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The alarm sounds. Crane operators climb down. Lashers leave the stacks, truck drivers stop where they are, and everyone walks to the nearest assembly point. At each point, a supervisor with a clipboard starts reading names.
Ten minutes later, the question everyone is waiting for still has no answer. Is anyone still out there, and if so, where?
Most terminals still count people after an evacuation the way a school does. On a large yard, with several shifts, contractors and visiting drivers spread across hundreds of metres of stacks, that method is slow at best and wrong at worst. This article looks at why the paper count breaks down, what the guidance actually asks a terminal to do, and what changes when a Head of HSE has a live evacuation headcount instead.
Why does a paper headcount fail on a container yard?
A paper headcount assumes three things: you know exactly who is on site, everyone goes to the point they were told to use, and the person counting can see the whole group. On a container yard, none of those holds for long.
Who is on site changes all the time. Shift changes overlap. Contractors arrive for a job and leave after lunch. Truck drivers are on the yard for an hour, then gone. The list printed at the start of the shift is out of date by mid-morning.
People go to the nearest point, not “their” point. That is exactly what they should do in an emergency. It also means a supervisor at one point reports someone as missing who is standing safely at another.
Every point counts on its own. Supervisors radio their totals to a coordinator, who adds them up by hand. Every call takes time. Every handover is a chance for a number to be misheard.
A missing name has no location. When a name is not ticked, the search starts from nothing. Was that person last on the quay, in a stack, in the workshop, or did they leave the site an hour ago?
The result is an evacuation that looks complete on the form but took far longer to confirm than it should have. Worse, a search team may be sent out without knowing where to start.
What does the guidance actually ask a terminal to do?
It asks you to account for every person after an evacuation, and to know where to look for anyone who is missing. The wording varies by regulator, but the expectation is the same.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sets out the minimum content of an emergency action plan for marine terminals in 29 CFR 1917.30. One of the required elements is “Procedures to account for all employees after emergency evacuation has been completed.”
OSHA’s evacuation plans eTool is more specific about what that means in practice: “Take a head count after the evacuation. Identify the names and last known locations of anyone not accounted for and pass them to the official in charge.” It also explains why speed matters: “Confusion in the assembly areas can lead to delays in rescuing anyone trapped in the building, or unnecessary and dangerous search-and-rescue operations.”
Notice the phrase “last known locations”. A name on its own is not enough. The people sent to search need a place to start.
The Health and Safety Executive’s approved code of practice for docks, Safety in docks (L148), adds the yard-specific detail. It says emergency awareness should reach “people such as visiting drivers, ships’ crew, contractors and passengers”, and its checklist for an emergency plan includes a plain reminder: “Don’t forget night and shift working and weekends.” It also asks terminals to consider means of rescue where a person “works in an isolated position such as a crane cab”.
The official fire safety risk assessment guide for factories and warehouses describes the same step from the assembly point’s side: “Carry out a roll call as soon as possible at the designated assembly point(s), and/or receive reports from wardens designated to ‘sweep’ the premises. You should note any people who are unaccounted for.”
| What the guidance asks | What a clipboard can do | What a live headcount adds |
|---|---|---|
| Account for everyone after evacuation | Count names on a printed list | A count for every assembly point |
| Include contractors and visitors | Only if they are on today’s list | Starts from who is on site now |
| Last known location of anyone missing | Rarely, from memory | Last-seen time and zone for anyone with no contact |
| Pass the list to the person in charge | By radio, point by point | One short list in one place |
| Plan for night, shift and weekend work | Depends on who holds the list | Same view at any hour |
What does a live evacuation headcount show?
It shows a count for every assembly point, a running timer, and who is still out. People still walking show as on the way; anyone with no contact is listed by badge ID with the time and zone they were last seen.
The coordinator stops adding up radio calls and starts working the exceptions.
In Mapsted Yard Watch, every crew member wears a wristband that is also their access pass. When an evacuation starts, the Evacuation view gives the safety team a live evacuation headcount with three parts:
- a count per assembly point, so each supervisor and the coordinator see the same numbers;
- a running timer from the moment the evacuation started;
- a list of people still out: anyone with no contact is listed by badge ID with the time and zone they were last seen; people still walking show as on the way.
Because the count follows the wristband rather than a printed list, every badge on site that is in contact counts toward its nearest assembly point, and anyone with no contact goes to the missing list. Nobody has to cross a name off at one point and add it at another.
The timer matters more than it looks. Everyone on the response, from the coordinator to the duty manager, sees the same elapsed time, so there is no argument later about how long it took.
What happens to the people who are still out?
They become a short, located list rather than a long, unlocated one. Instead of “we cannot find three people”, the coordinator can say which zones to search first.
This is the step the OSHA eTool describes when it asks for “last known locations”. On a yard, those locations are spread across quay, stacks, gates and workshops. A last-seen zone narrows the search from the whole terminal to one part of it.
It also helps the people at the assembly points. A supervisor who can see that a missing badge was last seen near the quay, not in their own block, does not need to send someone back into the stacks to look. That keeps people out of a hazard they do not need to enter.
If someone does need help, the response does not start from a separate system. In Yard Watch, alerts from every source land in one inbox, and an SOS from a wristband follows its own SOS to medic timeline, so the evacuation and the medical response sit side by side.
How does a live headcount protect privacy in an emergency?
By showing badge IDs on the missing list and keeping names on that list for the medical service. A search team needs a place and an ID. It does not need everyone’s name on a shared screen.
