[Annoying] GPS

[davydoodledo]

How many of you are under the GPS eye?

[fixthecopier]

Re: GPS

No, never. If they don't trust you, they shouldn't hire you.

[skinnyb]

Re: GPS

Yep. Tied into our hand held computer since we do not have company cars.

[Athlontini]

Re: GPS

Some of us do, depending on the team/supervisor. Fingers crossed that it won't spread.

[vincent64]

Re: GPS

The company I used to work for started this on us, with our personal vehicles, most of us did not like it, some were in-different about it, we were told it was to save money on expense checks and track milage better, and call routing, ect.
Well that was the final straw for me, I had something in the works and when it came up I took the offer and changed jobs, still doing the same thing, smaller company, just 2 of us out there, no miles to record, its a flat rate, it all evens out though, I was able to get back to using a truck again, always did like a truck, traded in my 4 runner for a Tundra.
The office was kinda surprised when I turned in my notice, when asked why, told them was not fun any more here, and I needed a change.
Sorry for the book, but on GPS, if you can avoid it, do so, if they dont trust you, you may want to re-think working for them.

[fixthecopier]

Re: GPS

My largest competitor makes his employees clock out to go through a bank drive through. I think about stuff like this when I think about wanting a different job.

Recent phone conversation.
boss lady... Where are you?
me...I am at Sears
boss lady what are you doing there?
me... looking at screwdrivers [ps, they still look the same]
boss lady...Oh, when you are done I need you to look at a fax machine
me... no problem

Working in a relaxed place is great.

[Akitu]

Re: GPS

No GPS here, it's nice to have the ability to stop in and make a bank deposit on a slow day without fear of Big Brother watching me...

[Ollie1981]

Re: GPS

Not currently tracked... but if the rumour mill is to be believed then it's in the pipeline.

In another job fixing domestic goods before getting into office equipment I was tracked. It was before the ubiquity of consumer GPS devices so we had vehicle trackers based on cellphone tracking (not the actual work cellphone I made calls on, as I understand there was a limited function "phone" built into the tracker unit that sent a text message every time the engine was stopped and started and the position was triangulated by the distances from the surrounding cellphone masts)

The biggest laugh was all the bulls*it we were told before they were fitted, that they were there for our "safety" as lone workers. Unsurprisingly, that wasn't what they were primarily used for...

Firstly, as this was a more primitive and (dare I suggest it) cheaper version of vehicle tracking. It was absolutely f*cking useless. As you can imagine it worked best in urban areas with lots of masts and good signal coverage, it was when you ventured out into the country where the phone signal gets patchy that the thing really crapped the bed.

Now bearing in mind what I was driving at work was one of these

Mercedes-Benz TN - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A 1989 (I think, G-reg if I remember right) Mercedes Benz TN 208D, a particularly beat up example of with a 2.3 litre non-turbo diesel engine producing an awe-inspiring 79bhp (when new). I don't know if Mercedes produce commercial vehicles for the States, but if they don't, jettison any ideas you have of this being a luxury vehicle, it was about as basic as transport gets, glacially slow with horrendously heavy non-power assisted steering and a gearchange that was like stirring a box of bricks (also reverse gear was where you expect to find first on practically every other manual gearbox in the world!!).

So imagine my surprise when a furious senior manager turns up to tear me a new arsehole for speeding. Apparently the box of tricks in the van had recorded me going at 130mph through a built up area.

I imagine my face was a picture, my immediate boss at the time decided to take him into the side office and have a quiet word with him, subtly suggesting that the only way you could get that van to do more than 60mph empty was to push it off a cliff.

Apparently weird things happen when the tracker could only contact one or two masts, it ideally needs three or more thus making a triangle to triangulate you and as masts appear and disappear, so does your virtual position on the map moving you many virtual miles in a blink of an eye. Also I learnt that to become a senior manager at this particular company, you don't need to be diplomatic or particularly intelligent as this particular specimen didn't suck it up and apologise, he shot me the stink eye, grabbed his stuff and left.

I also learned what vehicle/employee trackers are really for. Seriously, it's the thin end of the wedge to the point where they want to dock your pay every time you go for a piss.

[Shadow]

Re: GPS

No Way, No How, Not Going to Happen.

