GPS at work - a way to make sure employees are doing their job

[The Straight Story]

Goofing Off? GPS Knows Where
BY CHRIS SEPER
c.2004 Newhouse News Service

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Customers and nosy neighbors sometimes accuse house painters at Neubert Painting Contractors in Cleveland of leaving work earlier than they should.

It used to be the workers' words against their accusers'. But now the company trusts a printout. Global positioning transmitters in all the company's trucks log how long the vehicles are at a location.

"When I tell them I have this documented, it sort of takes the wind out of their sails," company President John Neubert said.

Global positioning systems don't just tell you where you're going anymore. Businesses are starting to use information compiled by the technology to boost efficiency. GPS can warn businesses when employees are speeding, time how long vehicles sit at one location and tell whether it's time to change the oil.

"People have to manage their mobile work force better," said David Lowman, chief financial officer at SageQuest, a Beachwood, Ohio, startup that sells GPS services to company fleets.

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