Two things to assure you don't get the best employees, is, have a time clock, or GPS tracking.
I categorically disagree with this statement in its entirety.
I am an employee and I have no idea why tracking should bother you.
Welcome to the working world, many workers are tracked and if your on the clock it is the companies right to. If you not goofing off there should be no problem.
This is almost word for word what my best foreman all said, it?s not just an attitude it?s a sign of a good work ethic that I have learned to respect and reward.
After fretting over this for 2 years I put GPS on all my trucks last year and learned a lot about how it works and some really good things as well some really bad habits of my employees.
Despite all the grumbling nobody quit, not even the biggest loudmouth. The phrase trust first, then verify, took on a whole new meaning. 95% of the men with trucks show up early and leave late, like clockwork there is no point in even watching them, nor do I have the time or am willing to pay anyone the time to watch them. With the other 5% there was a problem, really big ones. In the end I am glad I put them in the trucks.
Specific issues:
1) Two guys who regularly drove over 90mph and who still periodically need a reminder to slow down. The system allows me to set parameters, like speed thresholds and if anyone exceeds say 80MPH for more than 10 seconds it will generated an email. So I don?t waste any time watching everyone, but still benefit from the monitoring. The emails and warnings go in their personnel file and I have back up if they need to be let go.
2) Two guys who had trouble working 8 hour days, with really long lunches or just driving the longest route possible to a job site. Both of which I was able to keep and work things out with, because they were big producers when they were working. One had wife and kid issues so we worked out a different schedule and the other really did not have an excuse but we worked it out anyway?8 for 8 only no exceptions, and he is currently working 32 hours weeks which suits me fine since I am not busy.
3) I have had 2 accidents this year both were not our fault and the GPS actually was able to prove one of them was not because it logged the speed, direction of travel, time and location of the accident which contradicted the other party?s story. (This saved me a lawsuit).
4) Caught one guy taking his truck to the coast for a fishing trip?towed his boat. We worked that out too, but how many times had he done this before I knew about it?
5) The systems tracks oil changes, tire rotations, mileage, and any other service you want to set up. One of my trucks was getting about 4mpg, at first I thought the worst but after bringing the truck in for service there was a problem with the truck. The part that burns me is why did?nt the guy driving it notice the truck had a problem and how long was it doing this? Seriously, if he were buying the gas he would have said something a lot sooner.
6) My overall fuel consumption dropped 30%. When gas was $4 a gallon my bills were about $14K a month, so during those months I was saving something over $3k a month in gas.
7) We had a LD claim form a GC on the job who stated in writing that I did not have any labor on his jobsite on specific dates. He claim was well prepared too because my foreman had neglected to fill out the daily logs on those dates. However my GPS records showed I had 6 trucks on that job for every one of the dates and they also showed we were working Overtime as well. This particular job had gone to the GCs bonding company who was acting as an arbitrator between the GC and me and in the end I did not have to pay the LDs.
8) My insurance gave me a break for doing it.
9) The problem I had of everyone in the company just borrowing a delivery truck on the weekends for moving stopped. Now they ask, and even put gas back in when they are done.
Presently I only log onto the site that does the monitoring about once a month, after I set up my parameters, speed, service, 25 miles out of town, after hours diving (anything after midnight), show up and leave time for specific locations, the system emails me if there is a problem. There are about 50 parameters you can set up, but I only saw a few as useful for my business. As for going to the bank, I offer direct deposit so that is not really an issue but if somebody does slip 15 minutes here or there for the bank or whatever it?s not really an issue considering for the most part the slippage is both ways.
The 5% I have problems with mostly stick to the rules BUT one in particular I get a daily report of all his driving, there is a reason, and as soon as I get tired of being more than reasonable, he may be fired with cause. Anyone that has time to watch the GPS all day needs to get a life; there is nothing productive to be gained by bird-dogging.
Like I said it?s the sausage theory, if you like sausage then don?t watch it being made. Well I like my employees too but the money saved by GPS more than justifies the expense and makes me that much more competitive and therefore able to keep more of them on the payroll as our work slows down. Right now I am looking for any edge I can find and am about 6 months away from from full scale make work projects.
One word of advice, if you do it, make sure to TELL EVERYONE you put a GPS on their trucks before you start monitoring them, there is nothing good that will come from keeping it a secret. Also spend the time to develop a full company policy on your trucks and the GPS before you do it, because making up the rules as you go along does not work and opens you up to all kinds of problems.
Here is the sales person?s contact info, and he can give you access to the website to see how it works.
Jim Young
GE Security
800-545-9623
I will write more on the time clocks later if I have time, but to be fair I wasted too much writing this today.
