Bosses Keep Sharp Eye on Mobile Workers

camusflage writes "AP is running a story on the penetration of GPS devices and monitoring of fleet operations. Such technology is hitting the mainstream, with UPS distributing 100,000 GPS-enabled handhelds 'to alert them when they're at the wrong address.' One driver is quoted saying, 'It's kind of like Big Brother is watching a little bit. But it's where we're heading in this society.' Needless to say, the Teamsters weigh in on the negative side on the whole thing."

Comments

If you're on the clock..

[dustinbarbour]

..then you need to be doing only business related tasks. That is unless you have an understanding with your employer. Period. Kaput. Nothing else to see here.. yadi yadi yada.

Re:If you're on the clock..

[stupidfoo]

Notice who posted this? Michael of course. Another big business is bad, poor little employees. Oh, and lets look to the our uncorrupt and pure friends at the Teamsters union for comfort and help.

Why shouldn't a company be able to know where their truck and equipment and products are?

Like another poster said, it's not as if they're tracking their employees when they're at home.

Re:If you're on the clock..

[SerpentMage]

Hmm, interesting question. Ok, so lets say that you are driving. You delivered five packages out of fifteen. The first five packages took most of the morning. Because of where the packages are delivered you decide to take an early lunch because there is a restaurant you like. Then after lunch you deliver most of the packages. Here's the question because you took an early lunch does not mean you are not doing your job.

Here is another example, you are very efficient at your job, and because of it can take a long lunch hour. Your boss realizes this and decides to give you more packages than somebody who is slower. However, instead of increasing your pay you just get more packages. Is that fair?

My point is that I don't agree with the big brother, and I don't think the teamsters are much better. But it does not give a company the right to watch your every move.

I find many people very hypocritical in this aspect. Especially managers and IT people. Imagine you were tracked like a UPS agent? Imagine your boss installing applications to see how much code you write per hour and minute. Imagine your boss watching your every click on the computer? Would you buy into that?

Yet it is OK to for UPS to watch THEIR trucks and equipment. The problem with these attitudes is that does not work. You cannot control people and expect efficiency. Control results in resentment because pure numerical facts are used to judge whether or not an individual is doing their job.
Humans are not robots, as there are always circumstances.

Re:If you're on the clock..

[macshit]

Finally, I agree wholeheartedly with your last point - humans are not robots, and there are often other circumstances - but that should not preclude giving managers the tools to they need to manage.

But I think very often it has nothing to do with "the need to manage", but rather with the need for managers to feel that they're doing something, even when it's actually counter-productive for the company as a whole (though it can be in the manager's best interest by giving him something to cover his ass with -- "I implemented a plan to improve employee efficiency by nailing them to the floor; inspiring slogans will maintain morale!").

Of course sometimes it's also just that the manager is an insane control freak.

Re:If you're on the clock..

[BrokenHalo]

Accountability, at all levels of an organization, inevitably leads to higher efficiency and increased productivity.

On what planet do you live? A classic example of the folly of this argument is the issue of accountability re. public servants' travel.

Here in Australia, public servants are required to make bookings with airlines at grossly inflated (usually by 400%) fares purely because under the regulations the fare has to be refundable in the event of the person pulling a no-show.

It seems to me that accountability is only applied at the echelons of an organisation which actually perform any useful work. Nobody ever seems to require the senior management to be accountable.

inevitable and unstoppable

[exhilaration]

It's unfortunate that this is happening but I don't see a backlash happening any time soon. The job market is too tight and most people will just roll over and accept it until it's so pervasive that we won't remember what life was like without the leash around our necks. Kinda like marriage.

Sure, it sucks if you're a slacker, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

GPS is a Godsend to most folks. I use my tomtom GPS with my Palm tungsten in the car ALL the time. You can keep GPS info for most of the first world on a 1gb SD flash card (less than $100 these days) and never need to worry about getting lost.