A live headcount raises a fair question from crews: does this mean we are being watched all day? It should not, and the design choices are what decide it.
In Yard Watch, three rules apply:
- On the missing list, roles other than the medical service see a badge ID, role and crew, not a name. The medical service sees names. The same applies to the Alerts side panel; other views, such as the live map, show names to every role.
- Day-to-day reporting is in per-crew time reports.
- The “look up a person” query in Look back asks for a reason and writes each query to the access log, so you can show who ran that query, and why.
This is not a side issue. A wristband that crews trust is a wristband they actually wear, and a headcount is only as good as the number of people wearing one. Privacy is part of what makes the count complete.
What keeps working when the network goes down?
Ask any supplier to name exactly what still works on site when the cloud or cellular link is cut, and what pauses until it returns. Emergencies are when infrastructure fails, so a vague answer is not good enough.
A fire, a power cut or a storm can take out the internet connection or the mobile network at the worst possible moment. In Yard Watch, alarms, access rules and the SOS relay keep working on site when the cloud or cellular link is cut. The live map, history and reports pause and catch up when the link returns.
That is the level of detail to expect from any vendor. If the answer is a general promise rather than a named list, plan your evacuation procedure as if the screen will not be there, because it may not be.
How do you learn from each evacuation?
Write down three numbers after every evacuation, whether planned or not: how long it took to account for everyone, which assembly point was slowest, and where the last people were found. Then compare them with the previous evacuation.
The L148 code notes that people respond more reliably in an emergency when they “take part in regular and realistic practice”. Practice is only useful if something changes afterwards. The table below turns the numbers into actions:
| What you noticed | What to consider changing |
|---|---|
| One point is always slow to fill | Move it, add another, or improve the route signs |
| People head the wrong way in one area | Change the signage or the walking route there |
| The last people out are on one shift | Focus briefings and training on that shift |
| Missing people cluster in one zone | Check exits and alarm reach in that zone |
The running timer gives you the first number without anyone holding a stopwatch. The last-seen times and zones of anyone with no contact tell you where each search had to start, which is often more useful than where those people ended up.
After the change, look at the next evacuation. If the slow point is now quick, the fix worked. If the delay has simply moved to the neighbouring point, the route is the problem, not the point.
What are the limits of a live headcount?
A live headcount counts the people wearing a wristband; it does not count anyone who is not. Visitors, ship’s crew coming ashore and anyone who forgot their wristband still need a procedure of their own.
That is why the guidance asks for “a method for accounting for non-employees such as suppliers and customers”, in the words of the OSHA eTool. A wristband that doubles as the access pass narrows that gap, because getting through the gate and being in the count become the same step. It does not close the gap on its own.
A last-seen zone is also a starting point, not a certainty. People move. Treat the zone as the first place to look, and keep your existing search and rescue arrangements exactly as they are.
None of this replaces your procedures or the emergency services. The OSHA, HSE and fire safety guidance cited here applies in full; a live count makes it easier to follow, not optional.
What should you look for in an evacuation headcount tool?
Look for five things: a count per assembly point, a shared timer, a located list of who is still out, clear rules on who sees names, and a clear answer on what works offline. Each one closes a gap that a clipboard leaves open.
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Does it count each person toward the nearest assembly point? A count that depends on people going to “their” point fails the moment someone is sensible and goes to the nearest one.
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Is there one shared timer? Everyone on the response should see the same elapsed time.
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Does the missing list say where to look? A last-seen zone is the difference between a targeted search and a sweep of the whole yard.
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Which screens show names, and which person views are logged? Ask for a screen-by-screen answer, including the missing list and the live map, and which look-ups of one person need a stated reason.
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What exactly works when the network does not? Ask for a named list, not a promise.
If your current answers are “not really”, the clipboard is the weak point, not the people holding it.
Mapsted Yard Watch gives terminal safety teams a live evacuation headcount: a count per assembly point, a running timer, and a short list of who is still out, with the last-seen time and zone of anyone with no contact. It is already used to track 1,000+ assets across multiple sites. Book a private demo to see an evacuation from alarm to everyone accounted for.
Mapsted Yard Watch supports, and does not replace, your safety procedures and emergency services.
Frequently asked questions
What is an evacuation headcount?
An evacuation headcount is the step after an alarm where a site confirms that every person has reached a safe assembly point. Anyone not accounted for is listed, ideally with where they were last seen, and passed to the person in charge of the response. OSHA’s rules for marine terminals require procedures to account for all employees once the evacuation has been completed.
Why is a paper muster list hard to use on a container yard?
Because the list is out of date almost as soon as it is printed. Shifts overlap, contractors and visiting drivers come and go, and people sensibly walk to the nearest assembly point rather than an assigned one. Supervisors then radio separate totals to a coordinator, and a missing name arrives with no clue about where that person was. The count is slow, and the search starts from nothing.
Does a live headcount show workers’ names to everyone?
It should not. A well-designed headcount shows badge IDs on the missing list, with the time and zone last seen for anyone with no contact, which is enough to direct a search. In Mapsted Yard Watch, roles other than the medical service see a badge ID, role and crew on the missing list instead of a name, and the “look up a person” query in Look back asks for a reason and writes each query to the access log. Clear rules like these let crews trust the wristband they wear.
What should still work if the network is cut during an emergency?
Ask the supplier for a named list. In Mapsted Yard Watch, alarms, access rules and the SOS relay keep working on site when the cloud or cellular link is cut, while the live map, history and reports pause and catch up when the link returns. Whatever system you use, plan your evacuation procedure so that it still works if a screen is not available.
