IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 50

grievance, the IBT argued that
he should be reinstated with back
wages because the company had
used the GPS tracking information
to discipline the driver in violation
of the contract [5, p. 376].
This case records some of the
complexities of the use of GPS
systems in the workplace. The data
generated by the tracking device, its
role in evidence, the failure of the
company to notify the driver or the
court concerning the GPS data, and
the union's failure to act without
discrimination results in the driver
ultimately losing his position.
The New South Wales Work
Place Surveillance Act reviews

electronic workplace of today.
The dream of controlling
every element of production is
now on the horizon. The productivity of every call-centre
employee, number of calls,
number of sales, and call duration minus the time taken for
any bathroom or lunch breaks,
is instantly available to the
employer, employee, and coworkers" (Ball [1] (cited by
Snider [8, p. 5])).
As recently as 2011, truck drivers were being addressed about
time and management performance at container sites as they

If the GPS is controlling truckdriving behavior, then the
argument provided is that "safety
is increased."
where surveillance can be used.
This Act requires that at all times it
is to be disclosed to the employee
by the employer if the employee
is under surveillance. There is also
a list of exceptions, such as when
someone believes there is a threat.
Further research into the application
of the laws in this area is needed.
Ball [1] (cited by Snider [8]) discusses the development of surveillance technology as a business:
"Business organizations had
their own 'othered' populations to control, namely their
employees. Since the earliest
days of capitalism, businesses
have been obsessed with finding
ever more sophisticated (and
intrusive) mechanisms to manage, discipline, and ultimately
eliminate human employees
from the production process.
'Innovations' to 'increase productivity' range from the 19th
century Taylorist workplace
to the computer-monitored
50

unloaded their containers at Port
Botany, a major Australian docking site. The logistics manager can
demand particular levels of performance. The truck driver is bound to
comply or be spoken to about time
or efficiency, but those conversations were not placed in context,
particularly the context of not having a job in the future. Instead, the
clock ticks and the GPS continues
to record the driver's movements.

Insights from the Field
Another point to consider is the
number of hours that drivers undertake in any given week. These sets
of hours are tracked and in a six-day
working week, or a 72-hour working week, one driver completes
three return trips from Sydney to
Melbourne (960 km). The driver
also does three return trips from
Sydney to Brisbane (1000 km).
When the trip spans from Adelaide
to Perth (2700 m km), two drivers
drive with a GPS activated, and they
only do a return trip from Adelaide

to Perth twice in a six-day period.
It is the same for two drivers doing
Adelaide to Darwin (3000 km).
The person or logistics managers watching the GPS is working
different shifts, but as the personnel in the console change while the
driver drives, a computer is recording every second that the truck is
moving or stationary. The details
recorded can be printed out and
sent to any regulatory body, and
may be included in the driver's payment records.

Drivers Discuss Companies
Driver A: "The companies
say that they have the trackers on so that they can watch
that the drivers don't go to
where they are not supposed
to go to. For example, they
watch so the driver does not
call in at home, or go to the
shops or in some cases visit
their girlfriends. The companies say that they can manage
their compliance. The logistics manager can prove that
he is running the fleet under
the company's regulations.
Companies are rife, they get
into trouble, and then they
sell the company and it all
starts again. Different company, same driver, same potholes, same road, same shit, I
just zone out, if not...I worry
about it...all...we can do the
same thing. They change a
company name when they are
in trouble and we can pick up
move on to somewhere that I
can work for."
Driver B: "A company can
get multi non-conforming
notices. Particularly, in one
state, they brought in a new
system and then they notified
multiple offenses. The company never gets to justify or
refute any of the offenses. If
they try to sell the company,
then all the non-conforming
notices are attached to the

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