Just wondering what other peoples experiences of this are because it’s finally happened at my place (there are only 3 drivers)
I turned up last At the yard Monday morning and the office has been set up with a nice big flat screen showing exactly where we are and speed etc. while staring at this screen I got handed a nice new iPhone which the nice flat screen is linked to
This phone has been going off on average 6 times per day asking what’s taking so long or why I’m stopped. I’ve spoken to the others blokes and they’ve had the same, we’ve an 83 year old driving for us and the old boy just turned it off
Is this normal? Or will the office get bored of their new toy? I ■■■■■■■ hope they do.
I understand probably most of you are tracked so just wondering if this is the norm.
We have them fitted but they still leave us alone, some drivers moan but the office just say if your not doing nothing wrong you got nothing to worry about, fair comment.
They got them mainly to stop drivers claiming nights out when they were at home but they have never rung me to ask me why I’ve stopped
Try and find a bloke at the rest stop who’s going Scotch and ask if you could put the phone on silent and ‘lose’ it on his wagon.
Just to panic the office for an entire day! Hopefully they will report your truck stolen, you will get stopped, and they will also get done for wasting police time…
Juddian- nope, no school leavers just a load of sad ■■■■■■■■ by the sounds
FarnboroughBoy11:
83!!! He shouldn’t be driving.
To be fair he’s only in a lwb sprinter and not dangerous at all behind the wheel. He’s fit as a fiddle too, we carry air conditioning condensers and he handballs his load on daily and they’re 100kg+
Thanks for the comments, glad it’s not the norm as its driving me up the wall.
Since we have ours fitted our guys have gone the opposite way and have slowed down. Everyone is an agreement (that drives) that the job is nice and chilled now since going down this route especially being paid by the hour, no more rushing round like blue arsed flies. Deep down I think management regret it as it costs them considerably more, when you think about the extra time in wages and tracker charges.
add a app called fake gps, its ace as you can cause a fake gps signal location, i normally put the location as either the street outside works yard, Gambia , or Poland then turn it off,
other good one , is to find out if they are gps or gsm based trackers, if gsm theres a little gismo that blocks the phone signal , also good if placed in transport office , as it blocks the whole offices mobile phones
th2013:
Hopefully they will report your truck stolen, you will get stopped, and they will also get done for wasting police time…
+1. Tesco are really bad with it, I used to get so much ■■■■ just for going a minute over my break or ‘taking too long’ to do something, luckily my current employer has them but doesn’t fuss. I hate them & they are one of the main reasons I want out of this game…
It can’t be any different from being tracked by GPS, which most fleets have now anyway. I did some freelance work for Wickes out of Flore in the late 90’s and even then the trucks were traced, didn’t make any difference to the way I worked though.
My company has had GPS tracking since before I started there, I know they check up but provided the loads get there on time they never bring the subject up. I got a guy I knew a job with us in 2007, I should have known better because I knew him as a compulsive liar. I told him when he started “Never lie to these people, they know exactly where the truck is, so if they ask where you are always tell them the truth”
“Oh don’t worry, I’ll never tell a lie, I hate liars” he said.
A few weeks after he started my dispatcher called me, he was a good guy … “Did you tell your buddy to never tell me a lie Pat ?”
“Yes, why ?”
“Because it didn’t work, he just told me he was parked up for 10 hours at Ramapo services near NYC, I checked his GPS and he is parked on his driveway”
He wasn’t there much longer, as it was a regular occurence.
95 % of companies who use them wont bother you. You still get a call to say where are you or what time will you be at such and such a place. I did work for one company who constantly rung up but whilst driving i never answered the phone to them. I did get told well we might have wanted to divert you…then send me a text then i would say. They are here to stay im afraid. Just wait till the next generation of tacho comes in. They will know every km of where and when that lorry went where for its entire life. Im just waiting for the live camera feeds back to the office that someone will surely want to bring in. You can see it now cant you. Apart from the front facing camera showing them the live feed of what you can see they will have them in the trailers. As soon as the last pallet is taken off your phone will be going asking why you havent left…even before your hour wait for checking and paperwork return
espresso:
I bought myself a cheap (£15) cab camera off Amazon, which sticks onto the inside of the windscreen and works a treat.
However, apparently, whenever my camera is turned on, the tracker stops working. Can’t for the life of me see why.
If my camera is turned on, the vehicle doesn’t move on the map until such time the camera is turned off, then it skips to my new position.
All the tracker records all day is the ignition being turned on and off
Some of the (cheaper) cab cameras’ electronics are not ‘screened’ enough to stop interference with the tracker - according the chap who installs our tackers anyway.
As for the office ringing every 10 minutes, the novelty for them will soon fade and then they will probably leave you alone. It was a similar scenario when cab phones first came out!
I’ve been driving lorries with trackers since 2002 on three different companies & had no prob’s at all. Still stop as & when I like for as short or long as I like & never had a problem.
If they ring you whilst you’re driving & they are aware that you’re driving (as they should be if they’re watching your tracker) then the person ringing you may actually be committing an offence even if you have handsfree. Perhaps you should remind your traffic office of this?
Finally, I personally won’t even answer on handsfree. I will carry on to the next safe parking place & call the office back.
As a member of the IAM I don’t take or make calls whilst mobile,handsfree or otherwise & I personally would recommend all professional drivers to follow suit.
It is quite noticeable the amount of concentration lost just by holding a telephone conversation,even to other road users around you. Vehicles not travelling at or maintaining a constant speed, passing you on the motorway & then becoming “trapped” behind the next slow moving vehicle, you pass them & nine times out of ten you can see their chin wagging ten to the dozen; not good!
Iirc the official figures show that even on handsfree you are more likely to be involved in a traffic incident than someone who is twice the legal drink drive limit. Although I stand to be corrected.
to the OP, they’ll never get bored by it! YOU’VE BEEN WARNED! 