Rocky Mountain Tracking

Daily GPS News

Freedom from GPS Fleet Tracking

February 7th, 2013

The introduction or discussion of GPS fleet tracking has been met with varying responses from employers and employees. As specific industries and government-funded departments have decided to implement this new technology, opinions ranging from causes to freedoms to taxpayers’ money continue to abound—and to clash.

Some people, simply by personality, negatively react to the idea of accountability and control inherent within the establishment of GPS fleet tracking; however, the new technology seems to be spreading and attracting more supporters. Could a shift in thinking possibly help those in opposition see such changes as bringing more freedom instead of less?

Opportunity to Build Trust

Employees who accept the ramifications of GPS fleet tracking and function within the guidelines of the company can actually become highly trusted. Building trust in the employer-employee relationship has become increasingly difficult as employees in all industries have become less location-based. Even cubicles may become a thing of the past as employers continue to discover the increased productivity among satellite employees. As employees demonstrate their trustworthiness through the data collected by GPS fleet tracking systems, employers in general may become more comfortable with entrusting company equipment and responsibilities to off-site employees who have proved to be dependable.

Ability to Respond to Accusations

GPS fleet tracking being installed on municipal vehicles in Berkley Heights, New Jersey is actually viewed by some as a protection for employees. According to the Township Administrator, GPS fleet tracking will give an opportunity for employee’s uses of taxpayer-funded vehicles to be explained. When residents become suspicious about where they see the vehicles, they can voice their complaints and receive straight answers. Employees that are sent on special, work-related missions won’t have to worry about false accusations arising as they accomplish their work.

Automatic Record Keeping

As GPS tracking expands, company-owned vehicles can essentially keep their own records. While this obviously saves time in calculating miles and provides accountability for vehicle use, it also eliminates the concern for human error or intentional deception. As advocates of GPS fleet tracking have pointed out, the company who owns the vehicle has the right to know exactly how the vehicle is being used. In the long run, this automatic record can provide the employees with the freedom to use the vehicle in all the ways needed to get their jobs done.

Is It Legal To Monitor Employees With GPS Tracking Devices?

November 25th, 2012

Here at RMT, we’ve reported many stories about employers using GPS tracking technology. Some use the tracking devices to make sure their services are delivered as efficiently as possible. Other employers use the technology to ensure their employees are accurately reporting their working hours. In general, it is legal for employers to track company-owned vehicles. However, due to the privacy concerns introduced by GPS tracking and the newness of the technology, it is important that employers seek legal counsel before implementing GPS tracking policies.

Privacy laws vary from state to state. It is essential to contact a local legal expert about the specific privacy laws in your area. GPS tracking has stirred up a lot of controversy in regard to privacy rights. Some policy-makers are already working on legislation that would protect employees from being tracked at work. For example, New Hampshire had drafted HB 445, which would prohibit employers from tracking employees with electronic tracking devices without a court order or consent of the employee. Generally speaking, you should always protect yourself from lawsuits by getting written consent of your employees before tracking them.

There are many great reasons to track company vehicles, but know that it can have a negative impact on employee morale. Make your monitoring policies as transparent as possible, so employees know when and why they are being monitored. It is important that it is clear to employees that there is no expectation of privacy within company vehicles. If you choose to track employees, it is important that you implement this policy company-wide to avoid discrimination lawsuits. Again, the most important thing is to consult a legal expert and stay updated on employee privacy rights. This is the best way to protect yourself and your employees.

Which Type of Location Methods Best for Enterprise Applications?

October 30th, 2012

With so many location-based services and apps, each with a unique set of content and features to offer businesses today, how do you choose one best suited for your business? If you look closely at your needs in the areas of accuracy, privacy, latency requirements, and authentication, you can more easily narrow down the field.

