- Free Version: Available for teams of up to 10
- Pricing: Premium plan $24/month (with free 30-day trial period)
- Platforms supported: Available on mobile app (iOS and Android) or a web-based software
Why use SafetyCulture?
SafetyCulture is a holistic excavation safety software designed to help organizations in various industries enable safer onsite operations. Construction engineers, site managers, safety officers, mining engineers, and field workers use SafetyCulture to ensure everything they need to perform their tasks is in check and well-maintained. Apart from that, they can leverage the platform’s powerful features in bridging the workplace communications gap when it comes to compliance guidelines, safety measures, and other key protocols in excavation work.
Features:
- Download and customize inspection templates and checklists that you can use during excavation site checks. You can also maximize these digital forms to ensure smooth and quality operations on- and off-site.
- Add various types of media on inspection templates such as videos, photos, and PDFs which can serve as your employees’ guide and documentation when raising issues encountered during site work.
- Leverage the platform’s powerful workplace communications tool, Heads Up, in disseminating guidelines and standards toward safe excavation practices as well as project schedules and reminders to keep everyone in the loop.
- Analyze relevant insights and data using SafetyCulture’s Analytics dashboard to benchmark your organization’s historical performance on safety concerns and resolutions.
- Generate data-rich reports based on excavation safety inspections conducted to continuously improve and update standard guidelines and protocols in your organization.
- Proactively create workflows and easily assign actions when addressing safety concerns on- and off-site.
- Integrate SafetyCulture with other Business Intelligence (BI) tools such as Tableau and Power BI to access all safety data, worker information, and your overall excavation safety insights in one place.
- Provide relevant Training courses on excavation safety that employees can use anytime, anywhere.
Why use NTS?
National Trench Safety is an excavation safety tool designed for the underground construction industry. Anyone working in and around excavations can maximize the app’s features to help perform their daily responsibilities more effectively, efficiently and safely.
Features:
- Excavation checklists
- Quick product reference tables for equipment
- Digital OSHA resources
- Free Version: Available
- Pricing: Free
- Platforms supported: iOS and Android
Why use Raken?
Helping you dig deeper into your production metrics and reporting, Raken is a straightforward excavation software solution for general and subcontractors to gain better visibility into the jobsite. Through accurate project data collection powered by Raken, businesses are able to make better decisions on their construction projects.
Features:
- Equipment logs
- Production tracking
- Daily reporting
- Free Version: None
- Pricing: Contact Raken for more info (with a 15-day free trial)
- Platforms supported: Web, iOS, and Android
Why use BIS Safety Software?
Apart from offering equipment management and digital safety solutions, BIS Safety Software also functions as an online learning management platform and provides courses on excavation safety. The software aims to keep teams safe and help them maintain compliance with
Features:
- Online digital forms
- Training record management
- Asset management for equipment
- Free Version: None
- Pricing: Details unavailable
- Platforms supported: Web, iOS, and Android
What is an Excavation Safety Software?
Excavation safety software is a digital tool that aims to maintain uninterrupted work at the jobsite and promote the safety of workers, employees, and the general public in and around excavations and trenches. These are done by helping site supervisors and managers proactively capture and address safety concerns at the jobsite in a timely manner.
Why Use It
Overall, using excavation safety software solutions offer the following benefits:
Take Control of Excavation Safety
Use any mobile device to capture concerns at excavations and trenches. Don’t miss regular site checks with the help of automated scheduled notifications for yourself and your team using an excavating software solution. Provide useful information and include photos of safety issues and actions done to address concerns.
Address Urgent Concerns in Real-time
With the help of excavation safety software, immediately address issues and assign actions with the corresponding level of urgency to the right people. Receive live updates with photos of assigned tasks. Provide feedback on completed jobs.
Never Lose Another Document
Automated detailed recordkeeping helps you stay compliant with regulatory and industry standards on maintaining documents as all your reports are safe and secure in the cloud. Records can be retrieved anytime, anywhere by authorized personnel via web, iOS, or Android devices.
Vital Functions
Excavation safety software aims to assist site supervisors and managers in making the execution of the following tasks easier and more effective:
Promote Site Safety
The primary function of excavation safety software is to promote workplace safety at the worksite. By giving site supervisors the capability to proactively capture site safety concerns, immediately address them, and automate recordkeeping, site supervisors and excavation workers are empowered to maintain safety and focus more on the task at hand.
Provide Timely Reporting
Excavations are always buzzing with activity, thus, timely reporting of all notable events that take place during work hours needs to be recorded by the end of each shift to maintain a continuity of operations. Reports that may include near-miss and incidents need to be reported in a timely manner and should include all the relevant information available at the time of reporting.
Ensure Completion
With all the activities going on all at the same time at a worksite, it is important to have an excavation safety software that allows site managers the capability to keep track of essential and assigned tasks in order to be able to ensure follow-through. A software solution that works anytime, onsite and offsite, gives supervisors and managers the flexibility to check on everything concerning the excavation.
Secure and Reliable Recordkeeping
All reports and records at an excavation site, like any important document, are required to be stored for easy retrieval by authorized personnel. Local codes and safety standards may also require the storage of records for specific periods of time, making automated and cloud-based recordkeeping essential for excavation sites.
Features
Top excavation safety software solutions must have these features:
- Smart Forms – Create unlimited smart forms and convert your existing paper checklists to digital forms.
- Inspections – Complete inspections from anywhere, at any time with an excavation safety software.
- Fast Reporting – Generate detailed inspection reports and insights to help problems get solved quicker.
- Real-time Notifications – Provide notifications for the intended audience in real-time.
- Insights & Analytics – Turn your data into actionable insights.
- Integrations – Connect your excavation safety software to other business software systems such as Tableau, Sharepoint and more.
- Workflow Automation – Complete inspections from anywhere, at any time with an excavation safety mobile app.
Choosing the Best Excavation Safety Software
To help you choose the best excavation safety software, here’s a quick overview of our best 5:
- Best Overall: SafetyCulture
- Best for Excavation Crews: National Trench Safety (NTS)
- Best for Contractors: Raken
- Best for Safety Officers: BIS Safety Software
You may also use this table for the comparison of free version availability, pricing of paid plans, and mobile app capability:
| Excavation Safety Software | Free Version | Paid Plan | Mobile App |
| SafetyCulture | Yes | $19/month/10 users | Yes |
| National Trench Safety (NTS) | Yes | Not applicable | Yes |
| Raken | None | Details unavailable | Yes |
| BIS Safety Software | None | Details unavailable | Yes |
Check out these ready-to-use excavation safety checklists that you can download, customize, and use in SafetyCulture for free:
- Pre-start: Excavation Safety Checklist
- Excavation or Trench Daily Inspection Checklist
- Excavation Safe Practices Checklist (for Small Business Owners and Contractors)
- Progressive Environmental and Safety – Daily Excavation Checklist
- OSHA Toolbox Talk: Excavation Safety Checklist
- OSHA Excavation and Trenching Worksite Analysis Checklist
- Field Inspection Checklist
- Field Visit/Review Checklist
- Site Safety Field Review
Patricia Guevara