Cheers,

Of course the Teamsters don't like it

[The I Shing]

Of course the Teamsters don't like it... I can see it now... "So, either of you fellows care to explain why you drove the delivery van over to Mario Calienti's office and then drove it and a cement mixer over to the waterfront?"

Re:Of course the Teamsters don't like it

[LewsTherinKinslayer]

"So, either of you fellows care to explain why you drove the delivery van over to Mario Calienti's office and then drove it and a cement mixer over to the waterfront?"

Because 8-Ball's shop was closed.

Re:Of course the Teamsters don't like it

[shawn(at)fsu]

Kinda ironic. If Jimmy Hoffa had one we would know where he is.

Seriously Sims, Give It A Rest

[the_mad_poster]

How is this an issue? Explain to me, please, how having oversight of the people you're supposed to have oversight on is a bad thing? Guess what? We track our employees via time clocks, quality assurance, and production quotes. We know where they are all the time while they're here, and if we don't, they're punished for being somewhere they're not supposed to be.

Yet another example of the reason that slashbot crowd simply does not have it's collective head planted anywhere near reality. If you have a problem with your employer making sure you're doing your bloody job, then quit. Be unemployed. When this starts to become an issue of people trying to monitor their employees in their homes or when they're off the clock or something, let me know.

I have a new opinion of the YRO section: anything that appears in it, especially if it's posted by Comrade Censorific Sims, is something that doesn't matter, and I shouldn't care about. This section is only good for keeping me up to date on all the things that aren't an issue and nobody needs to know about.

Re:Seriously Sims, Give It A Rest

[csritchie]

"How is this an issue? Explain to me, please, how having oversight of the people you're supposed to have oversight on is a bad thing?" You must be glad you're smart, but not as smart as Alphas because Alphas work too hard... You do look glum! What you need is a gramme of soma.

Re:Seriously Sims, Give It A Rest

[Telastyn]

As long as my boss is in 8 to 5 and never off playing golf on the occasional Friday afternoon...

While I generally agree with the opinion the most are overreacting, this is an issue as it moves the focus from someone doing their job [production] to simple attendance. It likely won't help oversight, instead likely will just be another example of people [low level managers in this case] using technology as a crutch instead of actually doing *their* job.

Re:Seriously Sims, Give It A Rest

[DNS-and-BIND]

"When the bosses talk about improving productivity, they are never talking about themselves"

Re:Seriously Sims, Give It A Rest

[Herkum01]

The question for me is when you give executives millions in salary and stock options and they have little oversight of their actions. You do not have to look too far to see this behavior (Lord Black, the paper baron or Micheal Eisner handing away a $140 million severance package). These are people in charge of hundred of millions of dollars.

A GPS system to micromanage a $10-20/hour employee seems to be small potatoes.

Re:Seriously Sims, Give It A Rest

[stupidfoo]

$15 an hour * 100,000 truck drivers = $1.5 million an hour

$1.5 million an hour * 40 hours / week * 52 weeks /year = $3,120,000,000

A little bit more than the money they pay their execs.

Re:Seriously Sims, Give It A Rest

[wwest4]

> If you have a problem with your employer making sure you're doing your
> bloody job, then quit.

Aren't there more black-box ways of determining whether I've done my job without gathering extraneous information that invades my privacy? I see problems with the Big Brother approach as not dealing with root cause.

Example: At my workplace, we have a loser who is significantly less productive than his counterparts. He pisses his day away looking at the Internet, talking at the water cooler, forwarding unfunny internet apocrypha and jokes to everyone, and eating 15 meals a day.

He eventually gets his work done, but he does it so slowly, that he is not worth his salary.

Instead of enacting policy that cripples everyone else in order to deal with his particular loafing strategies, doesn't it make a lot more sense to fire him for not earning his compensation, barring a better excuse (health, etc)?

No. Why? The litigious nature of our culture? Personal feelings interfering with management objectivity? Who knows. Whatever it is, I'd like to find out so that I don't have to implement another custom snort filter or whitelist instead of just firing the loser.

