I worked for Cox Comm and they have the GPS tracking units in all thier vehicles. My concerns were the same as yours when I first hired on, but found that all the "tech paranoia" was unfounded. Through experiance, I found that it cost the company money each time they accessed a van's data if they wanted to just "sneek a peek". So if you follow the vehicle training they give you and follow the rules-of-the-road for your location, you won't hear a peep out of the MSO.
With that said, the device does trigger on certain events: Such as any accident where the air bags deploy, when the vehicle goes over a certain speed, when the vehicle moves during a window of time when it should not be moving.
I don't know the exact speed that it triggered for where I was, but the freeway speed signs were 65mph. I've done 75 and not heard a peep. As for the "time window" I know it was roughly set for "No move" between 10pm and 4am. But even then, how much is viewed is sketchy at best.
True story ...GPS installed in a company van with full company logo and racks. Tech takes off for Disneyland with his wife and kids on a Friday. Guy was back for work on Monday. They didn't say squat about the GPS. They caught him taking the van over state lines for the weekend because he used the company gas card in California to fill up for the trip back. They just used the GPS after the fact to show him they knew for a fact he used it off-duty. Yea ... He lost his job.
They only other times I've heard of GPS being used was for techs that had SERIOUS problems on the road with other drivers many, many times. Dood would average a call a week with someone calling his van number in for speeding on residential streets and aggressive driving. They cracked down on him individually and kept writing him up until they had enough to fire him. 60mph in a 35mph zone is not cool.
On the flip side ... Having GPS in your van can save your ass too. Customer makes a claim against you saying you were in thier house at 2pm and stole some stuff, but the GPS puts your van across town at that time ... I call that an electronic ass-save.
Hell ...there was a time when my GPS was busted and was showing my van parked at my house for 3 months solid. Took them another 3 months to get it fixed.
Hope this experiance helps.
Re: Company trucks GPS
Member #: 35888
Registered: 2/1/2005
Posted:
1013
Occupation:
Poor Driven Cable Worker
Location:
Planet Earth
There is 1 reply to this message
