if you have full use of the van they must be turned of friday nite and turned on monday morning as on w/ends it is a private vehical.heavy fines occur depends on your location aus/us /uk,14 days in writing,stickers on vans to say you are tracked i think applies in aus.but all states different.must get a covert survalence to track you and go through the courts and they can not abuse it

trackers are pure and simple victimisation, the weak excuses that companies give are pathetic,

1. For insurance purposes , why are the sales and managements bmw and mercs not tracked they are far more valuable than your average transit van.

2.faster response to breakdowns closest engineer, worked with trackers for 5 years never seen it happen yet engineers are still passing each other on the road to get to jobs ,most customers have there own dedicated engineer

they are supposed to save money how much does the trackers and license cost you never hear that cost

You really don't need GPS to find lazy workers look for vans that make or lose oil, cleaners and filters. Look at those work orders do the hour meters seem erratic and sometimes run backwards? Will it keep techs inline not if they leave their van at a customers and drive something else or just unhook it. I have witnessed this at several dealerships. It is known who the slackers are they just really do not want to deal with the situation so they try GPS

If you have nothing to hide, why should anyone have a problem.
Other engineers 'go missing' late in the day and leave the rest of us to do the urgent breakdowns, often finishing late. Bottom line is, they are coming, so if you don't like it, start looking for another job in a different industry.

Most of the company cars via leasing companies already have em fitted as part of the deal , so yes the sales team do have them.

We have GPS's fitted in all vehicles. The idea was to speed up service to customers by sending the closest tech to whoever needed the fastest service. Turns out there are few people to actually monitor our movements. Everyone speeds, leaves early or comes in late.
A lot of us techs who put in an honest 40 hrs or more get ticked when we see our fellow techs at the bar on a friday afternoon, and not answer their phone for service calls. They have their 40 hrs billed....but only worked 20! It's all about making targets, as long as you bill 40 hrs, the company is happy. They dont care who you took advantage of, as long as the paperwork is done. The honest workers make up for the bottom feeders.
We have GPS's, but no one is watching

Spy in the cab thats all it is & it gose to show the managers dont trust the engineers.

real managers,with real experience in running service departments have done the job and know how long things take.they can allow for problems and dont need these type of tools to do the job.these tools are for managers who are not to be trusted themselves.service centres probably use use them because you dont get much sense from them.

Trackers are great for redirecting the nearest engineer to problem or urgent customers.

improving responce times etc. could even be cost effective.

We have it on my sales rep car as well.

the only problem is the managment and the in house service department managers find it a tool to abuse staff and check on thier every move, in the begining i was constantly being phoned and asked why i was in an certain area or why i was there.

Trackers are only as good as the system and of the use of them INCLUDING THE IDIOT WATCHING YOUR EVERY MOVE........


pros and cons... ?...

from a service managers view i think having it would harm the trust between real world managers and the engineers.we have to be able to trust the engineers if we expect them to trust us,just like we expect customers to trust us.if our company does go down this route i think ALL managers and ALL sales personnel should have to have it fitted as well.

Many pros and cons for this. Some people dont mind being "watched", others dont like it.

I think its good for security and factual investigation if necessary. It is not good if the goal is to "catch someone out".

90% it is not productive, how sure are you that they are doing what they are suppose to do even if they are at the right place? Can that device tell you they are working? its not a cheap device, it has cost in it, not very popular in the Philippines

I do drive a company Van that is fitted with a gps tracking device. It has helped me when I had a competitor (acting as a civilian) call in my van number and tell my service manager that I was doing 80mph and swerving all over the road. The gps showed me doing exactly the speed limit, exactly where I was supposed to be. Without it, I would possibly have gotten a write up. Now on the other hand, I've had to move my van on a saturday to snowblow my driveway (I live in Michigan), and got a call first thing monday morning asking why I had my van running after hours. Once I explained myself I was in the clear.
To me it's necessary since you can never trust anyone in this world, but the problems occur when the management confronts an employee in the wrong manner, as if they're TRYING to catch you doing something.

-The eye in the sky doesnt lie-

If they fit tracker, not only does it -show- "lack of trust", I think there is a valid arguement that it -proves- "lack of trust", and it doesn't matter when or how they do it.
I think everyone should be aware that people almost always expect others to be thinking the same way they do, so someone who is often considering how to work less expects everyone else to be considering how to work less, someone who steals expects others to be considering how to steal, someone who is honest and hard working expects others to be honest and hard working.
The method/timing of the install may have as much to do with management not wanting to create any -extra- friction as it does with trust.
I still have never seen a valid side by side comparison of the costs, strengths and weaknesses of the different available tracking systems, to be able to make an -informed- decision about the quality/pricing and what is my boss getting (to be able to look over my shoulder and second guess me) for the money my sweat earned for them. I have also never seen any ROI numbers/arguments that do not include the phrases "hard to quantify" unless they appeal to the argument that the customer will always complain that the tech took too long or was not really on site that long, and the tracker can prove they were on the site that long of a time frame.
I would also like to note that "lack of trust" should not really be considered a negative thing, since blind faith (which seems to me to be the opposite of lack of trust) qualifies as rushing blindly off a cliff.
To me, "lack of trust" more qualifies as "question everything" and/or "critical thought".

I'm not sure about being in the wrong.But if they have to fit trackers under the cover of darkness it shows a lack of trust,in my opinion.I will try and find out what FLT company had been told they could not monitor engineers out of normal working hours.