The flip side of this is that it disallows me from accepting a job that is easy for me. If I choose to work at Joe's Tape Backup Emporium, and I am compensated for the duration of my time pushing catrtidges, and my work requirements are met, I don't see why I cannot read a book during the downtime (can't leave, but I'm idle). Just because I'm capable of exceeding my quota, while Johhny Newbie has to concentrate 100% just to match me at 50% effort, does not mean I should be compelled to share the benefit of my personal efficiency with my employer if he does not compensate me more than Johnny. If he's not paying me more for my efficiency, why does he care if I'm reading or staring at the screen? The right answer is that he shouldn't, but he does because people like getting shit for free. However, I see no justification of the position that you must work until it's a grind for you. And that's what pervasive monitoring could lead to, because it's always in the employers' interest to squeeze you for all you're worth at the cheapest possible price.

Re:Seriously Sims, Give It A Rest

[Skye16]

Yes, but be realistic. Every single driver isn't going to slack off and not do their job every single hour of every single day for an entire year. I agree it's still a lot of money, but it's nowhere near 3 billion dollars.

Re:Seriously Sims, Give It A Rest

[The FooMiester]

Aren't there more black-box ways of determining whether I've done my job without gathering exraneous information that invades my privacy? I see problems with the Big Brother approach as not dealing with root cause.

How better to figure out where someone is at a given time than a GPS unit that phones home? What other black-box solution do you suggest? Alot of them are already carrying the hardware needed to impliment this(nextel phones do it for one).

Invades YOUR privacy? How about protecting the owner of the company's assets?

Instead of enacting policy that cripples everyone else

How does a black box in a truck, or a cellphone that you carry anyway cripple anyone? Or did I just get trolled

Re:Seriously Sims, Give It A Rest

[anagama]

• My life does NOT fucking belong to you, you miserable fucking cretinous pile of fucking garbage. I don't fucking care if you pay me a pittance for spending most of my life at "your" workplace, but hey, you assholes were never noted for gratitude.

I think the parent post demonstrates why excessive monitoring is counterproductive. If an employer creates a work atmosphere in which employees feel repressed by management - morale, motivation, and productivity are going to fall. No matter how much the "I pay you, you do what I say" line is repeated, people are just not that simple. They want to feel appreciated - such feelings lead to dedication - dedication leads to high productivity (in general, there are always exceptions).

When I think about my worst job experience, it was management that made it that way. Quitting that job was an absolute blast. I came in, 2nd in command asks me why I look so happy. I said "Today's my last day!" (big smiles) and then asked if I could leave early. She eventually just told me to go home right then - which made me happier still. This is in a context where the rules were in daily flux, people were terminated on management whim, and our pay-checks were bouncing. I got a little speach about "employee loyalty" - my retort - "what about employer loyalty?" Thinking back to that day always makes me smile - it was just so fun to walk in and show the bastards they had no power over me and I wasn't going to put up with the BS. Why did I feel that way? Because the employees were shown complete disrespect every second of the workday.

So, while so many have the "I pay - you work" sentiment - remember that treating your workers like shit means they'll treat you back in the same manner and love every second of it. Treat your employees with respect, and by and large, they'll be highly loyal.

Re:Seriously Sims, Give It A Rest

[Richard_at_work]

Just remember that your boss is your boss, hes not accountable to you, you are to him.

Thus spake the article

[nizo]

This past summer, for example, managers at Metropolitan Lumber & Hardware in New York worried when a new driver dispatched to a delivery just six blocks away still hadn't arrived after 3 1/2 hours. But using GPS, dispatchers soon tracked him down, "goofing off" on the other side of Manhattan, said Larry Charity, the company's information technology manager.

Remember, the way to get out of this is to lock yourself in your trunk when the boss shows up.

I am looking forward to an automatted "potty tracker" that keeps track of how often I and my coworkers visit the restroom each day. Maybe everyone can give their tracking devices to the new intern (wow look everyone is in the bathroom at the same time).

