“The Alcoscan AL8800BT Compact Breathalyser is a portable high-end personal breathalyser that is suited for personal use or for use in businesses. It operates with Android, Huawei and iOS smartphones and tablets. A thousand tests can be performed using this breathalyser within 1 calibration cycle,” MacArthur explains.

The iSober S Pro BLE Premium Breathalyser is a portable breathalyser that is suited for use in small businesses and for personal use and provides onboard memory of its last 100 tests together with date and time. A thousand tests can be performed using this breathalyser within one calibration cycle and it operates with iOS, Huawei and Android smartphones and tablets.

The Alcoscan ALP1 BT is a portable breathalyser designed for industry and law enforcement. It can operate in both passive no-mouthpiece fast mode for quick roadside screening or for entry-point screening as well as active mouthpiece mode for deep-lung breath alcohol testing. It operates with Android smart phone and tablets as well as with selected Huawei devices.

These three digital breathalysers work seamlessly with the iSober Breathalyser App & Cloud Service, giving businesses and fleets the opportunity to securely access breath test data and use it to optimise health and safety operations.

MacArthur says the iSoberApp enables fleet, operations and safety managers to request drivers working remotely to test themselves before, during or after a trip.

The app also integrates secure breath test data capturing, sharing, tracking, analysis and storage.

Owing to remote working being more common, the iSober App enables companies to comply with zero-tolerance of alcohol policies as employees can take the breathalyser test using the app wherever they are. An ops or fleet manager is then able to see the test results in real-time on the company’s Enterprise dashboard, he adds.

For example, technicians servicing network towers or gas pipelines in remote locations can now test themselves daily with any one of the three iSober compatible breathalyser models prior to conducting dangerous or high-risk work, in addition to maintaining a high level of safety, he notes.

Managers having oversight of testing and test results helps to reduce the risk of drunk driving incidents, promotes sober drivers and has the potential to reduce the excess and premiums on a company’s vehicles.

In addition, drivers are encouraged to test themselves and share their results with loved ones before every trip. This promotes awareness about breath alcohol levels and arriving at a destination safely.

How it Works

Employees use their smartphone to connect to the app using Bluetooth.

The app provides instructions on how to use the breathalyser, when to blow and for how long, while facing the front camera of the smartphone.

The app takes a photo of the person blowing and records the precise breathalyser reading, and includes the date, time and global positioning system location together with the unit serial number.

“All these data points are defaults that cannot be changed and are watermarked to the image captured. The data is automatically and securely uploaded and stored in the iSober Cloud and can be accessed through the app or by signing into the iSober Enterprise dashboard on the iSober website,” explains MacArthur.

The alcohol breath test session and the accompanying data can be shared with managers or supervisers through an SMS, a WhatsApp message, iMessage or an email. Alerts can be set up to notify managers if there is a positive result.

MacArthur states that the iSober app provides accurate data points that help safeguard fleet and business operations, and is ideal for use in any size of business, as well as in bus, truck, fleet and freight businesses.

Currently, about 1 500 subscribers are using the iSober app, he concludes.