nathanb

iTrader: (1)

There is a lot of unrest at work lately as there are rumours of trackers being installed to the company vans. Obviously to the employee that can be a pain in the **** when it comes to whereabouts, early finishes etc!!

Does the employer have to inform you your vehicle is tracked or can they keep it secret? I'm fairly sure there would be an issue with privacy but not 100%

Any experts?

Steve vRS

I would have thought they could do it as it's company property but they'd have to tell you about it.

Steve

Simon K

Ive heard of this before. A friend of mine owns a double glazing company and had all his vans `tracked`. He switched the units on 3 weeks before telling anyone, to start viewing what people were actually doing.

He then sat down with all his workers, telling them what he found out, personal mileage, pi55 taking trips and told them it stops from today. It cut his fuel bills by 25%.

From how he was talking, I dont think he had to alert anyone, as they were his company's vans, and all his guys were on work times / hours.

His guys were using the vans for trips to Tesco's, gym, removals, even going over to France ! :-)

SBK

urban

iTrader: (1)

We'll I know for a fact that a customer recently tracker their vans as employees were abusing them during "working" hours"

He didn't tell them, rang one guy up who said he was delivering to Company X
To which he replied "Why are you in ........"

scoobyboi09

are van at work are going to start be tracked, going to happen when they go in for a service. Talkng to an rac man and there very sneaky were they hide it, he was telling me of one instance that it was hid, buy the rear heated screen loom.

They dont have to tell you because its there van, i think its a good idea stop people taking the **** and abusing stuff, are place is good because if e need a van for owt if we ask the manager he is more then likely to say yes, better that way then just taking it...

urban

iTrader: (1)

you mean "our" surely

eightballboy

RIght something i can answer with a reasonable amount of confidence

Basically it depends on what your employer does with the data that they collect.

They can install trackers to the company vehicles without informing but they would not be able to use the data against you in any way. They could also only look at data that corresponded to work hours as outside of that it falls into personal use and would be a breach of your personal data under the data protection act.

IF they wish to use the data for possible discplinary action your employer needs to make you aware that trackers could be fitted to your vehicle but do not then have to make you aware when or if a tracker has specifically been fitted to your vehicle.

I hope this makes sense and helps.

NotoriousREV

Edited for accuracy. If it was my company, I'd track everything I could.

Cylon2007

Their vans, their diesel, they are paying you to do a job so what's wrong with them tracking the vans??? No issue as far as I can see unless you are one of the ones taking the michael

eightballboy

The issue is that if a company monitors an employee via a tracker in their vehicle without telling them and then uses the data to dismiss that person for say gross misconduct due to innappropriate use of a company vehicle, the employee could then take the company to employment tribunal for unfair dismissal.

Not telling them and using the data in that way is classed as covert surveillence and your not allowed to covertly survaile your employees.

magepaster

iTrader: (2)

Seems as though there could be an " Oh no my gaffer will find out I'm a lazy ****** and pretend I'm working when I'm not and he'll find out I can do my job in less than half the time allowed and spend the rest of the day either in the pub or on the missus"

NotoriousREV

Of course, a truly mature company would be measuring the productivity of their employees in terms of output and quality and not hours worked but very few do. For example, where my mate works, he has a set number of jobs to do each day. Most of the lads that do his job take all day to do it. He's usually at home with his feet up by 1pm and his quality is as good, if not better than his workmates. He's happy, motivated and the company gets the value they want from him. Or, at least that was true until they started sending him a letter every time he exceeded 70mph...

scoobyvirgin

A company I worked for had Trackers fitted to their vans, it was no secret.

Tracker had also convieniently labeled the fuses with a tie wrap with Tracker printed on them. I did wonder what would happen if I pulled said fuse

howellsy42

the company i work for had the vans fitted with trackers about 1 month ago it was because some on was nicking fuel!! any way first few weeks was annoying phone calls all the time says about speeding, time keeping, time leaving site but now the novelty has worn off they have relaxed and realised time isnt every thing as its normally there fault where late any way and there arnt really hiden well took me 2 mins to find the tracker and there also wired in to the sterio power cables

my94wrx

iTrader: (4)

one way to prevent it not sure the employers would be happy though.

