On the other hand, if you act on inappropriate tracking in California, you can get 6 months in jail whereas the business will lose the license.
In other states, the illegal tracking is taken more seriously and considered a felony which can get you more than 6 months in jail.
According to GSA, DOT, and US Department of Justice, there are different fleet laws and regulations in states.
One of the most important differences in fleet management laws is the following:
- In California, if you want to track an employee, you need to inform him first.
- You must not track a person without his consent, you must inform him, in Connecticut.
On the other hand, in one case in New York, an employer was allowed to track the employee’s private vehicle. This is based on employee’s lying on the time sheets.
The GPS tracking employees laws in New Jersey are rather different.
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Notably, you are allowed to use GPS tracking system as long as you are driving on public roads and you have no right to privacy expectations.
With the adoption of new technologies, the government is figuring out the laws. Every case is different from the other and what is legal in one state, it is considered a felony in another.
Compliance with DOT regulations
The USA Department of Transportation creates laws on interstate carriers tracking. For example, a fleet manager needs to provide the following:
- A list of detected violations during inspections
- State-supplied crash reports
- Violations reports identified by federal or state investigators
In addition, the Congress states that all fleet management solutions need to have EOBR – electronic onboard recording in vehicles.
However, all GPS devices need to be certified by the FMCSA and log a duty status record and send it to the concerned authorities.
These laws are created all due to the safety of the driver, the vehicle and the company as well.
This also includes the Hours of Service (HOS) which according to the law, drivers must not go beyond 14 hours of driving without a 10-hour break after shifts.
Likewise, drivers are not allowed to drive for more than 70 hours in the 8-day period.
All of the regulations can be tracked with a vehicle GPS tracker.
Consider Employees’ Interest in Privacy
Another thing to consider is the employer’s reason for tracking apart from the employee’s interest in privacy.
For example, if an employee has been found stealing a property of the company, then implementing a vehicle rollout in company-owned vehicles is reasonable.
In addition, it is the safest approach and more importantly, it is applicable to the GPS tracking employees laws.
In this way, an employee has no interest in privacy.
However, if an employee is not familiar with the monitoring procedure, then he will claim invasion of privacy.
However, the real question is the following: “If you faced a vehicle theft recently, is installing a GPS tracker for delivery trucks lawful?”
To emphasize, this act strictly depends on the state where your company is established and operates.
As an illustration, there are states which prohibit this, unless you provide warning or notice in advance.
Continually, there is an expectation of privacy in the non-public areas.
Therefore, it is important for you to do the following:
Install GPS in Vehicles
As shown above, the benefits of business GPS are insane. The device not only improves employee’s productivity but also creates an overall progress of the business.
On top of that, it creates way more efficient as well as fast fleet management.
If you want to get your business on a whole new and higher digital level then you definitely need GPS tracker.
Continually, as long as you comply with the GPS tracking employees laws you can use the fleet management software.
What is more important, you can improve your business without breaking any law of the United States.
Moreover, you can update customers on their cargo by knowing the location of it.
In this way, with the help of the GPS tracking employees laws, you can create a chain of efficiency and productivity at your business.
To emphasize, the US laws allow you to use the tracking software in a way where you meet your needs and legal rules at the same time.
Moreover, by knowing the location of a trucker, you can easily inform your customers about the due time of the cargo arrival.
In this way, with the help of the GPS tracking employees laws, you get informed about your rights and create a chain of efficiency and productivity at your business.
How GPS Tracking Helps Safety?
The number of companies using fleet trackers is getting bigger and bigger. In addition, by complying with the GPS tracking employees laws, they improve their business.
Furthermore, they learn more about the duties of the employees. What is more important, they learn about how long employees are on the field in order to ensure safety.
To continue with, the employers get information whether their employees are properly paid for their hours of service.
However, what employers must omit is tracking the staff off the clock and without their consent.
It is also important to limit the access of the recorded information.
As with so many other areas of employment law, a good policy is invaluable. Your policy should clearly and simply describe how and when communications and activities will be monitored.
It should clearly state that employees have no expectation of privacy on company equipment.
You should also include guidelines about what employees may and may not do. For example, can they make private calls?
If an employee could be disciplined based on information acquired from a monitored telephone call or GPS tracking, then you should include that in the policy, too.
