Did you know that President Ronald Reagan opened the GPS system up to the public? Since then, many business owners have been interested in fleet management and employee tracking using GPS.
Is this legal? Are you allowed to use vehicle tracking on your own employees?
In this article, we will walk you through everything you need to know about GPS vehicle tracking in your company.
Best Practices for Staying Legal Tracking Employees
If a business owner wants to use GPS tracking to keep an eye on employees, whether to make them more productive, make sure they follow safety and traffic laws, or look into wrongdoing, the company should think about putting the following guiding principles into place first.
First, learn about the privacy laws and GPS tracking of drivers and/or other devices in the region where you want to use GPS tracking.
Only use Gps data on devices or cars that belong to your employer. Case law and laws show that it is usually legal to track an employee using company assets, especially if the employee knows that GPS is being used to track them. Keeping track of how employees use their own things is still a legal murky area.
Employees should only be watched if there is a good business reason to do so. There are risks to tracking employees with GPS, like the chance that an employee will feel like his or her privacy has been invaded and start a lawsuit. So, an employer should only think about monitoring if there is a business need that outweighs the risk.
Following Policies
Make sure you have a GPS tracking policy that is written down. It should explain why using GPS tracking is good for business, when and how employees can expect to be watched, and how the employer will use and protect the information gathered.
If an employee will get in trouble if they turn off a GPS device without their boss’s approval, the GPS tracking policy must also tell them what will happen. Make sure all employees know about the policy and ask them to sign off on the fact that they have read and understood it.
Last but not least, be responsible and kind. In accordance with your GPS tracking policy, you should only track employee activity throughout work hours, and you should only track employee position for a specific business reason. Lastly, make sure that any data you have about GPS gets kept in a safe place.
If you’re considering a GPS tracker for car fleets for your employees, consider these options.
Can You Follow Employees With GPS Tracking?
At the end of the day, it is legal to follow employees using GPS tracking. However, the legal ramifications of monitoring employees this way can be somewhat unclear. By following the above policies, you’ll be likely to keep your company safe.
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