Handset-based vs. Network-based

There are a couple of ways your mobile device can pinpoint your location, and you must understand them to make your decision. The first is network-based, where your wireless carrier uses various towers and hotspots to triangulate your location. Handset-based technologies rely on the built-in GPS technology installed in the form of a chip in your mobile phone.

A large number of smartphones come equipped with built-in GPS receiver, giving them an advantage when it comes to ease of use, but only about 100 million people in the US own a smartphone. The intense processing while determining your GPS location using this receiver can drain the battery significantly. If a device does not include GPS technology, your app will be useless. Furthermore, what good is a location-based app that can’t locate you because it drained your battery? Let’s not forget that to use the GPS satellites to determine your location, you must have an unobstructed view of the sky, and even in the best conditions, it can take minutes to get a fix.

That’s where network-based location wins. The battery life is not affected, and you can determine your location with or without data connectivity.

Protecting Against Fraud

With identity theft up 12% this year, it’s important for an enterprise application to guard against this as best they can. One way for financial institutions, for example, to protect against this would be to use a customer’s cellphone location along with where their card is being used. If they don’t match up, the card can be canceled, saving them time and money.

Network-based location is best for this, as you cannot spoof the coordinates that are coming from the carrier’s network infrastructure. This gives foolproof authentication, even in devices without built-in GPS. Using the financial institution example, a customer would sign up for the program, giving them permission to access their location data each time they use their card. If the transaction appears to be fraudulent, the bank can request more information by calling the customer directly, or flat out denying the transaction and suspending or canceling the card.

Location Verification

Many apps rely on location verification such as proximity marketing, industry-specific apps, and consumer apps to name a few. For consumer apps and proximity marketing, network location would be more desirable as it wouldn’t matter whether or not a user was indoors, or if the device has built-in GPS technology.

Employee Apps and Services

Network location works well for the workplace, as it can be easily integrated for web and cloud services into different applications such as Oracle, SAP, Salesforce.com, and other enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions. Think asset tracking, fleet management, call center, analytics and measurement, identity protection and fraud protection, proximity marketing, and usage-based insurance.

How To Integrate Location

Location APIs are provided to integrate all the different location methods into back-end enterprise applications. The different location methods send location data through the Location API into the enterprise ERP or CRM system, collecting the data for different applications to access.

To achieve success in your efforts to bring location services to your enterprise application, you must determine not only the data you’ll be collecting, but all of the pieces of the application puzzle that rely on that data across various systems. The bottomline: network-based location has many advantages over handset-based, and should be the first choice of any developer looking to add location services to their applications.

Another Payroll Fraud Busted By GPS Tracking

October 27th, 2012

The New Zealand Herald recently reported about yet another employee caught lying on his payroll by a GPS tracking device. A street cleaner in New Zealand was fired for consistently taking long lunches and going home early. From June and December 2010, a GPS tracking device attached to the city-owned street cleaning truck, revealed 17 extra hours taken for lunch and a whopping 46 hours taken off at the end of the day. It baffles this writer why any employee would lie about hours worked when their employer is monitoring their movement with a GPS device.

GPS technology is incredibly precise. An increasing number of employers are monitoring their fleets with tracking technology. Usually, the primary reasons for tracking work vehicles are increased productivity and fuel efficiency. However, being able to check time sheets submitted by employees is an added bonus. In this case, the driver’s supervisor, Mike O’Donnell, became suspicious of Robert Stuart’s submitted time sheets when he noticed he was difficult to get in contact with towards the end of each work day.

Stuart filed daily time sheets, often reporting coming in to work as early as 6am and not ending his shift until 5pm, entitling him to overtime pay. The GPS tracking equipment attached to his vehicle revealed large discrepancies in hours worked, and Stuart was fired. He then tried to sue his employers for wrongful dismissal, if you can believe it. He was seeking $12,000, claiming that his 6 years of services warranted less severe consequences. Stuart also complained that his employer demonstrated a “smug grin” indicating that the decision was premeditated. The Employment Relations Authority backed the maintenance contractor’s decision to fire Stuart. They also dismissed his employer’s counter-suit for the pay from the hours Stuart falsified.

