Company Car - tracking private usage

DonningVonKruger

Hi,

I have a company car for both personal and private use. The vehicle is fitted with a tracker, however I do not have access to it or even know where it is. From what I can see, the law is very clear in that my private usage cannot be tracked and I should be able to turn the tracker off outside of working hours. I found this:

The Human Rights Act 1998

"Article 8 says that everyone has the right to respect for their private and family life, and their home etc. This is particularly important when considering vehicle tracking and your employees. For instance, if you are tracking a company vehicle that is used outside of working hours, you must have a privacy button in place where a driver can switch off vehicle tracking, outside their working hours. This helps to protect their privacy and helps make sure that your vehicle tracking device is only in place to track the vehicle, for business purposes, and not the individual, for any other purpose."

I do not have access to any portal or button to disable tracking so cannot guarantee my employer is not tracking me (my FD is a nosy cow and I would be surprised if she wasn't). I am sure their argument would be that it is to prevent theft of the vehicle and to aid recovery, but I have had an example where it was used to track me personally. I was working from home due to having a chest infection (pre-Covid days) and my wife took the car out, which she is authorised to do. I was marked as sick and the tracking data being used as evidence. I believe this is also illegal. 

Am I within my rights to approach my employer and ask for an option to disable the tracker outside of business hours?

TELLIT01

It would seem so from the wording of the Act.

k3lvc

DonningVonKruger said:

Am I within my rights to approach my employer and ask for an option to disable the tracker outside of business hours?

Yes - but then depending on your role/length of service they're equally at liberty to terminate your private use of car and/or employment (esp as there seems to be some history in the relationship)

Grumpy_chap

No matter how nosy the FD may be, she is probably very busy and has better things to do with her time than monitor the whereabouts of company cars unless there is, by exception, some specific reason to need to investigate the data of a specific vehicle at a specific time.

Especially if there is a large fleet, the sheer volume of data would be too much to look at as a regular event.

The past case of investigating a possible fraudulent sick-day would be a "by exception" review of the data. 

Perhaps the real question for the OP is to understand why, when off sick, the company had sufficient doubt as to be checking up on that? 
Also, why the company did not simply accept the answer that the journey was made by the OP's wife?

Thrugelmir

DonningVonKruger said:

I was working from home due to having a chest infection (pre-Covid days) and my wife took the car out, which she is authorised to do. I was marked as sick and the tracking data being used as evidence. I believe this is also illegal. 

Sounds as if there's a potential trust issue. As the use of the vehicle was during normal working hours. 

DonningVonKruger

Thanks for the responses. It's a very small fleet, only a handful of cars. The FD has intimated that she checks up on cars before and there is often no good reason for it. As for the sick day, there would be no implication in me phoning in sick - I would still have got paid, so if I was swinging the lead I would have just done that. The fact is I was WFH despite being ill, but this is more an example of the FD over-reaching which is my concern. She would definitely be the type to log in and see where people have been at the weekend. 

Grumpy_chap

DonningVonKruger said:

The FD has intimated that she checks up on cars before and there is often no good reason for it. 

She intimates that the movements can be checked at any time and for no reason.  

She probably more than intimates it - no doubt she states it as official company policy.  It is not uncommon when vehicles have trackers that they came with a statement along the lines of can be checked by the company at any time and for any (or no) reason.

Sometimes trackers are required for demonstrating working hours under contract to the Clients.

Does anyone actually check the movements?

I have previously had a role where the vehicles were fitted with trackers and it was part of my role to check some team members.  Frankly, the process was all rather clunky and I never did unless specifically required to as part of a specific verification - usually to prove "on site" hours worked to a paying Client.  Any other time, I really had better things to do.

The fact I really never did check movements, did not mean that the official line ever changed from "can be checked at any time for any, or no, reason".  Indeed, saying we had invested in the trackers but then we'd never check them would be entirely pointless.

The time I was most asked to look was when a driver needed something checked for their own purpose - usually following a speeding or parking ticket being received and they were adamant "it weren't me, Guv".

TELLIT01

From the business and probably insurer viewpoint there are huge potential benefits to having trackers in cars.  It may well bring down insurance premiums because there is a far greater chance of recoving the vehicle if it is stolen.  Having a simple way for an employee to disable to tracker will also make it easy for a thief to do it.  As others have said, there may be something in the agreement for you having a company car to state that a tracker will be active at all times.

Thrugelmir

Appears that your employer is acting legally.

https://www.rewiresecurity.co.uk/blog/the-united-kingdom-gps-tracking-laws

prowla

Presumably the tracker is also useful if the car gets stolen or whatever.