Covert Portable GPS Sat Nav Jammer Blocker on eBay (end time 21-Oct-09 17:34:19 BST)

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I think that realy people should be told so they can adjust, as for disabling it, I suspect that would result in a disciplinary if it happens every time you take a vehicle.

robby

The company i work for have been monitoring fuel and mileage daily for several months, as from jan 1st we're having trackers fitted to the full van fleet

Seems most companies are doing this as it cuts fuel costs, overtime (by employees skiving and claiming they were working) and insurance is cheaper

Timwinner

iTrader: (3)

Yep they can do it, The loop hole is they are tracking the vehicle and not the driver. Look under the drivers seat, If its an IDR system the black box will be around there somewhere.

gtijames

my council van has got one fitted its one amazing bit of kit,its data is projected onto a white board in the managers office each of the van is an icon on a map of pembrokeshire so they can tell where we are.the real pisser is that they have it linked to google earth so can zoom in your tracker leaves a snail trail over the top of the picture so they can see exactly where you where,how long you stopped and how fast you are going.
we have been told that they cannot use the data against you in disciplinary case due to breach of privacy but all they need to do is watch to get info against you then go and spy on you for themselves.
ive worked for the council for 13 years i used to enjoy my job we always had a good laugh whilst still getting the work done but over the last few years the management has slowly taken any joy and job satisfaction away.the trackers are the latest way of doing this.

gc8-r

iTrader: (21)

more to the point..insurance!!!
you are insured when on company time,,..and travel to and from work
most who drive(if on call out your ok)at weekends and night times will find your not insured....
have a crash and you will find out...from the rozzers
as that trip to tescos is not in company time..
thats why trackers are fitted because of p*** takers..
dont abuse it and you'll be ok...

al02uk

iTrader: (1)

We fitted them on all of our fuel tankers, they are worth £175k each so we wanted to protect our investment....

.....we ended up uncovering a nice little fuel laundering operation and ended up dismissing 7 drivers!!

nathanb

iTrader: (1)

I'm OK as its Tesco Maintenance I work for!!

austinwrx

we have the installed to our (several hundred works vehicles) fascinating to see just how bone idle people are.

been dead useful for when thefts take place and staff reckon they were no where near.

also day long tea breaks when supposed to be working etc.

michaelro

Think it can depend on the company.

My mum has one on her car as she does a lot of driving for her job.

The other week she stopped at the services for 10 minutes to have a sandwich at lunchtime and the company phoned her up to ask why she had stopped.
She'd been working since 6am and wasn't due to finish that day till 7

I don't have a problem if it stops people taking the mick, but if your bosses are a**eholes then not good...

alloy

It shouldn't matter either way unless you are abusing the privaleges you have, if that is the case you deserve to be pulled up for it IMO

Turbo2

Bah, why does technology often have to spoil it for us bone-idolists?

I remember when I first started out sales repping for a Staffordshire company in the early 90's. Our only daily contact with HQ was via a phone box freefone number. A new guy joined us who lived in London and he made the grave mistake of telling our boss that he had a new-fangled mobile phone. Poor blighter, whenever there was a panic on, HQ used to call him up and get him to drop everything and drive to all 4 corners of the country at the drop of a hat.

In the 3 years I worked there I don't think anyone else ever got a mobile phone! How times change....

ChrisB

It's a standing joke at our office that one of the engineers has a rolling-road at home - whenever you phone him, he's always in the car but never late home

Mikej857

I work for a well known bus company and several months ago we took delivery of 20 brand new vehicles that are used to ferry the drivers to there starting points, the keys are then left in the drivers break area, well one day this happend and a couple of the cars were nicked with the keys and later found miles away, after this the company fitted tracking devices to all the cars and also allocated all the drivers a fob so the company knew who was in charge of the car at any given time and fitted safes in all the drivers rest areas for the keys.

One day one of the drivers gets called into the managers office and the first thing the manager says to him is " Congratulations for being the first driver to be tracked at 93mph" obviously the driver didnt have a leg to stand on and ended up getting a two year caution for it.

EddScott

LOL. I used to repair pressure washers and scrubbing machines in a previous life and the work van was used for pretty much everything. Meastro 2.0D van which was awesome compared to the Metro 1L I had previously. I had a pug 205GTI but wanted to keep the miles off it and I wasn't paying the diesel

Used to load it up with mates and drive to The Sanctuary in Milton Keynes for Dreamscape etc. Work Monday morning, absolutely trashed and a 100 mile "scenic" route to work

Happy days.