Car trackers and dashcam

[Curiouscat28]

My employer is bringing in trackers for company vehicles and dashcams for insurance and data collection for the environment to be compliant.
I am in middle management operations role and travel a lot to sites.
I have no issue with a tracker or external facing dashcam (the standard one) we can turn them off for privacy when using the car outside of work. It has not been confirmed but the dashcam may be internal, monitoring and recording via video if you drink and even yawn, basically anything that could question your concentration. I feel this is a step too far and although do not do anything to warrant my saying no, I just feel uncomfortable.
it is natural for people to be curious, say manager gets an alert of my driving because I had a sip of water, even though they say it is for insurance reasons, they are the type who are curious and would check the alert. What do you all think? Am I overthinking this?

The bottom line is that if its a work vehicle then your employers should be able to see what is happening

I think the internal ones record sound too so. It so intrusive.

If it really sends alerts every time you yawn, drink or sing along with the radio then I would really not be happy with that. Massive invasion of privacy.

It's strictly covered by gdpr

www.ramtracking.com/resources/blog/vehicle-tracking-laws-for-uk-businesses/

YANBU but unfortunately your only option is probably to vote with your feet and cite that as your reason for leaving.

I don’t think your manager will get an alert every time you sip a water. They’re more to use in the event of an accident/incident to inform them what was going on both inside and outside the vehicle. Nobody has enough time to care that you yawned once!

Recently they’ve been very useful to show HGV drivers literally watching tv in their cabs and killing carfuls of people and children through distracted driving and it must discourage people who are tempted by that sort of behaviour and be a useful tool to prove/disprove negligence in the event of accidents which can cost companies a fortune if they have fleets of vehicles on the road and no capacity to dispute claims.

Is it an AI camera ? They can be switched on to monitor movements - eating, drinking , phone using etc but they don’t actually record unless your employer requests it. They also can turn on ‘warnings’ so say you were having a drink, it would alert you in the vehicle so you would stop drinking and it wouldn’t be logged as ‘an event’

i understand the benefits of it. However the video I watched of this model showed the things that cause an alert, the examples are yawning and taking one hand off the wheel, having a drink.
I feel uncomfortable in lifts with cameras and basically my car is the office and feel it is a step too far. What I think it will do is demotivate me to go the extra mile. I make early appointments so I can fit more into my day, rarely do I use the full lunch allocation as I eat it in the car parked and make calls, do emails. Basically it will change my behaviour not with driving but in how I do my job and all the extra things I do. But as I will feel watched in my car, I will spend less time in it

Thank you, have checked all of this. With the majority I am okay with it just feel uncomfortable with the camera. Plus annoyed that it was sent but with no information about how we can protect our privacy when not in work hours. If they had of explained that they value our privacy out of company hours I would be more tolerant but it was this it. Aware they will need to do their due diligence though

Do you think maybe that’s a good thing though? Fewer early morning tired starts and eating in your car and then carrying on tired/without adequate break? Safety-wise you need breaks for a good safety reason!

You make a valid point. However there is nowhere for me to go privacy wise. I visit customers so if I opted to have lunch at their site restaurant I am amongst customers and either expected to purchase my lunch from them or carry my own lunch with me to the appointment. I work with caterers so not a good look taking my own food and don’t get a lunch allowance unless staying away.
i actually don’t even track my children or anyone, don’t have a ring door bell thing or ctv etc despite this I am okay with the tracker and the standard dashcam but not the one one inside the car. Plus if there is even a hint of them recording phone calls hands free I would need to declare it to customers, then there is the privacy thing on phone calls. Where does it stop? Can I say I won’t take phone calls in the car, at present if I said this it would be frowned upon and I would be penalized in a passive aggressive way but they would have to accept it.

Check the type of dashcam - some can be 'live viewed' at any time remotely, others need you to connect the card to a phone/laptop to be viewed so you'd have far more privacy.

A lot of the corporate vehicle insurance policies now require trackers and/or dashcams, so it's pretty normal - although I'd check if you can really turn off for private journeys without invalidating the insurance.

From experience with fleets, I can assure you we only look at dashcams if there's an issue, as it takes too long to review. If the card style I mentioned, they will overwrite every few hours as well, so a conversation you had this morning will probably have been overwritten by lunchtime.

I think it is an invasion of privacy. The outward facing one, fine, but I would not accept a camera on me constantly while I'm working at a desk and recording everything I do!

Join a union

Get legal advice

Put a sticker over the camera when not in works time

Yeah I wouldn’t accept this. It would be a red line for me and I would leave before being expected to have my privacy invaded like that.

Its becoming a stadnard thing, as I saw it does not really send alerts it more for analysis in the event of an accident. I.e. where you on the phone and distracted, where you sending messages and (normally) only gets looked at in the event of an accident and is given (or taken) by the police for their investigation.

I’m amazed at those who voted YABU, some really don’t care for their own privacy. I wouldn’t be happy with an inside camera, where’s the trust from your company?

Surely the footage will only be used in the event of an incident?

I teach and all classroom and corridors have multiple cameras. In non contact times, lunch and break time, the cameras still roll so are recording footage of me doing admin, having a break, eating lunch, checking my phone, speaking with colleagues etc. I’m used to it by now and I know that footage is only scrutinised in the event of an incident. Footage from these cameras was actually used to support my colleague who had to manually restrain a pupil from severely injuring another pupil in a lesson. The parent of the pupil doing the attack had contacted the police and accused my colleague of assault and the footage clearly proved that he’d had little choice but to be hands on (rarely happens in a secondary school setting). Made me appreciate the cameras, tbh.

Surely it’s off when the engine is off so you can privately eat lunch in your parked car without invasion?

Thank you. I may push for the card option. We are a small company and it is a person pushing it who means no malice but is very much about being compliant. In my line of work it is unusual for us to have this, I think it will put people off being employed.
However the service side of the business have trackers and they are monitored to compare if they go where they say they are going. I understand it however it then becomes the norm, where are they etc. I have also witnessed it where an ex boss in front of me logged on and comment that such and such person was doing 32 in a 30. There was no reason at that moment for him to check. My point is fleet management on a large scale I understand but when I choose not to answer my phone to the MD it will become where are they. My reason not to answer the phone can be as simple as I am in the middle of something and need to concentrate

i don’t know about this particular brand they have chosen, they have provided very little information, mainly as it will not happen until later this year. However doing research some are recording when the car is switched off. We are constantly being filmed