And the souls mounting up to God, Went by her like thin flames - Dante Gabriel Rossetti
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Bosses strap GPS trackers on employees
BOSSES ARE JACKING GPS tracking systems under the bonnets of employee's cars despite claims the technology unnecessarily invades staff privacy and contributed to the suicide of a Telstra linesman.
One popular Aussie tracker, the Gofinder Reporter, sends employers time sheets showing every stop, timings, distance covered, maximum speed and an estimate of the amount of fuel used.
The employer can use the information to map the worker's on Street Map or Google Earth.
Gofinder founder Graham Thomas claimed the system saved businesses a fortune.
However Aussie unions and workplace watchdogs are a bit worried that it might be going a little too far and it is starting to look like Telstra will become an example of the problem.
Telstra was threatened with prosecution by Victoria's Workplace Rights Advocate and threatened with prosecution after the Telco installed GPS tracking systems in 7,000 of its technicians' cars without consent.
In March last year, Leon Dousset, a Telstra technician for 32 years, committed suicide due to Telstra's stringent performance targets and the installation of the GPS trackers.
Dousset's doctor famously wrote to the press saying Dousset had been suffering from work-related stress saying, "He never mentioned any problems at home but did tell me he was upset at finally being forced to have a GPS in his work vehicle to track his movements".
Telstra said it was not aware of Dousset's condition which is odd really given the fact it would have known at he was at the doctors. µ
L'Inq
AP
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A management push at Telstra to track employees toilet breaks?!

That's when I would have taken a dump on the pres' desk with a post-it sitting on top saying "track THIS".

If a company really thinks it needs tracking systems to pick out slackers, then what it really needs is new management. 
Aluminum wrote: "Where are the comments from the usual Fox News brainwashed yanks who are always defending such STASI methods?"

You've been hearing too much propaganda from the government sponsored left (i.e the BBC). Most of us don't take Fox News anymore seriously than we do CNN. Both are entertainment talking heads with little real news.

Besides, the case in point is in Australia. Last I heard that was a bit southwest of the U.S. (though I've had Australians tell me how much Texas is like Australia)

Anyways, I'm glad I work in a data center and ride the bus.
It might seem a bit extreme for your employer to track your movements in the vehicle they have provided for you, but the system is designed to catch the slackers, not the vast majority of hard working employees.

I am sure we all hate the shirkers, those people that think they have a God-given right to be paid as much as possible for a little effort as possible? There are thousands of hard working individuals that could be filling their shoes. 

This system is simply designed for maximizing revenues, and ensuring that everyone is pulling their weight. If you are not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about. Hopefully this will eliminate all the slackers and provide employment for people who deserve a decent job.
At the time I was a contractor in a Telstra dept there was a management push to track employees toilet breaks. This of course caused an uproar but I left the company before it was resolved.
"Telstra said it was not aware of Dousset's condition which is odd really given the fact it would have known at he was at the doctors. µ"

Haha, good call Nick ;) topped off my friday arvo before leaving work.

I agree with Tom on this one, if the company has paid for the vehicle and they are paying you to be using the vehcile for work then there really isn't a problem with what they're doing.
I got a company issued, GPS-equipped, blackberry. They probaly track me 24 hrs a day. Luckily, I don't give a hoot, and I'm sure they tracked me to the drug den, the dealer's, the pimp's, the strip house, the orphanage, etc. Sigh. And the only conceivable, worthwhile use for the thing is ranked Sudoku (now that they dropped the price to $free... I am closing in inexorably on the 1,000 rank level....).
Where are the comments from the usual Fox News brainwashed yanks who are always defending such STASI methods? After all, property like a company's employee has no right of privacy, like the communist government owned people had none either.

In the meantime, in Europe companies get fined for violating employees' privacy. Not that I expect this practice to end until some of the worst bosses serve time in the clink.
Since managers get paid more, they should be tracked first and all their info should be updated in realtime for the stockholders.

All government employees should be tracked 24/7 and all their info should be updated in realtime for citizens. They should be locked into shock collars too.

Why would they object unless they were doing something wrong?
It is a company vehicle, they can do to it whatever they want. Why should the people using company vehicles have any expectation of privacy in them?
Previous employer put one on the company vehicle saying that they wanted to improve dispatch time. 

I was very doubtful that was the true reason and sure enough the first traffic tie up (accident closing the interstate) my cell phone rang after I had been sitting still for less than 15 minutes asking me why I wasn't still heading to the call. (This was less than three hours after they installed it!!) They were less than happy by how I explained the reason, finishing up that they should have provided a digital camera I could use to send photos back proving I'm not slacking, and how I hope they are happy watching me zig zag like a drunk from lane to lane...

I then got a call after I was moving asking why I had unplugged it. I found then that for all their 'concern' that they did a half way job connecting power to it...another bit of unhappiness from their end at my response!

All this was from a small company that really didn't need anything except common sense in making the best of the half dozen or so techs on the road (don't send tech A 50 miles to tech B's home town and tech B 50 miles to tech A's home town to service the same equipment).

I see legitimate uses, but wonder if it isn't misused more often than not.