February 20, 2009

Public works vehicles can be tracked

Many of the city's public works vehicles -- and all of its significant new ones -- are equipped with GPS units that allow constant tracking of their locations.
The department's director, Walter Veselka, said that he can see at any point where the trucks are and can even go back and check where they've been.
That means, for example, that managers can figure out which truck was in a given spot at a given time should someone have seen something that seemed untoward.
The big advantage of the devices, though, is that they allow the department to experiment a bit to see if there are more efficient solid waste routes or other changes that might make it easier and cheaper to do its work.
It would be interesting to find out if the GPS units would verify the commonly held notion that public works crews tend to congregate at certain donut shops near the beginning of each work day or if they linger over lunch or any of the other widespread notions that may have no basis in reality.
In any case, public works employees now know they're being watched from 22,000 miles up.
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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Or to the bank, home, schools etc...

Anonymous said...

The Mayor can track them by looking out his window over to Dunkin Donuts!

Anonymous said...

LOL thats true 4:54, they like hanging around Dunkin parking lot. They also hide out on chippens hill near the golf course and at the water dept. property off of Mix St. I hope they get busted and stopp wasting out money.

Anonymous said...

I always see a Public Works 4x4 at the Starbucks for extended periods, I once saw the guy driving that 4x4 on what looked to be date at Starbucks that lasted over an hour.

Anonymous said...

time for city employees to be vigilant and understand that they are being watched and that there is a segment of this society which only wants their downfall - pay attention people because if you give them cause - everyone loses.

Anonymous said...

You people really do have too much time on your hands if you've got nothing better to do than keep track of public works vehicles....geez, get a job or something.

Anonymous said...

These are probably the guys that Ward had hired when he was on the Public Works Board.

Good Luck in getting rid of them.

Concerned Constructive Conservative said...

Collins writes, "...any of the other widespread notions that may have no basis in reality".

Well that's the mind-set of a true big government socialist isn't it? "No basis in reality", you must be in outer space?

Anonymous said...

"These are probably the guys that Ward had hired when he was on the Public Works Board."

...and then again, probably not.

Steve Collins said...

CC, that 'may' is the difference between journalism and propaganda. I wouldn't expect you to recognize the distinction.

Anonymous said...

Well that's the mind-set of a true big government socialist isn't it? "No basis in reality", you must be in outer space?

This kind of verbal clap-trap is just so typical of "Concerned Conservative", who invariably has to resort to name-calling and other put-downs of those who express a different point of view from his. The man's self-righteousness is without equal.

Anonymous said...

12:54

And then, more than likely!

Anonymous said...

10:32: Whatever works for you. You always seem to work your nasty, silly little anti-Ward caveats into every topic on this blog anyway. Don't let a little thing like truth or facts stop you now!

Anonymous said...

It's about time somebody started to watch what these guys do. Talk about abusing tax payer's money. These guys take the cake.

Anonymous said...

Ward will protect his unions boys. He knows they got him elected!

Anonymous said...

2:02,

Don't you ever get tired of whining about Ward and his "union boys?" I realize it's the only thing you can come up with, but it's getting really old. Why not give us all a break and put a sock in it?

Anonymous said...

guess if you don't have any other issues/solutions - unions are going to be the topic for the day - wake up idiot (s).

Anonymous said...

Can we, do we, keep track of vehicles we contract for snow removal??

Anonymous said...

Unions are the topic because unions are an expense!

That relates to taxes, which come out of my pocket.

So, I will keep ranting until the people wake up!

Odin said...

Steve:
Time to shut down all these "anonymous" posters. If they can't be bothered to make up a blog name, they shouldn't be given the privilege of posting.

Anonymous said...

Funny thing about these systems they make mistake.

Anonymous said...

7:59 Poster,

"Unions are the topic"....mainly because some wannabe politicians don't actually know what's wrong with the economy, much less how to fix it. Demonizing the union and then promising to fix it is the best they can come up with. It's one of the oldest tricks in the book, but hey, rant away. This is a democracy, no?

Anonymous said...

I see nothing has changed on here. 7:59 and his holier than thou group admits he will continue ranting until the rest of the world falls in line with his rantings. Ho Hum business as usual.

Anonymous said...

will the public ever be made aware of the findings ofthis monitoring?

Or will it be "scret" like Wards study of vehicle usage??