GPS and trucks

Status
Not open for further replies.
H

hardworkingstiff

Senior Member
Location
Wilmington, NC
Does anyone have experience with having GPS locaters in company vehicles?

If you are the driver, did/do you have a problem with the company knowing when you move the vehicle, where you have been with it, and for how long?

If you are the owner, did you have a problem with the drivers? Was the information gained worth the costs?

Thanks,
Lou
 
As the driver I should not care, Its the company truck & I'm on company time. All you gotta do is ask me, & I'll tell you, I take lunch at the strip club lunch buffet, but I won't drink the booze on company time.
As the owner, I already know where my guys are all the time. I meet them for lunch when I can!

If your company has so many vehicles such as yellow cab, & you need info for quick dispatch, then it would be beneficial.
With every new system you add on, you add to the headaches and maintainance expenses.
K.I.S.S.(keep it simple stupid)
 
Re: GPS and trucks

I would ask the following questions and reflect on the answers.

1. What would one be trying to accomplish by adding such devices? If there are no existing problems this would help resolve, why spend the money on them and the time to review the data. Keep in mind that reviewing the data collected and making sense of it, is an ongoing expenditure of your time that continues long after the equipment is paid for.

2. If the equipment helps you uncover an employee breaking your rules in some way, are you willing to take action based on that information? A surprising number of employers have this type of data available and are unwilling to use it. The simple fact it is there and employees flout the rules the device was intended to help enforce tends to almost make it OK in the minds of your employees to disobey those rules. If you are unwilling to discipline someone based on the data collected, it is probably best if you forgo the equipment in the first place.

Ask your employees what they feel about it first. Perhaps their response will help you make a decision.

IMO, unless you have a large fleet to watch over, it is not worth the effort.
 
I know an oil company that put GPS in their trucks a few years ago. One of the guys was at a club in the early afternoon, instead of driving back to the yard and working on his truck. I guess this happened quite a few times after they put the GPS in the trucks. On one ocassion, the manager called the club and spoke to the gentleman. The driver called his wife to pick him up, and left the truck there... I guess he knew he had lost his job.
 
Our Nextel provider also had a GPS print out feature for us. I didn't like it cause the thing could be as much as a 1/4 mile off. However, we set the mph warning at 70 and would get an email if anybody went over.

I had more emails about me speeding than anybody! :roll:

We just dumped the feature.
 
We have GPS tracking units on every one of our company vehicles, supervisors included. Since we do a lot of work in other states, it has helped us cut down on unauthorized use of the vehicles. Also, when a vehicle exceeds a predetermined speed, we get an email alarm and our safety director calls the guy.

Since we had our fleet mechanic install the units, our costs were only the purchase and the monthly service.

We do have a " three strikes and you're out" plan for violations of company vehicle policy.
 
i spoke to one contractor who was raving about his new system! said it kept his men honest and helped figure out customer complaints as to billed hours. myself, a properly stocked service truck is about 30 to 35k and if i don't have enough faith in selecting an honest and qualified man to service my accounts-------i'm not placing that truck in service.
 
We are installing GPS by Fleetmatics in all of our trucks this Friday because some of our employees are over charging us for their travel to our office from their homes. It should save us some money.
 
Re: GPS and trucks

petersonra said:
If there are no existing problems this would help resolve, why spend the money . . . .
Click to expand...
I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. Start with determining if there is a problem, and exactly what the problem is. If there is no problem, or if this proposed "solution" will not solve the problem, then don't do it.

This philosophy can be applied to many decisions we make in our daily lives.
 
Texted all employees at noon that we were installing GPS on every truck this Friday. At 5 the employee we thought was overcharging us for personal travel QUIT. Guess we know for sure who was guilty.
 
GPS tracking for all trucks: a significant investment.
A text message: 10?.

A 10? message getting the job done: priceless.

We had GPS on the Nextels for a while, until the troublesome employee we had got fired or quit. The problem was, he'd just leave the Nextel where he was supposed to be, and go out on a three-hour lunch.

When the last troublesome employee quit, the GPS went away. Strangely, many of the rationalizations for having GPS in the first place (the coverstory to hide the truth: "We're trying to fire Soandso") suddenly went by the wayside. :D
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top