And the problem is?

[October_30th]

for counting every minute that they might or might not be on or off duty and holding that against them

And the problem with that is... what? If you're on the company time, you're not supposed to be "goofing off on the other side of Manhattan" way off your route.

As long as the terms of tracking are put into the contract, I don't see any problem with that. You know what you'll be signing for.

Re:And the problem is?

[NanoGator]

"And the problem with that is... what?"

False hits.

At my previous job, I was busted once for reading Slashdot at work. Stupid thing was, the one time they caught me, I was actually doing work. I was looking at the source code for the home page to solve a problem I was having with the website I was working on. Sadly, I had two monitors, and my boss looked at the left one with the web page on it and not the right one with the source code.

In the end, I was able to explain to my boss what I was up to and all was cool. But if she had 'busted' me by looking at logs of the sites I were visiting, I would have risked being terminated without being given a chance to defend myself.

In the case cited above, this guy was clearly wasting time. But if bosses/managers get so in tune to just reading the logs and hitting the 'fire' button, what rights would the employees have? Managers in particular have a bad way of summing up a situation with too few facts. The last thing I'm interested in doing is arming them with more details to make their decisions with that would cause them to make up their mind before the employee has had a chance to defend him/herself.

Hasn'y This Been Common With Truckers?

[reallocate]

Can't recall the name, but remember reading several years ago about a U.S. trucking firm that did real-time tracking of all its trucks, monitored their fuel consumption, speed, how long it took of load and offload, if they deviated from the designated route or schedule, etc. Apparently resulted in serious efficiencies and serious revenue, with little grousing from drivers.

This doesn't seem to me to be a grievous problem. Employees don't have the right to use the boss's time and property as they choose.

Re:Hasn'y This Been Common With Truckers?

[bfizzle]

So how long does it take for the Union workers to figure out if they all work really slow they can still stick it to the company GPS or not.
If they can all bring down the stats collectively then what is a company going to do.
Don't get me wrong I think trying to get more work out of your workers is a great idea but there are better way to encourage them to do it other than with a chair and whip.

Re:Hasn'y This Been Common With Truckers?

[writermike]

Can't recall the name, but remember reading several years ago about a U.S. trucking firm that did real-time tracking of all its trucks, monitored their fuel consumption, speed, how long it took of load and offload, if they deviated from the designated route or schedule, etc. Apparently resulted in serious efficiencies and serious revenue, with little grousing from drivers.

You're right.

It was covered in Wired some years ago. IIRC, the article was primarily about Schneider National and the company's efforts to track those items you mentioned.

I don't recall the article being particularly upbeat, though. I remember that the writer rode with a particular driver from Schneider and this particular driver wasn't that pleased.

Mostly, I remember this because one passage drew a scene in which the Schneider trucker, in the middle of passing another truck, was suddenly out run by the other truck.

The trucker remarked that the other truckers wouldn't dare let a Schneider pass them up, referring to the governor that restricts the truck's speed.

I think of this passage every time _I_ pass a Schneider truck on the road.

m

Re:Hasn'y This Been Common With Truckers?

[balloonpup]

It's not just one U.S. trucking firm. Nearly all I've run into and worked for do it using a system from Qualcomm. JB Hunt, Werner, Swift, C.R. England and Schneider to my knowledge do it. It doesn't cause grousing for a couple reasons.

-- In the event of mechanical trouble, the trucker can be located even easier.
-- The system itself allows realtime communication with the dispatcher and other groups within the company. In some cases, it even allows truck to truck communication.
-- The GPS allows the driver to request directions to a destination from their current location.
-- The fuel information can help an Owner Operator save money.
-- The usage tracking can be useful in proving that a driver was operating legally in case of accident or other violation. This is a biggie.

I think it just ended up that the good outweighed the bad. I know it doesn't really bother me, after all, I'm on my employer's dollar anyway. Granted, I don't get paid hourly anyway (per stop and mile instead), so it doesn't make a huge difference unless I'm late to an appointment...

