Snow Plowers Complain About Rules

[seashoreCM]

Late fall 2003.

Independent snow plow operators in Massachusetts complain that they must carry tattlers* (in this case, GPS phones that report their every movement). They must dial in every now and then and it is difficult to operate them in a moving vehicle. Otherwise they don't get paid for their plowing routes. The state says that drivers who refuse to carry tattlers won't get summoned for plowing assignments.

Since distracted driving is illegal in many states and undesirable everywhere else, the driver should simply stop the plow before dialing in. This can be done at a red light, or anywhere for that matter, as the driver needs to.

Travel tips:
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In a King of the Hill show episode those gadgets were called tattlers.

 

[jfulcer]

Sounds fine to me - I don't live in Mass, but I'd rather know that the people the state were paying to plow were actually plowing.

They wouldn't have started this unless there was a problem with it.

The distracted driving excuse is crap. They can stop, pull over, etc to report their location on occasion if that's the case. It may add a little more time onto their 'plow time' but since I'm assuming they get paid per hour, thats a bonus for them.

Other industries use these things, just get with the program...

 

[MICKEY88]

they should install shadow trackers in the trucks..at the end of the shift, the info could be uploaded and a very precise printout of the routes and times would be available...SHADOW TRACKER



The Shadow Tracker™ features a Global Positioning System (GPS system) that utilizes satellite technology to pinpoint your mobile fleet virtually anywhere, anytime. Using its GPS system, the Shadow Tracker™ records, stores, and downloads the day’s work activities into your computer system. A summary of the day’s activities is conveniently printed out with detailed maps and reports displaying your employees' actual stops, customer locations, mileage traveled and elapsed times at each location -- complete with street names.

 

[mudnuri]

Actually, I believe the reason for this is NOT the time they spend. It's the "way" they plow.

In a lot of areas, nobody employed by the state is aware of how the routes go, and what order they are done. The drivers, ALL UNION by the way, are saying no way are you going to find out how we do our runs, in this case, the state could hire cheaper drivers/trucks to handle the load.

This is the way I understand it, as was told on our local radio station. The drivers are threatening a strike on January 1st, unless the state agrees with them.

Brandy