What are the legal obligations for an employer in terms of vehicle tracking and GPS monitoring of staff?

Laws applicable to GPS vehicle tracking and GPS monitoring of staff include the Human Rights Act and the Data Protection act of 1998.

Employers have a right to use vehicle tracking systems as long as company vehicles are concerned. Of course, this also means GPS monitoring of any employee driving the tracked vehicle. This is legal as long as the employee has been made aware that the vehicle is tracked and has given his consent.

It is illegal to track an employee when he’s using his personal vehicle for business purposes or even a company car used by an employee outside of office hours.

But what the Data Protect act strictly curtails is what data can be collected and how it can be used. To put it simply, GPS tracking systems and GPS monitoring can only be used to collect data that’s relevant to the business and for management purposes. All collected data should be erased as soon as possible.