Re:Hasn'y This Been Common With Truckers?

[sribe]

Apparently resulted in serious efficiencies and serious revenue, with little grousing from drivers.

I know the system you're talking about--read a big long article about it at the time. The company also had a policy that if a driver was more than 15 minutes late more than twice in a year, he could be fired--this is cross-country trucking! And yet the drivers didn't complain, because the GPS and communications were their link into an awesome backend support system. Any mechanical problem, any traffic jam, any unusual need and they'd have a person back at the home office working virtually hand-in-hand with them on finding a solution.

The trucking company in question specialized in guaranteed delivery times for time-sensitive cargo, and charged higher rates for this special service, and paid their truckers better than average as well. So, imagine that: higher performance requirements + good support staff + higher pay + the right people == satisfied employees. What a shock!

I just thought of something

[nizo]

UPS Inc., for example, will distribute new hand-held computers to its 100,000 U.S. delivery truck drivers early next year..

I wonder how hard it would be for a third party to get this information? Knowing exactly where a big van full of boxes of stuff is right now would make it quite a bit easier to pillage said truck wouldn't it? Or maybe a competitor could conveniently get people to interfere with traffic and slow them down along their routes, things like that.

Re:I just thought of something

[Albinofrenchy]

Completely unrelated, any word on when they will give these things to armored trucks...

whats wrong with it?

[Datasage]

Considering i had a recent delivery taht was supposed to be deleivred before christmas. It was, but to the wrong address. I dont really mind of delivery companies start using GPS to help verify correct addresses. Well thats until the GPS system says you are at the wrong place when you are not.

But from the other side, Is it really and diffrent than being in an office where you are being watched by your boss anyway?

Excellent post

[October_30th]

I bet the submitter and most people posting in this thread are not familiar with a concept such as "time clock" or that you're not supposed to loiter around or conduct personal business on company time.

At my work..

[doormat]

We've been tracking our field staff using Airlink CDMA PinPoint modems. Not only does it provide our field staff with cellular-based internet access for our web-based field applications, but it also provides us with GPS coordinates of the device every 5 seconds. It also came in handy when one of our trucks was stolen a while back, it was easy to track it and find it. We just cant wait 'til they upgrade the modems from 1xRTT to 1xEVDO. 200kbit/s wireless access!

Helped roll out a system in 2000

[deep_magic]

This was for a trash / dumpster company that wanted to monitor their employees driving habits.

The funny thing was overtime fell from 10 hrs / week (per employee) to 1 or 2 hrs / week once people knew they were being watched.

The other funny thing was the guy we caught going to his GF's house for a noon-er. Imagine that, pulling up for some lovin in a 2-ton garbage truck.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

From the business perspective

[Lord_Dweomer]

Before everybody jumps about the privacy concerns, let me explain something.

This is in regards to business. These businesses have a SUBSTANTIAL investment in their fleet, and in the service they provide. If you owned one of these companies, wouldn't you be a bit ticked off if your employees were racking up non-business related miles on your vehicles, putting them at more risk for accidents, and reducing the overall efficiency of your business?

Thats what I thought. If you're on company time using company resources, don't expect any privacy. I mean, I personally feel there should be a limit...I mean, I don't want to get written up for taking too much time in the bathroom or socializing a bit with employees, but in a case where you're on the road in company property, that is a very different situation.

Now I'll Never Get My Packages

[buckhead_buddy]

This is definitely an anomolous situation, but I bet it'll only add to my problems in the future.

My addresss is almost impossible to find. Physically, it's nestled back in some woods and looks somewhat like the entrance to the (Adam West/Burt Ward) Batcave. The problem is that it's also next to an expensive club that wanted a more exclusive address and was able to get the short extension of road we sit on changed to the exact name of a more expensive road nearby. This was an insane political maneuver, but money talks and they wanted an address that sounded exclusive rather than redneck.

