Digital Mobile Radio for North Shore City Council

Customer News | 21.07.10

Keeping one of New Zealand’s busiest cities running smoothly is the daunting task assigned to North Shore City Council. Its 15 Traffic Safety Enforcement Officers are kept on their toes with the unenviable task of keeping the parking fair and the streets safe.

Regardless of how much we love to hate them, these enforcement officers are vital to the North Shore City Council. “There are often competing demands for parking because of the high numbers of vehicles in the city. We try to balance the needs of residents, shoppers, workers and business owners by providing a range of parking - from all-day parking to loading zones and mobility spaces,” explains Andrè Dannhauser, Traffic Safety and Enforcement Manager.

Finding a communications solution that would overcome the North Shore’s challenging terrain while remaining cost effective was important for the council, to enable it to get essential messages through to all its officers.

As an existing TeamTalk customer, the council was keen to try out the new digital mobile radio offering, RTmax. “We were there right from the start. Digital is definitely the way to go.

Not having digital is like not having broadband - once you have digital, you wonder how you coped without it,” says Andrè.

“People don’t realise how difficult it is to provide good coverage to every part of the North Shore. It’s a bit like being on the ocean – at one moment you are up at the top of a hill, with good coverage, and the next minute you’re in a valley and your connection gets interrupted,” says Andrè. “This is where radio communication trumps the mobile phone. RTmax has good penetration throughout the region. It has saved us time and money and is an effective tool – providing great support, improving our operations and ensuring the health and safety of our team.”

Since signing on to RTmax late last year, the council has been impressed by the service and has enjoyed testing out some of the more advanced services.

“We use voice with the SOS feature, which is great – it immediately differentiates between a normal operational call and an emergency call, which means we are able to respond to our staff more quickly. We are also trialling RTmax’s new GPS features, which look very promising,” explains Andrè.

“TeamTalk worked with us to construct the right solution to our communications challenges and we find them very easy to work with. They’re always just a call away and I really like the fact that on the odd occasion where there is an issue, they don’t hide behind emails and phone calls – you get to see a face.”

Download more of the latest issue of 'TeamTalks', TeamTalk's newsletter that keeps you in touch: Issue 48 - June 2010 (pdf 170KB)