i think it’ll be very interesting, i seen it before on the milk ,
eg;
most drivers did A > B then back to A …but one driver could only do A > B when asked why he said it couldn’t be done in his hours, this went on for weeks much to the frustration of the office planners who had to go fetch him from B with another driver to get the lorry back.
One day they put an instructor driver with him for the day , off he went doing his days work , doing it all by the book , till it got to the stage they got to B & didn’t have time to get back , ID confirmed all went to the book as all drivers were shown how to do the job , thats when the crap hit the fan as all the other drivers who covered the route were hauled over the coals for taking too many shortcuts through 7.5 limits , speeding & collection proceedure, trackers were fitted soon after
I’ve been helped out with one (large firm in lincoln, telly on the wall etc) I couldn’t find the road I wanted, was in the middle of nowhere trying to get round weight restrictions etc (yep, one of those days) when low & behold the phone rings 
that’s all I need thinks I.
T.m. you lost?
me; you could say that
T.m. yeah, our driver couldn’t find it yesterday
He then talked me in, in real time, just like a satnav 
in a bit you want to be turning left o.k. carry on along there for about a mile and turn right etc - was brilliant 
The next day though I don’t think he was in such a helpful mood, I was in scunny trying to find a road - struggling with weight restrictions again when I eventually gave up and got the sat-nav on the go (I do my best not to use it too much) It tool me to the road I wanted but I wanted the far end of it - Turns out this road gets cut in half by the steelworks so, after a massive detour and getting lost a couple of times I finally found how to get to the bit I wanted when the phone rang;
T,m, you went the long way round to get to that one didn’t you?
they must’ve been howling in the transport office! ah well, their fuel and I’m paid by the hour 
I’ve been some places where they’re a p.i.t.a. with them though. I’ve also heard they’re not allowed to watch you without your concent - something to do with invasion of privicy but don’t quote me on that one…
switchlogic:
I think your boss may be the problem not the tracker! We’ve had them since I started here, and they tell the office everything about the truck and what its doing as well as where it is but we only get grief (and then only a memo with the pay slip) for idling too long, otherwise they leave us to do our jobs. Think they are great myself, no more endless phone calls asking where I am and when I’m gonna be there.
I tend to agree with SL, handy if you can’t find your drop and the TO can “zoom” you in, also if you are carrying high value loads, it’s nice to know the office is watching. And if it was my fleet of high cost vehicles I’d like to know where they are 
Trackers are just another tool of the job, but in the wrong hands they are useless
I used to drive for a company with trackers fitted. On the one occasion I needed assistance with directions, I phoned the TM but he couldn’t help because he couldn’t find me on the screen. It was at that point I remembered my ‘piece de resistance’ aka the ‘GPS Jammer’, was still turned on
Tiger
ady1:
i wa told the other day by another driver theyd got a NAME and SHAME board at there depot now , if they check there iso-track thingy and find they were having breaks etc they shouldnt be having there name gets put on board with reason for all to see.he seemed a genuine enough lad so no doubt its true , but it does seem a bit over the top, if your proved to be doing something wrong then a bollockings fair enough[in private], but to try to belittle drivers in front of other drivers to me is not the way to deal with things
If they posted the names of the office muppets who were failing in their work it would be a bloody long list, but it may then have some validity!
Stan
typical tarmac gets trackers fitted in all owner driver trucks cost millions then cut the bloody rates
cause your operating costs have gone down .name and shame ex tarmac owner driver thank god
We have them on all our vehicles from vans to artics - we carry high value loads and it’s part of the contract with the customer.
We’ve had them about 8 ish years and in all that time have questioned a driver about choice of route about 3 times. We don’t spend all our time looking at them and analysng the thing, I’ve plenty to do elsewhere.
When we were first trialling them for a couple of weeks we sent a van over to France, told everyone that it was on and what it was about. So new toy in the office and we are watching in the office and he drives back towards Calais from Paris, but does a detour via Belgium 'cos the ■■■■ are cheaper… And we’d TOLD him we would be watching it because we wanted to see how it worked abroad!
One time it worked out well was battling a congestion charge; tracker printout showed our vehicle to be several hundered miles away. Obviously one of the many cloned motors down in London that day.