GPS Tracking Of Louisiana State Employees Catches Some Cheating On Payroll

September 25th, 2012

One of the many great applications of GPS tracking device, is the ability of employers to monitor employees on the road. Of course, you want to trust that your employees are honestly reporting when they arrive and leave work, but too many stories like this are cropping up around the country not to take precautions. For more than a year, Louisiana State Alcohol and Tobacco Department employees have been monitored with GPS tracking devices. After reviewing the tracking data, consequences were given to agents whose GPS data didn’t match their reported work log. So far, one employee has resigned as a result of the investigation, and at least two will be receiving pay cuts.

“You’re always going to have a couple of bad apples,” explained Troy Herbert, Louisiana State Alcohol and Tobacco Control Commissioner. “I don’t think it’s widespread. I think it’s contained to a handful of agents.” His job is to oversee the regulation of Louisiana’s alcoholic beverage and tobacco industries. The employees are regularly out in the field monitoring bars and restaurants. When he first became the state’s commissioner, agents were spending four days a week in the office. He immediately pushed employees out in the field to actually monitor the state’s bars and restaurants.

Herbert has been working to keep the department’s budget under control for years. In 2011, he announces plans to get rid of six positions. He also installed a time clock for the department and stopped paying employees for their commute to and from work. Noting the difficulty of monitoring employees across the state, he also decided to attach GPS tracking devices to employee vehicles. All employees were notified that their vehicles would be monitored with tracking devices.

After reviewing the GPS tracking data, Herbert confronted several employees about discrepancies found. Some of the agents had believable reasons for their vehicles not being where they reported, such as sharing a ride with another agent. Others were not as acceptable, like staying home and monitoring bars via police scanner. Thus far, only three agents have received punishment, but more may be coming as investigations continue.

GPS Keeps Track of Time

June 15th, 2012

In these difficult economic times, it is important for companies to streamline their fleets and micromanage every mile and every minute. Econz Wireless has just released a new GPS tracking device in South Africa that will help do just that. They call it the Timecard GPS Lite, and it helps track people and assets without the need for time sheets and mileage reports.

Back to Basics

The Timecard GPS Lite monitors the location, speed, and mileage of a company’s employees while they are in transit through a handheld wireless device that uses not only satellite data but also terrestrial mapping. The system can be used with any standard cell phone as well as specialized phones such as Blackberry, Nokia, Sonim, Apple iOS, and Tablets. Data is sent every 300 feet, 45-degree angle, or 60 seconds, depending on which comes first when the device is in motion. Because the GPS data is stored in the firmware of the handset, it is not lost when the signal fails; in fact, once the connection is again established, the data is immediately forwarded. Data is stored for six months, and a company can access its data 24-7.

Special Features

Econz offers it customers special features that go above and beyond the typical GPS technology used for fleet management. Bread Crumb Trails record data based on speed and direction, leaving a virtual trail that can be easily retraced if necessary. The Speed Trigger feature allows a company to establish speed limit rules for its drivers and then notifies the administrator if a rule has been broken. The administrator can, in turn, send an email and/or text message letting the driver know of his infraction. The Idle Time Trigger works in the same manner, notifying management when the Timecard GPS Lite transmitter has remained motionless for an extended period of time. The device can even instruct the driver to call the office to discuss the issue. Using the Smart Fence feature, a company can establish a zone, as small as a specific building or as large as a state, and then request notification when the person or asset has entered that zone.

Econz Wireless offers a practical and affordable solution to help companies better manage their employees and their assets, reducing costs and improving efficiency. For less than $10 a month per device with $10 setup fee per device, a company can have the best of GPS technology at its fingertips.

