Empoyee vans-bring home or bring to shop

[Rawls007]

I'm just curious how you guys manage the use of your fleet. Do you make your employees leave from the shop and bring back at the end of the day, or do you let them bring the van home? The former costs you money in lost travel time since you start their pay when they leave and stop when they return, and the latter costs you the extra gas money for them to travel to and from work, plus the added risk of property damage or theft.

So what's the lesser of two evils?

 

[tyha]

When we first hire someone that will be in a truck we leave it at the shop for about 2 weeks until we are comfortable with them taking it home. But all of our drivers fill out milage reports daily and they are very detailed because they understand what a significant cost the trucks are and they are concerned with the money our company has to spend because we are known for our yearly bonus.

 

[satcom]

I'm just curious how you guys manage the use of your fleet. Do you make your employees leave from the shop and bring back at the end of the day, or do you let them bring the van home? The former costs you money in lost travel time since you start their pay when they leave and stop when they return, and the latter costs you the extra gas money for them to travel to and from work, plus the added risk of property damage or theft.

So what's the lesser of two evils?

In my state, any time an employee driives the truck, he has to be on the payroll, not all states are the same.

 

[mdshunk]

Doesn't matter to me. Either way. If you're on call, you really don't have a choice but to take it home.

 

[BryanMD]

Lot's of variables may apply... including the payroll issues that satcom mentioned, the vehicle insurance policy, or other factors that simply won't allow for it regardless.

Assuming the truck is for a service tech who you will need to count on to run off hour service, or a senior employee you need to count on to have that load of tools on the site the next day... the answer should be obvious. You just about have to.

But if you are running a fleet of trucks with everyone driving to the same jobsite with them everyday or driving into town to get parts every morning anyway before heading out... some re-thinking might be in order.

 

[emahler]

In my state, any time an employee driives the truck, he has to be on the payroll, not all states are the same.

not completely. if they take the truck home, they are covered to and from their job(s) under whats known as essentially a normal commute.

i don't have the link to the DOL regulation, but it's there..

now, between jobs, they better be covered.

 

[brian john]

Home.....................................

 

[SiddMartin]

the company I work for::

If you are a lead man, then you get your own van and you can take it home, but then you go on the "on call" rotation. Right now there is maybe 13 guys on it, so you have on call for a week every 13 weeks. For the every day BS, time starts from when you leave your house till you leave the job. (unless you goto the shop first) and (assuming you are within a 20 mile radius of the shop) (outside of that is whole nuther ball of wax)

If I couldn't take the van home, I'd find another EC that does

 

[satcom]

not completely. if they take the truck home, they are covered to and from their job(s) under whats known as essentially a normal commute.

i don't have the link to the DOL regulation, but it's there..

now, between jobs, they better be covered.

NJ laws are such that the required medical coverages, are covered under the employees comp coverages, DOL, nothing to do with the state insurance laws. One of the reasons commercial coverages in NJ are less expensive, because the medical which is the killer in cost is covered by your comp insurance, and since the comp covers the medical, the employee must be on the clock whenever they are driving.

 

[jayrad1122]

Drive to shop in the morning with personal vehicle, then take van to jobsite. At 3 leave to go back to shop. (we don't have lunch). Then drive home. We don't get paid for time it takes to get back to shop at end of day. :-?

 

[mdshunk]

We don't get paid for time it takes to get back to shop at end of day. :-?

That's illegal, no matter where you live, if you're driving. Park the thing on the street someplace out from the job and call the wife to bring you home some day if you want to make a point. "Oh, you wanted me to bring that back to the shop- for free?"

 

[360Youth]

That's illegal, no matter where you live, if you're driving. Park the thing on the street someplace out from the job and call the wife to bring you home some day if you want to make a point. "Oh, you wanted me to bring that back to the shop- for free?"

I completely agree. Right now we all work out of our own vehicles, but company I used to work for over half of us had vehicles to take home. 90% of the time work bgan at 7:30 at the shop and time ended at 4 at the job site and travel time home was your own. It really is the ideal situation, but I am not sure what I would do if it was my call. I think there is probably better long-term use out of a vehicle that stays at the shop, but does it balance out with the productivity loss of paid travel back to the shop.

