Monitoring with Integrity: Best Practices and Legal Requirements of GPS Tracking

When the core of your construction fleet revolves around transportation, it is vital to have a detailed understanding of your fleet’s needs, shortcomings, and whereabouts. But old-school registers and Excel sheets are too time-consuming to be efficient. This is where GPS tracking comes in. 

It offers numerous benefits like higher productivity, lower fuel expenses, and employee safety, making it an essential tool for construction fleet management. In this blog, we will delve into the purpose of GPS tracking in detail and then look at the legal aspects of GPS tracking in Switzerland that you need to know. Let’s get started.

Purpose of Employee GPS Tracking

Employee GPS tracking comes with numerous benefits for your fleet including improved safety, and understanding of your employee behaviour. In this section, we’ll explore the purposes of employee GPS tracking in the construction industry.

Study Employees’ Driving Habits and Strategize Accordingly

Within a construction fleet, unsafe driving is a big risk factor. A single accident could cost a fortune, whether it causes damage to a person or a vehicle. A moment is all it takes for a mishap. This is where GPS tracking can help.

By installing GPS tracking into your vehicles, you bring more awareness and a safety-conscious approach to driving. Your employees will be aware that their actions are monitored. This will automatically compel them to drive safer. Further, it would be possible to detect unsafe practices as they happen. Instead of doing guesswork, you can make employees accountable. 

Control fuel expenses and time wastage

Construction fleets involve lots of driving—even if it means moving from site to site, gathering equipment, driving waste, and even lunch breaks. Although every employer trusts the information their employees give them, it can’t always be true. A few Swiss Francs here and there add up to a big amount in the long term. 

A GPS monitoring system helps reduce this wastage. It will push employees to prevent wastage. And it can track fuel consumption to give accurate data to the employer. Equipped with this data, you can plot strategies to minimize losses while keeping them updated about their fuel consumption.

Improve overall performance by evaluating productivity levels in real-time

It is fine if employees have breaks now and then, but if there are too many breaks during the work hours, it will bring down their productivity significantly. Such lapses add up and hinder the smooth functioning of your entire fleet.

Meanwhile, with GPS monitoring for employees, you can track their work hours and delays. You can keep tabs on their work and hence get the most productivity from your team.

Did you know that Logifleet’s Worker Connect is a mobile app dedicated to employee time tracking? It helps you track time and location data for your employees and ensures they’re at the right job site. Instead of wasting time on manual entries and outdated spreadsheets, you can let your employees work on meaningful jobs that give you tangible outcomes.

Understanding the GPS Tracking Requirements

Ever since their inception, GPS systems have progressed a lot. Today, fleet owners can not only locate the positions of their fleet but also track them and optimize them for the best performance.

The leading cost of any construction fleet business is payroll and fuel. GPS tracking systems let managers track unnecessary moves and reduce fuel expenses. This will also increase the life of the vehicles.

With 2313 cargo theft incidents reported across Europe in 2023, it's crucial for employers to track their vehicles and secure their assets. With GPS systems you can monitor your vehicles and detect unusual activity in real time.

Protecting employee privacy is crucial since company vehicles can also be used for the private needs of employees. Logifleet’s Business/Private feature allows employees to disable vehicle tracking while using it for personal purposes. This way, the platform reports only the number of private kilometers without disclosing any details of their movements, activities or schedules.

In short, GPS fleet tracking can help keep your costs low while ensuring the safety of your fleet. 

Legal and regulatory requirements for GPS tracking

Companies use monitoring systems to boost efficiency, optimize systems, and scale workflows.

But, you can’t just start monitoring employees; you have to pay attention to the legal side. Monitoring employees without their permission is never okay. So employers should define their policies according to Swiss law.

