NJ Transit Sniffs Out Employee Fraud and Abuse through GPS Tracking
17 Jun 2014
GPS tracking helps find employees that were committing fraud against the New Jersey Transit.
The NJ Transit used tracking to catch a total of ten employees that were caught committing fraudulent activity and abuse against their employer. The employees received varied levels of discipline — from suspension and fines, to termination — based on what they were caught doing.
This comes just a month after the transit authority began tracking the vehicles with GPS tracking devices as part of a $500,000 program. The program was intended to catch this very type of abuse, so it has been successful so far.
Global positioning systems (GPS) have evolved over the years, offering a wide range of benefits to various types of organizations. This type of technology uses satellite signals in order to gather information and data.
The NJ Transit were concerned about abuse by their employees, which led them to using the devices in the first place. There were 480 vehicles being tracked with GPS by the New Jersey Department of Transportation, which actually began about two years ago to improve efficiency and save fuel. Through this, they noticed some odd behaviors and decided to install new trackers to get more information about their employees and productivity six months ago.
As far as saving on fuel, there has already been benefits in that area from the GPS tracking. Less hours have been logged of employees using their fleet — dropping to 68,069 hours from 108,655 hours, which is also saving considerably on fuel.
While using this GPS tracking technology, the organization found ten employees that were violating the policy. These offenses including using vehicles for personal use and reporting more working hours than they were actually working.
A high-level superintendent was suspended for a month when he was caught using an assigned SUV for personal use, including carrying other passengers, which was strictly against their corporate policy of the vehicles.
Other employees received suspension or were fired for more severe cases of fraud and abuse. While catching employees was not their primary objective, it is something they were worried about, and has already proven to help them find and discipline employees committing abuse against NJ Transit.
Another common trend they noticed when tracking their assigned fleet with GPS devices, is that the vehicles would be parked at inappropriate places for long periods of time, such as local bars. This would be in the middle of what should have been a work shift, further worsening the situation.
While it was unfortunate that they did indeed find employees abusing their policy, Jim Simpson, who is the State Transportation Commissioner in New Jersey, was happy that it also helped them to save money and reduce fuel usage.
The NJ Transit is ensuring their employees that GPS tracking of employees is to help save on fuel costs and improve productivity, not to spy on their employees and catch them in the act. For now, it is helping with their original goals.
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