 

[BryanMD]

Sidd, did you say you drive a company truck burning company gas TO work every morning AND get paid for the time get there as well?

Sweet deal.

 

[tonyou812]

I personally am not a big fan of letting them take the vans home. For all of the other reasons already listed above and if you do let them take the trucks home you can pretty much bet on their being some "shrinkage" in stock. I have personally seen this many times.
And for you Jersey guys you know that if they have an accident and they are not on the clock that can be a very bad situation for you. Or if they stop at a friends house or bar before they go home and then get a DWI or something it can be a pretty expensive bill getting that truck back. New Jersey is notoriously very Anti Small buisness Guy making a decent buck kind of state. I might only be inclined to let my best mechanic take his truck home. there are other perks that you can give your guys to make up for it.

 

[iwire]

if you do let them take the trucks home you can pretty much bet on their being some "shrinkage" in stock.

So a guy that would steal your supplies from the van at his house is not going to steal your supplies from the job?



I find that unlikely, either they are honest or they are not honest.

That said if I was an owner I would use the vehicle tracking systems that are available.

 

[s.sparkomatic.r09]

I put GPS on all(four) of my vans. I set it up so that if the vans are not back at the employees houses at 630pm I get a text message to my phone, if the vans leave anytime during the night I get a text message.

I also have wireless internet in my truck so I can see what is going on during the day. How fast they drive ect??.

The GPS also helps with time keeping. All of the vans have those job site time clocks in them so when the lead man gets to the job all the other guys have to punch in at the van.
I like this because now the time starts when the van and the tools are on the job, not twenty five minutes late because of traffic or what ever, then leave at 330. No if those guys start a little late then they can stay a little late, if they show up early then they can leave early. That start late kind of thing turns in to a bad habit.

 

[360Youth]

I put GPS on all(four) of my vans. I set it up so that if the vans are not back at the employees houses at 630pm I get a text message to my phone, if the vans leave anytime during the night I get a text message.

I also have wireless internet in my truck so I can see what is going on during the day. How fast they drive ect??.

The GPS also helps with time keeping. All of the vans have those job site time clocks in them so when the lead man gets to the job all the other guys have to punch in at the van.
I like this because now the time starts when the van and the tools are on the job, not twenty five minutes late because of traffic or what ever, then leave at 330. No if those guys start a little late then they can stay a little late, if they show up early then they can leave early. That start late kind of thing turns in to a bad habit.

Boy, talk about a trust factor for the employees. :smile: The GPS method is good idea. If it is done accross the board as company policy and the reasons stated, as well theft protection/tracking, then nobody should feel "big brother" threatened. I am not sure I am onboard 100% with docking their time for uncontrollable traffic incidents unless it was just not being aware of local circumstances. We had a guy who was late (5-15 minutes) 3 days a week because of those "gosh darn school buses gott in my way again." If you know you have to deal with regular traffic, leave early enough to compensate. If you are on time 10 straight days and on Tuesday you are 45 minutes late because Jim, Joe, and/or Mary couldn't put down the coffee and cell phone and had a "meeting" that is one of those things. If one of your crew left the job at 10 to go to another project and got stuck in a 25 minute traffic jam would you hold their time and have them make it up? Now, like I said, if they just have a habit of not getting there, especially those 5-10 minute guys, than the tracking system is a good one.

 

[s.sparkomatic.r09]

No I don?t dock people for getting stuck in traffic, but with that said the GPS lets me put a numeric value to the behavior. I run a small shop and everybody ?gets along?. But lets say Joe is late every morning cuz of those trains, I can see (no really I could see it) it and say something about it. Cats away mice will play. It?s a good deal for those guys to take the vans home free gas. If Joe can?t seem to start the job on time then maybe Joe don?t wanta run work? or work for me.....then I'm dumb for paying him

 

[s.sparkomatic.r09]

Also with the job clocks they have to punch out for one job and punch in at the next job. I don?t care if an hour ride takes an hour and twenty, but if an hour ride turns in to two hours then what happened? I don?t have a lot of this going on but that could be because I can count it?

 

[s.sparkomatic.r09]

I did all that because you let people(in general) do something once then next time they will try to get away with more?..then next time?..on and on??.I?ve also been told that I?m a little paranoid but that?s fine by me.