GPS Provides a Smart Way to Track Labor Force

April 12th, 2012

GPS technology helps employers track their labor force in today’s global business world. Companies today hire people from all around America and the world. Some work from an office, but many don’t. You’ve seen people at the airport work while drinking coffee, waiting for their airplane – maybe you’ve done that once or twice? Contractors work from everywhere. And what about drivers or sales persons? But what’s the best way to keep track of their hours? And even better, where they are while they’re working?

GPS is the Answer
No doubt—GPS is the answer. Some companies have invested in hardware, which is special equipment that tracks work hours and pay. The problem is that this hardware can be expensive and there’s no way to fit it in your pocket. And because workers are all over the place, it’s hard for employers to know where their workers are when they’re working.

TimeMD is a company that provides an answer. In a smart way, too. Erik Rowland is TimeMD’s president. He believes that it’s essential for all companies to be able to know exactly where all their employees are at any given time while they’re working. This helps to keep the costs down and profits up. With TimeMD’s GPS platform, companies know where their employees are when they punch in. How do they do it? The answer is smart phones.

A Smart Way to Do It
According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, as of February 2012, almost half of adults with cell phones in America use smartphones. Today, three out of five adults that use a cell phone have a smartphone. Smart phones, like the iPhone, come with GPS capability. TimeMD’s president believes that if this trend continues, in the future there might be no more need for hardware—only software. Why? Because of the popularity of smartphones.

The system is easy. TimeMD provides the software, and they work with companies so that their platform can be tailored to their needs. Then, once the system is carried out, employees can punch in using their smartphone, and their employer knows where they are too—thanks to GPS.

Some might object to being tracked. That’s why GPS time tracking is voluntary. Once an employee says it’s OK, then there is no problem. Besides, the software only tracks the time and place, while personal information and data aren’t sent. TimeMD is an example of a company that is using GPS to help businesses take care of their most important asset: their people.

GPS Tracking Uncovers Trumbull County Employee Misconduct

March 31st, 2012

Government employees are hardly known for their work ethic. Despite the fact that their salaries are funded by taxpayers, most of us dread dealing with the Post Office or DMV employees. Of course, it’s unfair to make sweeping judgements, but a study conducted in Trumbull County, Ohio did not do the old stereotype any favors. The county decided to investigate employee misconduct by tracking county-owned vehicles with GPS tracking devices during working hours. The results were staggering, revealing that only 1 out of 6 county employees were working when and where they were supposed to.

In response to complaints that two county sanitary engineers were misbehaving on county time, the department secretly placed GPS tracking devices on the employee’s vehicles. The tracking showed one of the employees working less than 50% of the time during a 3-week period. Over a 3-day period, the other employee was only on-task for an hour a day. The data was used to fire both employees for gross misconduct, and green-lit a pilot program to investigate the rest of the department. According to Donald Barzak, Trumbull County Engineer’s office director of governmental affairs, “the study was not done for disciplinary purposes, but rather to obtain accurate data in order to evaluate daily operations.”

“The vehicles were chosen randomly. We didn’t do it to get anybody,” Randy Smith, an Engineer, explained. “No disciplinary actions were handed out.” The Board of Commissioners chose 6 vehicles to track at random, and recorded their movements over 75 days. The data was disturbing to say the least. 5 out of 6 of the vehicles monitored were shown taking unauthorized breaks, idling their vehicles, and participating in other inefficient behaviors. “Taking indirect routes to their assignments wasted the employee’s time, used extra gasoline and put extra wear and tear on county vehicles,” said Barzak. “GPS tracking can help us put an end to this behavior.” With this undeniable evidence, the County Board authorized the department to equip GPS tracking devices on all 33 county vehicles in order to hold the employee’s accountable during working hours.