Right so plenty of traffic offices are using them but is it legal for them to be used to tell you which way to go or question your judgment or to continually chase you on to the next load
SCANNYFROG:
Right so plenty of traffic offices are using them but is it legal for them to be used to tell you which way to go or question your judgment or to continually chase you on to the next load
They can only ‘chase you’ if they can communicate with you - most communication devices have an ‘off’ switch
I can’t see why it would be illegal to tell you which way to go - if it’s their truck, their diesel and they are paying you…
Scannyfrog, it seems to me you must have a problem with your traffic office or someone in it. With costs how they are these days it makes sense to track vechicles. They know where there vechicles are,that can help protect you and your driving licence, eta’s just look at the screen “yes sir the lorry is 10 mins away”, no need for the phone call. I agree when it comes to routes you need to trust drivers intuition,discretion, but i will add that when you look at some of the routes that are taken by some drivers and that adds say another 80 miles to the job then things are going to be said i am sure. As for the help that the office can give drivers that are lost,cannot find their delivery address come up against an unmarked low bridge they are a godsend and have been used time and time again. Its the future of the transport indusry i am afraid and it is something you are going to have to accept. There is not a legal aspect of this at all. Trackers are here to stay and no dis respect to you or anyone else but if you are doing your job you should have no fear of these things at all. 
Had one on a hiab I was driving recently. Got back to the yard and the manager was showing it to me as his new toy. He then said “you spent 40 mins on an unidentified road” I said yep, it was the guy’s driveway! The “driveway” was about half a mile long. Rich bloke!! 
we have trackers on the gritters that show time ,speed ,direction ,spread width ,belt speed/gate opening ,now when a court case comes up because some numpty cant drive correctly for the road conditions and claims the road was not salted and want to sue ,they need to find another excuse ,and we do not have to make statements etc
the jcb i operate also has a tracker ,as does the van
boss checks on a monday to see whos been out on the weekend in the vans ,and they get charged for the mileage ,clear it with him first ,not a problem
I wouldnt worry about them too much, several times I have parked up at the yard, done me paperwork, stowed my gear and then meandered across to the office and watched myself on the 42" flat screen trundlimg down the road some 10 - 15 miles away.
SCANNYFROG:
surely this is illegal but I and several other drivers have been on vosas website and cant find anything either way.
Its not on VOSAs website because its not illegal. What makes you think that tracking the location of £100,000’s of their own vehicles is illegal?
Don’t like it? Go work elsewhere.
albion:
I can’t see why it would be illegal to tell you which way to go - if it’s their truck, their diesel and they are paying you…
ive no idea if its illegal or not, but it would be a bit daft to tell the driver what route to take from a office, can they see the long delay matrixs on motorways, road shut signs, roads to avoid because of conjestion,yes its there truck,fuel etc but they employ you, pay you for your knowledge to get job done.when we got took over we were told YOU KNOW THE JOB,GET ON WITH IT,not you steer it, we will direct you.
n.b weve got isotracks in cabs but dont use them, so i may be wrong when i say they dont know of accidents, delays etc
Having a tracker on can work both ways. I worked for a bus firm doing a private hire, when the phone goes.
“er we have had a complaint about your driving from another car,.”
I explained that this numpty was doing 20mph along the road and that when there was a safe place to overtake that the same numpty tried to hang me out to dry
“Yeah…ok, that confirms what the tracker says…carry on”
Weve got trackers fitted in all of our wagon’s,we get a weekly printout with excessive idling,out of green band,harsh braking,etc,etc and a percentage score for the week,anything below 95% 3 weeks in a row you get day with the drive trainer 
.When I used to drive for exel out of Banbury we had isotrak fitted and they were always watching you but if you texted a message to the office and they didnt want to answer ie “i’ve been sat on the bay 4 hours what do want me to do??” just text them again but include 999 somewhere in the message…it makes all the monitors flash red with your message something to do with hijacking used to get a reply straight back everytime !!!
Iv’e got one on the tug that i drive,and i don’t even get away from the yard
Tonyb
My Unit & trailer on most days is the best part of £3.5m
On occasions has small amounts of radioactive materials on board, I would want to constantly know as the owner and leagaly responcible person re:HSE ect where that vehicle is, wouldn’t you?
BTW I cannot remember having my route questioned, but one night had a phone call when stuck behind an RTA to check all was OK.
All the best businesses now use Sat Track as Albion states it can defend them from bogus charges.
I agree that some firms will use it as a spy in the cab but most resoncible operators who use it do so to protect there assets, & staff.