Tracker In my Company Car - Advise pls

MuttsNutts

MuttsNutts

MuttsNutts

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18 Nov 2010
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I have a company Car and we have had Trackers in them for years now - the excuse and the reason we was told they was having them installed was to backup the charges for our onsite visits to customers they pay per hour you see & customers always desputed the callout times, hence Car park outside for x amount of hours ties in with our paperwork & customers then can't argue the toss...... Yea I know feble excuse.

Any how all great no issues in the past in them being Big Brother on me in the car, but just recently I've had emails and lets call them "Little Words in my ear" (nothing offical) about where I am or was & why etc out of working hours, e.g got an email asking:

What was I doing at such and such a place at Midnight last night?
&
Why was you parked at XXXX for 4 Hours and didn't get home till 3am.

You know personal type queations and I feel why should I have to explain myself to them, We are allowed to use the Cars's for personal use anyway thats why I pay more TAX in my wage and get the P 11D forms every TAX Year......

I have raised this issue at a company meeting & a few of us agree that out of working hours they should not be able to Spy on us & then ask questions about it - We all got shrugged off really.

Anyhow morals aside - I have seen them GPS signal blockers on the Bay from China for about £15 and thinking of getting one to use outside of my working hours.
I asked my Boss about one as he agrees the Big bosses should not be able to spy on us outside of working hours and he said He says he can't stop me getting one or using one out of working hours but would advise against it.


My Questions:
1. Are they legal in the UK?
2. Have any of you got one or seen one in use?

Thanks in advance
 
That's a massive invasion of privacy. I'm 99% sure that is breaking the law. I would make copies of the emails and "quiet words in the ear" and present them to your tribunal or employment law solicitor. Or you could be nice and go direct to HR first and tell them your intentions to do so if they are not removed from your vehicle. I'd also consider tampering with the device so it stopped working for now. Surely it's a can of worms and puts you at risk with speeding offenses etc as well?
 
mattx2 said:
Who at the company is asking those questions if the bosses agree with you ?

Also I would be massively kicking off about that type of invasion of privacy

But to answer your question I think it's a grey area it could fall under these rules

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/enforcement/spectrum-enforcement/jammers/
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My Manager agrees with me as he has a tracker in his Company car too.
The bosses that are asking me these questions are the Directors mainly 2 of them one is the Finance Director (A Dirty mid 40's MILF)
The other is the BIG boss, Owner & MD.

Think I will order a jammer & see what happens, if they can't see what Im doing after working hours then i suppose they will stop asking the questions.....

On the plus side of the Tracker it has come in handy when i had crash on the motoway once, the other party claimed I was weaving all over the road and speeding quite a lot, came to the claim and I slapped down the Tracker report which proved I was just under the Speed limit at 68MPH & had not moved lanes for 2 miles so no weaving - I was supprised at how detailed the tracker report could be.
 
unfortuantly the GPS blockers (35827) you can buy from numerous international websites aren't legal to buy or use in the UK which is a bit of a shame, otherwise you could have blocked them from tracking you.

I'd be tempted to take it up with your union if you have one, have a look over your contract and if questioned about your activities ask them if they have a formal problem with your work.
 
hurfdurf said:
Haha, I would be raging like mad. Find out the laws they have broken and get on it.

Stand and bang, get someone fired over this.
Click to expand...

i started reading your post and knew someone would have to stand and bang

then you actually posted it and it completed my day :p
 
jaybee said:
That's a massive invasion of privacy. I'm 99% sure that is breaking the law. I would make copies of the emails and "quiet words in the ear" and present them to your tribunal or employment law solicitor. Or you could be nice and go direct to HR first and tell them your intentions to do so if they are not removed from your vehicle. I'd also consider tampering with the device so it stopped working for now. Surely it's a can of worms and puts you at risk with speeding offenses etc as well?
Click to expand...

Well to Answer the "puts you at risk with speeding offenses"

No it doesn't as I have speeded pleanty of times and they don't had you over to the police or anything, if it's excesive they give you a nudge asking me to slow down.

But by law now companies have a responsability when they have provided a car as they are now Liable to prosecution if I hit someone and cause death or seroius injury as am I, if the company has not put steps in place to warn or discipline enployees for motoring offences.

Just after the using a mobile phone while driving rule came in, I was on the phone when driving and a member of the Public called my office and complained about it (they knew who to call as my Car at the time had adverts on it)
Anyhow the day after I was in the office and they gave me a written warning for the offence, as if that member of the public reported it to the police aswell and they followed it up my compnay needed to prove I had been delt with otherwise My comapny would have been in trouble also.
I argued the toss as I had not been provided with a hand free kit at that time as they was on order my bosses said they did send a Memo & email out advising us all not to use phones while driving until the hands free kits had been issued. So I lost.
 
Morba said:
How does it monitor lane swapping?
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I have no idea, but it's limit seems to be about 1 metre shift.
They are top of the range trackers from what i can tell.

I can't see the reports I have to request one and give a valid reason.
So it might be more than just GPS at work here.

Legal or Not for £15 it's worth an investment... If it dont work then will prob go down the invasion of privacy road if they continue to ask those questions.
 
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MuttsNutts said:
I have no idea, but it's limit seems to be about 1 metre shift.
They are top of the range trackers from what i can tell.

I can't see the reports I have to request one and give a valid reason.
So it might be more than just GPS at work here.

Legal or Not for £15 it's worth an investment... If it dont work then will prob go down the invasion of privacy road if they continue to ask those questions.
Click to expand...

If you have to have a valid reason for request, shouldn't that be the same for the people questioning you?
 
Would it not come under some sort of freedom of information type request, the reports are effectively about you so you should be able to gain access to them simply because you want to.
 
you won't stop it just by blocking the gps (which is illegal), you'll also need to block it's communication method, probably gsm (illegal again).
 
Have you asked them why they feel the need to ask those questions if it wasn't during working hours and when you are allowed to use the car privately?
 
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