XPLR.
Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality Inspectors Go Fully Paperless with Xplore’s HazLoc-Certified Rugged Tablets
Xplore Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:XPLR) today announced that inspectors with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) are now using the Xplore XSLATE B10 fully rugged tablets as their primary workstation in the office, vehicle and field. The State agency wanted to transition its field team to a fully paperless operating environment, and Xplore’s C1D2-certified Windows® tablets were the only mobile computers in their class that could safely be used in vehicle as well as in-hand at inspection sites where combustible gasses and flames are present.
Louisiana’s state inspectors are responsible for routinely monitoring gas stations, refineries, chemical plants, underground wells, landfills and other sites where environmental quality protections are mandated. They are also dispatched to ‘ground zero’ after fires, spills and other emergencies where there’s often an elevated presence of hazardous material.
“Knowing there is an inherent risk with bringing electronic devices around volatile substances, we have to ensure that any mobile device we give them meets strict Hazardous Location use standards,” explained Jason Hanchey, business analytics specialist, Office of Management and Finance, State of Louisiana. “We feel very comfortable sending them into the field with the XSLATE B10 rugged tablet given its intrinsic safety features. Plus, the tablet makes it much easier to examine infrastructure integrity and air, ground, and water quality in time-sensitive situations.”
The Louisiana DEQ is using the XSLATE B10 rugged tablets to immediately collect results from soil sample, groundwater, radiation level and plant stack tests using digitally fillable versions of its standard inspection forms. Inspectors then submit the findings to the site representative, as well as the department’s back-office system for official recording, in real-time. This eliminates the risk of lost reports, transcription errors and remediation delays.
“Our inspectors are notorious for their messy handwriting, and there were many times where they could not read what they had written on the carbon-copy inspection report when they got back to the office,” Hanchey continued. “That is no longer a problem thanks to the easy data inputs and expedited report submissions facilitated by the Xplore rugged tablet.”
The Intel®-powered XSLATE B10 and Office Dock combination also provide the ideal desktop configuration for these inspectors when they were in the office. This has allowed the Department of Environmental Quality to standardize on a single PC platform for all job sites without compromising on computing capabilities. The rugged tablet meets the State’s very strict security, performance and connectivity criteria, which is critical considering all highly sensitive data related to inspection activities is now being captured and recorded via electronic methods only.
“Louisiana’s inspectors spend their days executing a comprehensive environmental fortification program that protects the public’s health, safety and welfare,” commented John Graff, vice president of marketing at Xplore. “That is why we worked closely with the DEQ to ensure our rugged tablet-based solutions provide both a reliable computing platform and a scalable solution to support their growing inspection demands.”
For more information about the XSLATE B10 fully rugged tablet, please visit www.xploretech.com/XSLATEB10. To learn about Xplore’s mobility solutions for government organizations, visit www.xploretech.com/government. Additional guidance about the safe use of mobile computers in Hazardous Locations can be found at www.xploretech.com/HazLoc.