All of the locals and long time residents can find my address if I tell them the "wrong" address. Map readers or locals who are told the "correct" address won't find it because they go to an address on the other road that's slightly transposed numerically from my house number.

The utility men use long time residents to read my meters but if I go into an office to pay my bill and ask them to look up my address I have to be prepared to wait for 30 minutes of tellers asking managers for help in finding the information.

While I can see why a manager would want to have full control and knowledge over a delivery person, I bet this will have a detrimental effect on getting my packages delivered. I already tell people to avoid sending me things via FedEx since they repeatedly can not find any address I give them. I'll send a few packages by UPS after this policy goes into effect and see if I need to add UPS to my "DO NOT SHIP" list.

Good for employers

[dschl]

How does it differ from an employer viewing the logs to see which websites I visit during the day, and how long I spend doing it? Or your grocery store counting the number of items scanned per hour by a checkout clerk? Or a weekly review of sales figures for car salesmen? I believe that it doesn't, and it is routine to expect employer oversight in a workplace - this is merely a new form, that's all. The employer is paying you to do a task, using their equipment - it is reasonable for them to ensure that you are doing it properly and safely. Their shareholders and insurers expect no less in order to maximize returns and minimize risk. Got a retirement savings plan, and expect high annual returns? That makes you a typical faceless shareholder.

There are other places where it would be handy - transit systems could use it to nail bus drivers who decide to run 5 minutes early, or catch up from time lost on their cigarette break by driving recklessly. I've experienced a city bus driver trying to make up lost time by driving a 10 or 20 ton bus more than 20km/h over the speed limit (faster than I routinely drive my car) - when I got off at the next stop I was sure to let him know that I didn't feel safe, and was waiting for the next bus solely because of his reckless driving.

If the location and time were logged , the transit system would have had solid data to prove how fast he was driving, and could have taken appropriate disciplinary action. Just knowing that the speed and timing data are recorded could add safety, and ensure that buses don't run too early or late. The only thing worse than waiting 15 minutes for a late bus is having to wait 15 minutes for the next bus because a driver chose to ignore his timing points.

Cool advantages of this tech

[syslog]

We (www.agilissystems.com) make software that can GPS track cell phones and beam jobs down to them. There are some pretty cool advantages to this tech beyond just tracking people. The following illustrates this:

One of our customers is a large midwest grocery chain that has a fleet of trucks that deliver all kinds of groceries to their stores. All the drivers carry our GPS tracked cell phones - the cell phones lists the jobs (deliveries) that the driver has to do that day. As soon as a driver is done delivering at one store, the system automatically calls the next store in line (using VOIP via Asterisk, no less :) with the estimated arrival time. The store preps its loading dock to receive the truck. This allows them to turn the truck around quicker than they could otherwise. This leads directly to significant savings (more deliveries per truck, fewer drivers needs etc etc). They don't care one zot of where their drivers are, just that their stores are ready to unload their trucks when they arrive.

</shameless plug>

Oh, and a quick note. Don't be fooled into thinking thats its only GPS enabled devices that can be tracked. We can (and do) track *regular* cell phones using cell tower triangulation as well

-naeem

Nothing new

[danuary]

We equipped a fleet of vans with this kind of thing in the mid 90's. Seemed like a great idea -- GPS antenna and the van would radio its position to a central computer. We could tell which van was closest to a given job and assign it; the vans had laptops wired in as well.

Everything went great until the first guy got fired because he was caught fishing (seriously) while on the clock.

Shortly thereafter the techs realized the system could be defeated by wrapping the antenna atop their vans with tinfoil. Management surrendered. Gave up on the idea. I think they probably wasted a couple million on it by that point.

Re:Not just using GPS ...