GPS Keeps City Workers Accountable

November 11th, 2010

Trumbull County, Ohio, used GPS tracking to determine whether two employees were really doing their jobs. It turns out they weren’t. Whenever employees are away from the office for most of their work day, employers can find it a difficult task to keep them accountable. Within a limited area, it’s easier to keep people from wasting time on the clock, but when the employee is out of eyesight, he has a lot more options for cheating on work time. Employers can spend a lot of time and energy trying to keep tabs on their workers, and they can unknowingly be wasting financial resources by paying employees who don’t actually work. Even if they have reason to think that their employee is doing unauthorized personal business on the clock, their suspicions can often be difficult to prove.

How to Keep Tabs on Employees

A GPS tracking device attached to a company car is a simple way for employers to verify that their workers are doing what they are supposed to do. The device uses technology and satellite communication to show where the vehicle is at the moment or track the history of its movements. The device does all the leg-work for the boss, saving him the effort and time required to gather this data in other ways.

In the Trumbull incident, someone called in a tip that two sanitation department inspectors weren’t doing what they were supposed to do. Department supervisors decided to look into it by placing GPS trackers on the county cars that the inspectors drove. For three weeks, they followed workers’ movements, and then they used this concrete data to make their decision. One of the employees, David Harper, spent over 50% of his work hours during those three weeks engaged in other activities. In one three-day period, Lori Graham spent only an hour per day on work-related business. The rest of the time, the employees were each at their own homes, at other homes, or in shopping centers.

Based on all this information, the county commissioners voted to fire both of the employees.
While the two fired employees can request arbitration, their supervisors have a lot less to worry about with the solid data they received from the GPS. Uncovering the problem effectively ended the financial losses it was causing and will also serve as a deterrent for other employees who may be considering or engaged in similar actions. The county is now considering using GPS to check up regularly on their workers and hold them all responsible for their jobs.

Article Written By Greg Bartlett

GPS Cuts Transport Costs

September 15th, 2010

An Efficient Way for Transportation Companies to Save Money

As the economy continues to flounder, more and more companies that maintain a fleet of vehicles have started looking to GPS tracking to help them reduce expenditures. The cost of fuel, man hours worked, and wear and tear on the vehicle all add up over time, and most managers feel the squeeze as prices continue to fluctuate. When it becomes possible to monitor the use of each vehicle closely (and make adjustments to routes and driver habits as needed), many managers report impressive cost savings.

GPS Reduces Fleet Tracking Costs

A GPS tracking device attached to a vehicle can monitor that vehicle in one of two ways. Active tracking involves sending a signal directly to the Internet, which enables someone to view information in real time. Passive tracking includes stored information that can be downloaded to a computer at a later time.

Either way, managers can use this information to determine where their drivers are at any given time. With GPS technology, it becomes possible to track:

Routes: is a driver taking the most efficient route?
Speed: how fast is a driver traveling?
Stop Time: is a driver making unauthorized stops?
Idle Time: is the engine running while a driver unloads or eats lunch?

With this information in hand, companies can teach employees how to make better use of a vehicle, and of company time, resulting in reduced fuel costs and a reduction in employee working hours.

GPS Tracking Devices Equal Efficiency

As the economic recession drags on, companies who use GPS to monitor their fleet vehicles have been able to continue operating efficiently by reducing the amount of fuel they use and the miles they cover. Even after employees understand how to find the most efficient routes and how to conserve fuel while they’re out on the road, the devices can still make a difference by enabling the company as a whole to operate more efficiently.

For instance, if a driver contacts dispatch in need of a repair, a fleet manager can pinpoint a vehicle’s exact location. This allows dispatch to send the nearest service person to a driver’s location, which, in turn, can save a company time and money. The vast majority of fleet managers who have implemented GPS tracking have reported satisfaction with this decision – as well as saving thousands of dollars.

As businesses large and small continue to recognize the need for efficiency wherever possible, tracking devices prove cost effective. Efficient personnel, vast reductions in company costs, and a decrease in employee overtime are all viable results of GPS tracking technology.

Article Written By Greg Bartlett for Rocky Mountain Tracking