Victor, I share your despair!

I'm sure Facebook is very useful for folk to keep in touch with friends and relatives, but too many take it to extremes.

Please advise your client that should any of these drivers be involved in a serious road accident, the police will check phone usage - and if they do find evidence of an active call (including the likes of facebook) prosecutions WILL follow. If an employer permits such use, they too could be prosecuted.

Just tell them to stop it!

Victor

Your client has evidence for gross misconduct.
Sack them & the problem is permently over so long as everyone else in the company knows whats happened

I would advise that you look into this more.

My phone is logged into twitter and facebook all the time, most smart phones do this. This allows news feeds from the sites to appear on your phones home screen.

If you use the application on facebook that automatically updates your profile with your location via gps then communication will be shown between the phone and site on a constant basis.

Whether you should be allowed to use twitter, facebook et al on a work phone is another matter, but as to whether they were actually interacting with facebook whilst driving is not as easy to discover.

Sadly, it seems that the sending of text and similar messages by drivers while on the move is becoming more common, so I am not at all surprised to read about the circumstances described by Victor. Users of this forum will know from the press and TV that there have been a number of highly publicised cases where drivers have been jailed after causing deaths through texting while on the move.

I have seen drivers myself using their mobiles for text messages, etc. If you come up behind one on a motorway or dual carriageway for instance, they tend to give themselves away by driving a bit slower than usual and/or not keeping to a straight line. Such behaviour is is absolutely bonkers and akin to driving with a blindfold on but having intermittent peeps at what is happening on the road. It could be decribed as moronic, but I suppose using this description could be classed as unfair and derogatory to morons!

Also, I would bet that most text and similar messages are ephemeral and unnecessary. For example, a friend of mine works in a large office block. Whenever the fire alarm goes off and people start evacuating down the main stairway, various employees slow down the evacuation because they are busy either phoning or texting others no doubt to say that the alarm has gone off and they are leaving the building. Why? Who really needs to know? It's all part of the wider selfish "me, me, me" culture which seems to be permeating Britain. Other examples of this include increasing numbers of drivers who don't bother using their indicators to let other road users (drivers and pedestrians) know of their proposed manoeuvres. There are many more examples to give, but I'd better stop and get a bit of lunch.

Wow Graham... are you related to Victor (the real 1) :0)

Thanks for all your postings everyone - disciplinary action was taken today against all four. They all admitted to actually communicating on facebook whilst driving, in other words tapping in messages. They've all kept their jobs, just, but have all lost their annual 'good boy' bonus.

The company does not have a policy on the use of mobile phones whilst driving, (it does now) and this is why the business/HR decided not to dismiss them, although you and I know they still could have.

Anyway, as a result the policy has/is being delivered both in written and verbal form from all managers to their teams with a company brief being communicated first thong Monday morning al all employees.

Personally, the four are about as popular as a pork pie in a synagogue with their colleagues, so hopefully the message has now been firmly 'driven' home.

Thanks to Victor for airing this matter on this forum, and thank goodness his client now has a suitable policy which has been made clear to all of its employees. However, it remains very worrying that four of its employees previously seemed to think it was okay to send and receive Facebook messages while driving. Furthermore, it is likely that there are many other people who are still doing the same while driving on business for organisations which either have no policies or have not made them clear regarding such messages and similar distractions while driving.

Therefore, surely all who read this message should, if necessary, emulate Victor by ensuring that their employers and/or clients have 1) robust relevant policies, 2) have clearly communicated them to all employees - including senior people and line managers, and 3) use available methods to monitor compliance with the policies. In this way, users of this forum can collectively play a small but positive part in helping to make UK motorways and other roads safer.

Bob Y - Users of this forum will fully agree with you that sending and receiving text and Facebook messages, etc while driving is downright stupid. However, as mentioned earlier, 4 employees of Victor's client evidently thought such actions were okay and thus gave little or no thought to the strong likelihood that such actions would endanger themselves and others on the roads, never mind being illegal. Lots of actions in life are downright stupid and/or illegal but people still do them. Therefore, it is surely appropriate for employers to do what they can to stop/dissuade their people from using communication devices while driving.

Victor - It is understandable that the 4 employees involved weren't chuffed at losing their annual bonuses because their stupid behaviour was detected. However, why would they be unpopular with their colleagues? Were the annual bonuses cancelled for everybody and not just the errant 4?

Graham - no they haven't ALL lost their bonuses, it's just the bad 'press' ALL drivers are getting currently. Non-drivers cannot believe they did something so stupid. So the general feeling from other parts of the business is how many other drivers were doing it and haven't been caught/checked....? Hence the unpopularity. Appears guilty until proven otherwise at the moment....

Just a small issue, I assume that the employees were made aware that there communication via the mobile phone was subject to monitoring in this way.

Victor I would be interested to know what 'additional technology' was in use to monitor them... just thinking about our sales force on the road and their phone usage.

Richard

Richard - yes the employees were made aware that there communications via the mobile phones was subject to monitoring. They assumed, incorrectly of course, that the 'boss' would be too busy to do the monitoring. As regards what 'additional technology' was in use to monitor them... afraid I haven't got a clue, haven't even asked to be honest, but I'm doing some BBS work for them so I'll see if I can find out...... unless somebody else out there knows of course?

Graham - now that the dust has settled I have been told that 'they' are all actually beginning to realise how stupid they all were. One of them I know is extremely sorry indeed and is very repentant......I'm going to try and utilise him in the BBS sessions they want me involved in now, to assist in getting the message across. First indications are positive and he hasn't dismissed the idea. Perhaps he is looking to get back on good terms, so...... you know the drill "Bless me Father for I have sinned".

JAllen - To answer the question you pose, I guess that the mentality involved is the very selfish "me, me, me" type which I described in an earlier response. It also results in people walking about and being so absorbed in using their mobiles (whether for audio or text messages) that they are oblivious as to what is happening around them. By now most of us have probably seen some of these people walking off pavements into roadways and perhaps only bothering to glance for oncoming vehicles once on the roadway. Over the past year or so I've made several emergency stops while driving around town and, thankfully, managed to avoid hitting such people. One of them even seemed quite miffed that I'd interrupted her phone call.

How did we all manage to survive and thrive in the days before mobiles and the internet, etc?!! Probably quite well and better in some respects. Like fire and other aspects of life, mobiles and the internet are metaphorical double edged swords - very useful tools indeed for some purposes, but they can be a menace if used inappropriately and/or are allowed to dominate how people spend their lives. As eminent neuroscientist Susan Greenfield and others have observed, excessive use of electronic methods of communications by people has a detrimental effect on their ability to communicate and interact effectively with real people in the real physical world. I'm no psychologist, but have probably gained some insight into practical aspects of the subject through over 30 years experience in occupational safety & health.