[syslog]

Yup. We (Agilis)actually sell software that uses this value added functionality that some large telcos provide. Allows companies to not only track their workers, but geofence them (can't go here, can only go there etc). Also beams daily jobs down to them so they can go about theie business using just their cell phones.

naeem

Bah

[Gorbash You]

I work for Roadway at a terminal in Bloomington California. I do not drive trucks, but I load them and I am a Teamster. It's hard for me to believe that the GPS systems are being used to monitor employees for abuse of time or whatever. On the dock that I work on we probably damage close to a million dollars worth of freight per day, with no repercussions. We also have cameras, but they can only be used for damages and theft, they cannot be used for abuse of company time, so I'd think the GPS rules would apply in the same way.

As someone associated with UPS...

[ObiWonKanblomi]

This is a by-product of UPS's Industrial Engineering unit with the aim of not keeping an eye on their employees as much as making sure packages are sent as quickly as possible.

Without this unit you wouldn't have packages sent as quickly to you thanks to their research in creating systems to determine the shortest land route to deliver as many packages as possible or track packages accurately.

This is with the aim of helping deliveries of your amazon product or thinkgeek gear get to you as quickly as possible. What's the problem with that?

Earlier story

[Trailer Trash]

Monitoring Law Enforcement

Choice quote:

In 2001, three Clinton Township, N.J., police officers were suspended from their jobs, and charged with falsifying records, after a disparity was discovered between the officers' written logs and GPS data.

I hate to sound like an employer, but I really get the feeling that the only people opposed to this sort of stuff are those who are used to taking a little personal time now and then while working. The article above goes on to deal with FOP complaints. I don't personally understand why people think their job should be unsupervised, particularly those who work for the public.

Re:Tracking is not a bad thing

[winwar]

"I doubt, however, that most of these companies are using them to spy on their drivers, the benifits (better schedualing, accident handling, tracking if stolen) are outweigh the drawbacks for people yelling about their privacy. Its the way things are heading, and if done right, can make things a bit better."

You know, the privacy aspects don't really concern me (I'm at work anyway...) These systems, IF USED INTELLIGENTLY, can be great. If the point is to determine system bottlenecks, route improvements, etc. and then IMPLEMENT them, great.

But all too often they are used as a means to "encourage" people to work faster without common sense (gee, you took 60 seconds at that stop, we only want 45 seconds-I don't care if you had to deliver 10 100lb boxes 200ft up some steps....) Or improvements are never made because that takes real work and is likely to step on some important persons toes... People get lots of numbers and forget that how fast you can do things in the real world depend upon things out of control of the employee or that the employee is a person who has good and bad days. That is why I think people hate these systems. This is the reason that I am leary of them.

It is not a "big brother" as you might think

[snero3]

I currently work for an road side assistants company (you know the guys that come out and help if your car brakes down) and we just install GPS in all of our vans to;

1. Help the drivers find the sight quicker (fast turn around is paramount for us).
2. Track the contractors that make up 80% of our fleet at certain busy times of the year

Yes I know that point 2 seems a bit big brotherish but really we had no choice. We are not for profit organization where all the profit we generate goes back into making the service a better service and it was found that the contractors we hired during the busy seasons where making up to 60% of our costs I was also found that 70% of the contractors would find a nice shady spot to park for majority of the day and take maybe one or two jobs that day which that would later claim took up the majority of their time.

I know there are other ways to make sure they are working IE commission basis. But that turned out to be fundamentally unfair as it is was really pot luck if your sector was busy that day or not. So the only really way to make sure we where getting value for money was to track them and make sure they where doing what they claimed to be doing.

We use these in our trucks

[papasui]

I work for one of the major cable companies and all our company vehicles have a gps in them. The techs weren't told when they were first installed. We watched a guy drive in a 4 block circle for 3.5 hrs. Get rid of the dead weight. The other big thing people are missing here is the safety aspect to having a GPS in fleet vehicles. Somebody is missing in poor weather, you can find them quick. We had a guy fall off a ladder and broke his leg and couldn't move. When he was late for his job we found his truck and had a tech go out there to see if he was ok. Who knows how long he would of been there (and it was a very cold day, -10F).