Busted! Tampa City Employee Caught in the Act by GPS Fleet Tracker
1 Jun 2015For the second time in recent weeks a Tampa city worker was caught where he wasn’t supposed to be on city time during work hours.
Specifically, Lawrence Woodfin was caught spending hours at his home, despite being on the clock with the city. The city will determine whether he can keep his job or will be subject to other disciplinary action.
The GPS fleet tracking device that caught the employee’s misdeeds attaches to vehicles magnetically and notifies local governments whenever employees move the vehicle.The device then sends out a report indicating that it is in motion and where the vehicle is going.
Mark Williams, a Tampa Public Works employee, was fired recently after GPS tracking revealed that he had made 36 personal stops in five days using city trucks and on the city’s clock.
Where did he go? Locations included several different restaurants, Ikea, and even the Florida Lottery Office.
Woodfin’s allegations are somewhat different. He first drove to a sandwich stop where he remained for 16 minutes before driving the city truck to his home where he spent four hours and 41 minutes before returning to work and clocking out for the day.
The GPS tracking device showed the same activity the following day, despite the fact that his claims that both days were spent hard at work marking utility lines in 13 different locations.
Tampa is not the only city using GPS tracking on employee vehicles. City governments understand that these workers are paid by the hour and if they’re not where they are supposed to be and actively doing their jobs then the city is losing money.
St. Petersburg has 150 city vehicles with GPS tracking enables and Clearwater is in the process of equipping its fleet of vehicles. Lakeland has them on waste haulers, police cars, fire engines, and dump trucks.
So far, Tampa remains the only city to use GPS as the lone item of support for disciplinary actions.
The use of GPS tracking for employees is not limited to city governments. Many businesses are using fleet tracking devices to track and monitor employees while on the clock.
It’s another cost management benefit of tracking systems that employers are able to effectively keep an eye on employee productivity and make employees more accountable.
Businesses, just like city governments, do not want to lose money by paying workers who aren’t doing what they’re supposed to be doing whenever left unsupervised.
It’s not only about catching people visiting restaurants and going home on the clock, but allows business owners to monitor what employees do after hours, too.
Company vehicles represent the business whether it’s during office hours or not and moonlighting employees, or employees using business property for personal use could prove disastrous for businesses. GPS fleet tracking devices help to eliminate these things from occurring.
Comments are closed.