I have always used my own vehicle and started using my own phone as well.
If some one wants to track me, good luck is all I have to say to them.

I'll put their GPS Tracker on a delivery truck and see what they think about it.....

an honest, and trustworthy company will not feel the need to track their techs.

[KenB]

Re: GPS

A total invasion of privacy. Period.

[JR2ALTA]

Re: GPS

Very good debate

"if you got nothing to hide" mentality is commie talk.

A GPS cannot do it all. if a tech takes only 5 minutes before and after each call to relax in his car times five calls a day is fifty minutes.

Plus most of us who work till 5 are let go anytime after 4, so now we're at two hours less than shop techs.

We get the wrath of customers, the joy of bricking a machine during PM, and responsibility of a multi thousand dollar car stock but at least we get to work the clock a little.

[Ollie1981]

Re: GPS

The issue here really is honesty, both from the employer and employee.

Most free countries of the world have the concept of innocent until proven guilty, so it should be in employment. If you are getting done what you should be reasonably expected to get done in a working day and your customers are happy then that should be that. Usually it's obvious to any halfway decent supervisor if someone's taking advantage of the fact that they're out on the road and unsupervised and they should be dealt with individually, all employees shouldn't be collectively punished with an electronic ball and chain.

The fact that any GPS system is going to cost money to roll out and possibly have an ongoing monthly/quarterly cost means that there is going to be pressure on line managers to demonstrate that it improves productivity. Thus giving the big bosses some evidence that they are getting a good return on their investment. Hence kiss goodbye to any errands you used to run during work time, early finishes, hell you better not spend longer than five minutes taking a leak, and just how long does it take you to eat your lunch anyhow?

If you are a business owner, you can make the argument that if you put it in everyone's contract of employment then all employees have signed and agreed to it. But if the alternative is not to sign and lose their jobs, is that not getting their agreement under duress? Do you think that this is going to make your employees look favourably upon you as an employer or not? This may be perfectly legal but sometimes you have to consider the "soft" issues of how it reflects upon you as an employer. I have known very skilled and hard working people quit over this very issue, staff who are very difficult and expensive to replace.

I found the BS we got in order to "sell" the fact we were tracked the most laughable thing. It didn't take long for it to become obvious that one of management's favourite pastimes was to look at the tracker webpage during idle moments, which begs the question, is it really a good return on investment when highly paid senior management is wasting valuable salaried time persecuting the working peons?

[fixthecopier]

Re: GPS

I have decided that if I get handed a gps tracker, I will accidentally drop it in a cargo container that is being shipped to the other side of the planet, then ask to be paid for millage.

[Ollie1981]

Re: GPS

The company I used to work for started this on us, with our personal vehicles, most of us did not like it, some were in-different about it, we were told it was to save money on expense checks and track milage better, and call routing, ect.
Well that was the final straw for me, I had something in the works and when it came up I took the offer and changed jobs, still doing the same thing, smaller company, just 2 of us out there, no miles to record, its a flat rate, it all evens out though, I was able to get back to using a truck again, always did like a truck, traded in my 4 runner for a Tundra.
The office was kinda surprised when I turned in my notice, when asked why, told them was not fun any more here, and I needed a change.
Sorry for the book, but on GPS, if you can avoid it, do so, if they dont trust you, you may want to re-think working for them.

I would draw the line at having ANY form of tracking or surveillance equipment fitted to my own property by my employer. If it's a vehicle fully supplied and paid for by the company, it's their property so your hands are tied, same goes for any phone or PDA they supply.

Was it just a "black box" that you have to keep in the car during working hours or was it one of those wired in boxes that are installed in the dash?

[vincent64]

Re: GPS

I have been under the watchfull eye of a gps thing, it pluged into the OBD II port on our vehicles, if we did not, no expense check.
This is a link to one, of many out there, a google search will astound you as to how many are out there.
OBD Port GPS Fleet Tracking - Virtual Fleet Supervisor
This is not the one we had, but real close, dispatcher had a 42 in monitor in her office to watch us moving in real time, some can even check on vehicle diagnostics and see how its running, and if stolen, I read, can shut it down....to much like big brother for me.
That why I took the offer when I did, lots more laid back.