March 2008 - Feature
How to Defuse Driver Resistance to GPS
By Chad Simon
Proving Employees Are Right
The company offers a retirement program, 100-percent paid health and dental, and allows vehicles to be taken home at night. "Most of our competitors don’t. We can do those things and still pay top dollar because we are able to manage our business," says Christianson.
Another advantage offered by a GPS program is as a means to prove an employee was at a location on time. Christianson says a client may dispute the bill and say the employee was only there for a short period of time. "I can verify this and turn around and say he was there for two hours and 15 minutes. This allows us to be on the same side as our guy now because we have proof."
When introducing a fleet GPS program to employees, Christianson suggests that fleet managers bring it out with excitement. Tell them it’s a new tool to help the fleet become more efficient, so drivers know where the problem areas are and management knows whether one of the trucks isn’t operating correctly or is being abused or driven too fast. He says a bad company representative affects everyone, not only the person driving the vehicle.
A Deterrent to Abuse
David Hartman, president of EasyTurf, based in Escondido, Calif., uses NetworkCar in his fleet of 15 Chevrolet pickup trucks and has been with the provider for the past three years. One of the main selling points of the Web-based program was that the fleet could avoid regular California smog checks because NetworkCar constantly checks vehicle emissions levels. Another benefit Hartman notes are regular maintenance alerts sent to the company’s operations manager.
"The biggest reason we use GPS is as a deterrent because our crew leaders take the vehicles home with them in the evenings and on weekends. NetworkCar will let us know if the vehicle is used outside of certain time parameters," says Hartman. "Generally, our crews go out and stay in the same place all day, so we’re not using it to reroute them during the course of the day. But, if they’re late showing up to a job, we can look online and figure out where they are."
Employees are aware of the GPS system and are not allowed personal use of company vehicles. "We didn’t do this in a stealthy way. We let everyone know that if they disconnect the system, they’ll be in worse trouble than if they actually drove on the weekend," said Hartman.
Hartman suggests that other fleet managers considering implementing a GPS program be forthright and inform drivers it’s necessary to keep track of their equipment, and that insurance companies are increasingly mandating GPS systems.
"The last thing I would do is try to sneak it on them and not tell them about it. I know some companies that have done that and it doesn’t work very well," said Hartman.
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