Employers are allowed to track their company vehicles using GPS tracking under certain specific conditions. Let’s check out what these are:

1. Superior Interests - When you consider individual cases of employees, the interest of the employer shall be balanced against that of the employee. A GPS tracking system is used in the interest of the employer.
2. Limited Risk -  Controls and tracing should be exercised to a degree that does not put the employee’s personality at risk. Further, there shall be adequate documentation about the system, timings, and recording of the GPS tracking.
3. Personal Protection - Personal data should be processed transparently. Employees must be notified about the type and aim of data tracking. Besides, only relevant data needs to be processed and access should lie with the authorities alone. 
   Internal company policies should be put in place to give employees transparency about GPS tracking and their rights. Also, employees shall have the right to switch off tracking in case of personal use.
4. Consultation Rights - Employees reserve the right to be informed and consulted by their employer if the GPS tracking is used for purposes beyond what’s primarily discussed. Such action requires more legal backing. Total surveillance and monitoring of employees at the workplace are completely prohibited.
5. Right To Inspection - Enforcement authorities have the right to inspect documents and data of the GPS tracking system upon demand.

Best practices for employers

Data privacy in Switzerland comes under the Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP). The law states a few guidelines for GPS tracking on business vehicles which is applicable to construction fleets as well. Here are some of the best practices you can follow to stay in line with the instructions.

1. Obtaining Employee Consent
   

   Employee privacy must be ensured and consent acquired before tracking their location under different criteria such as:

   • Work-related monitoring

   • Time-based monitoring
   • Object-based monitoring
2. Providing Clear Policies And Guidelines
   

   Procure employee consent for GPS tracking by clearly communicating the motivation of the company and its objectives during an employee information session. Obtain signed documents from each employee acknowledging that they have been informed and accept the system, to ensure complete transparency and accountability.

   If you’re looking for a customizable information document to implement GPS tracking in your company, contact Logifleet today.
   
3. Using Gps Tracking Data Responsibly And Ethically
   When tracking employees, you should use it at the minimum necessary levels to fulfil your intentions. Federal Court case law of BGE 130 II 425 acknowledges that the use of tracking systems is legal under specific conditions. Regular monitoring of employees’ behaviour is only allowed for legitimate reasons like security requirements, work planning, or organizational needs. 

   Note that the Data Protection Act mandates monitoring to be transparent and proportionate. Tracking systems can be used to verify working hours or prevent abuse, but only on a one-off basis. Real-time monitoring of employees is not allowed.

   This is where Logifleet’s Business/Private feature comes in. You can protect your employees’ privacy using this feature by allowing them to disable vehicle tracking during personal use.

   A GPS fleet management solution brings many advantages to employees including efficient navigation of construction sites, easy access to equipment and materials, and transparent tracking of working hours. Providing personalized access to the mobile app is a growing trend among companies nowadays. 

Conclusion

GPS tracking has become an indispensable tool in construction fleet management. As we saw, it brings numerous benefits such as reduced fuel costs, increased efficiency, and better safety. But it is important that you comply with the rules and regulations for GPS tracking in Switzerland, including obtaining employee consent, laying out policies clearly, and using GPS tracking responsibly.

Logifleet offers a complete solution for GPS tracking and fleet management solution that assists construction fleet owners in optimizing their operations and achieving greater efficiency. Our team not only helps customers set up the system quickly and access it from anywhere but also guides them in defining their objectives for their GPS fleet management project and presenting it to their colleagues. This step is crucial in implementing a successful GPS fleet management solution. 

You can set it up in a flash and access it anywhere. Try it today and optimize your construction fleet.

References:

1. https://www.weka.ch/themen/personal/arbeitsvertraege-und-reglemente/personalreglemente/article/technische-ueberwachung-am-arbeitsplatz-was-ist-erlaubt/
2. https://www.pilatushof.ch/en/news/details/data-protection-in-the-workplace-what-must-the-employer-observe
3. https://www.insightful.io/blog/spying-on-your-employees-law
4. https://www.walderwyss.com/user_assets/publications/1860.pdf
5. https://www.hg.org/legal-articles/workplace-monitoring-of-emloyees-in-switzerland-53204