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Plow Operators Object to GPS Tracking System

An anonymous reader writes "The Boston Globe is reporting on a dispute between private plowing contractors and the state highway department. The state has mandated all trucks to equip with GPS enabled cellphones for tracking. The drivers have refused, just in time for a big winter storm. The latest seems to be that they have reached a compromise (no details yet), but the dispute highlights the public safety versus employee privacy issue. Presumably plowing could be more efficient and possibly save lives during storms if the trucks could be tracked.. a good thing. Or is this simply a step closer to an Orwellian society, where the State knows where we all are?" This earlier story does a much better job of detailing their grievances - apparently it's about money as much as anything, with the GPS tracking system being only a secondary issue.

3 of 293 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Pilots need privacy too by artakka · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    And moderators need at least a little sense of humor.

    O, well...

  2. Totalitarism? by dimss · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Every day America becomes closer to totalitarism. Even closer than we (russians) were in 1900's. You haven't learned our lessons.

  3. Sick of them on the highway by Eric+Gibson · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I don't know about yall... but I'm from BumFuk Georgia , USA... and I'm sick of plows/tractors on the roads, hiways, and sh1t going 25 in a 75. Anything to keep them where they are supposed to be is fine with me... Orwellian or not...

    A tractor and/or plow is meant as a utility vehicle, period, only. Anything to keep track of thier movements can only be good. Because the guys that drive them are freakin rednecks, and I'm related to most of them so I know what they are capable of... ;-) At 7 in the morning, they are hungover, and they think driving at 25 on a hiway is funny. You think I'm joking... but when I was 17, before I started writing code, I worked with these guys on the weekends grading asphalt, so I know... heh.