Colas supports the UK’s transport network through sustainable road construction, surfacing, and maintenance. With 20 locations and over 1,500 employees, it operates as part of the larger global Colas Group.
So I’m the Associate Director for SHE for Colas Ltd. I’m responsible for the regional SHE team and implementing safety, health and environment within the company. Colas Limited are a highway and transport maintenance company. We have about twenty locations in the UK, although we are part of a much wider international group. We started with ECO online back in about twenty fifteen. We’ve got the ECO online modules, event entry, we have audit and we’ve recently bought proactive, but as well we do have the frictionless reporting, namely Swift and WhatsApp. So our users mostly report incidents, near miss reporting, hazard spotting. Before we started with Eco Online, we were using spreadsheets. It was very hard to track where all our incidents were, what status they were at. So we were able to show quite clearly what status we’re at in terms of closing out incidents, but also where they’re happening, what’s occurred, what the root causes were, etc. One way we use it is every Monday morning we have a call with all the exec directors to go through all the near miss reports incidents from the previous week so we can look at those and then we communicate that to the company to say these are the key areas that happened and what we wanted them to do about it. Frictionless reporting has worked really well for us. The fact that they can just click on a QR code or use WhatsApp has worked really well and now fifty percent of our near miss reports come through those two parts. It’s improved the process so we know exactly where we are with each and every part of it. It’s really streamlined it. It’s made it easy for everybody. Okay, so we looked at a number of suppliers and I think the thing that stood out was the product suited what we wanted. But it was also really like the people and they were very open and honest and they lived up to every promise they made.
EcoOnline has streamlined incident reporting with QR codes. It’s made it easier for everybody.
– Pat Sheehan Associate Director SHEQ
With multiple projects and locations across the UK, Colas needed a more reliable way to manage incident data. Manual spreadsheets no longer delivered the accuracy, visibility, or control required for compliance and workforce protection.
Creating clarity across safety operations
With our QR code feature, frontline workers can report hazards and near misses in seconds, driving faster response times and stronger safety participation.
From limited visibility to real-time safety insights
For organisations like Colas, access to real-time incident data is essential for protecting workers and driving better safety decisions. From identifying location-based trends to understanding root causes, accurate, connected data underpins continuous improvement.
Pat Sheehan and his team quickly outgrew manual spreadsheets. Without live visibility, it was difficult to track incidents, spot emerging risks, or take timely action.
What stood out was the product and the people. EcoOnline are open and honest and have lived up to every promise they made.
– Pat Sheehan Associate Director SHEQ
Investing in scalable safety management
After evaluating multiple providers, Colas chose EcoOnline to meet its operational and strategic requirements. QR code reporting makes it easy for frontline workers to log incidents, near misses, and hazards as they happen. This enables faster investigations, clearer status tracking, and quicker resolution.
Centralising incident data has also strengthened communication with senior leadership. The Colas safety team can now present clear, reliable insights with confidence, supporting informed decision-making at executive level.
Faster reporting, safer teams
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