Our customer spotlight series places a focus firmly on our clients and partners leveraging Tended's geofencing technology and the inspiring work they're doing to advance operations, supporting essential works on our railways and enhancing safety.
Siemens Mobility
Few partnerships demonstrate the power of digital innovation quite like Tended’s journey with Siemens over the past three years. As an industry leader in the design, delivery and maintenance of digital signalling and electrification systems, Siemens continues to invest in innovations that give their teams greater operational visibility and drive efficiencies across some of the UK’s most complex rail projects.
After initially piloting Tended’s geofencing technology, Siemens quickly recognised its potential to transform how worksites are managed and fully embedded the system into its business-as-usual (BAU) processes. By providing real-time visibility across worksites, geofencing helps Siemens to reduce downtime, streamline processes, and make faster, more informed decisions onsite. These benefits translate directly into significant time and cost savings across its portfolio of major rail renewals and upgrades.
Today, Tended works closely with Siemens as a trusted partner, collaborating with their teams to shape the development of new features and systems designed to support the delivery of its large-scale rail projects.
From pilot to business as usual
Siemens’ approach to innovation is grounded in continuous improvement. From the outset, their teams identified geofencing as a solution to long-standing challenges around worksite management, and visibility over onsite operations and plant movements.
First announced in April 2023, Siemens began working closely with Tended to integrate geofencing technology into their existing systems and processes.
Eddie Bell, Lead Possession Planning Engineer at Siemens said at the time: “This cutting-edge technology has revolutionised our operations, granting an unprecedented level of visibility into our worksites. With the incorporation of geofencing, our operations team continues to discover fresh applications, thanks to our close collaboration with Tended.”
What began as targeted deployments quickly evolved into a wider programme. Siemens initially piloted the technology in Northumberland, before expanding to Devon and Cornwall to test its effectiveness across a range of work activities and environments.
By August 2024, following a highly successful six-month pilot, Siemens announced the national rollout of Tended’s geofencing technology across their operations. The decision reflected both the safety benefits achieved and the ease with which geofencing could be integrated into BAU processes.
Today, geofencing is no longer an add-on for Siemens, but a fundamental part of how its teams plan and deliver work on the railway. The system is used across their portfolio of railway projects and is fully embedded into project planning, worksite setup and execution, helping to support efficiency and safety across all phases of delivery.
How Siemens uses geofencing
Tended’s geofencing system now plays a central role in how Siemens manages their worksites, supporting Engineering Supervisors (ESs) and frontline teams alike.
Key applications include:
- Managing complex worksites
Geofencing provides ESs with a ‘digital worksite’, giving real-time visibility of machines, equipment and work groups for faster and better-informed decision making. This also helps to reduce the risk of incidents such as points run-throughs or teams operating outside of worksite limits. - Reducing the risk of marker board irregularities
Devices are attached to protection placement, showing planned versus actual locations on a live map. This helps to ensure protection is placed on the correct line and at the correct limits. - Supporting the safety of individuals trackside
Wearable devices attached to PPE help ensure workers access the site at the correct location, follow designated walking routes and remain safely separated from open lines.
Innovation driven by real-world challenges
Over the past year, Siemens has worked closely with Tended to push the technology even further. One standout development is the Alert Zone feature, pioneered by Siemens to give ESs enhanced visibility and control of their worksites.
In May 2025, Siemens collaborated with Tended on a live demonstration of this functionality during the Parks Bridge civil engineering project. A Road Rail Vehicle (RRV) was equipped with a geofencing device, with alert zones defined as:
🟩 Green: safe working areas within the possession or worksite boundary.
🟨 Amber: warning zones on either side of the points, allowing for stopping distance.
🟥 Red: danger zones directly around the points.
Through the Dashboard, the ES could monitor the RRV’s live location relative to these zones and intervene immediately if unauthorised movements occurred. This practical application significantly reduced the risk of points run-throughs, helping to avoid costly delays, and investigations.
Industry-first trial of Virtual Worksite Marker Boards
Siemens’ commitment to innovation progressed even further in August 2025 with the rail industry’s first-ever Virtual Worksite Marker Board (VWSMB) trial, delivered as part of the £1.4bn East Coast Digital Programme.
Removing the need for physical marker boards across a 30+ mile worksite on the East Coast Mainline, Siemens and Network Rail used Tended’s system to create fully virtual worksite boundaries. All on-track plant (OTP) were equipped with in-cab geofencing devices, providing alerts for drivers if they approached worksite limits, removing the need for physical WMSBs.
The trial delivered measurable operational, financial, and safety benefits:
- ~50 minutes saved per possession by starting and stopping worksites digitally
- 5 ESAs redeployed to other roles within the worksite
- Improved safety by removing the need to place and retrieve physical marker boards
- Reduction need for around 20 ES phone calls
- £130k estimated savings from reduced overrun and minimised service disruption
Stephen Armitage, Lead Possession Planning Engineer at Siemens Mobility, commented: “What virtual worksite marker boards have enabled us to do is set up the worksite protection with the click of a button. It’s saved time, reduced the number of people exposed to risk, and helped us work more efficiently.”
Looking ahead
For Siemens, geofencing has become a trusted, everyday tool for teams working in challenging rail environments. With geofencing now deeply embedded into BAU processes, Siemens continues to co-develop new features with Tended.
Building on the success of the VWSMB trial, Siemens is now looking to roll out this technology across all of their projects to deliver safety and efficiency benefits wherever their teams are working.This highlights Siemens’ dedication to implementing new technology to advance their operations. Together, we are focused on raising the bar for safety, compliance, and worksite management.
