When I started in the 70's, probably the biggest incentive other than just being named the party chief was the privilege of being able to take the company truck to and from home.
I would leave early and pick up the entire crew and deliver them back home in the evening.
What a savings it was for the single guy and mostly for the married guy who could not really afford 2 vehicles, vivid memories of guy's wives with a vehicle full of sleepy babies pulling into the parking lot in the dark.
Then as the years went by, fewer and fewer companies offers this perk and we all know the reason was because of Liability for the company. A few bad apples spoiled it for the whole bunch kinda thing. Insurance changed, etc. etc.
We all have our stories how the few idiots spoiled it for the rest of us, some stories are tragic and resulted in injuries off the clock and even loss of life as was the case that happened to one company I worked for, there has been law suits that put many a company out of business and some were just being stupid too many times like using the vehicle for the wrong reasons and getting caught.
I remember working for a company in Austin and we had to reside within 25 miles of the office, have covered parking at the minimum and sign papers that we would not use the vehicle other than to and from the residence. I managed to never get caught going to the grocery store on the way home or garage sales in my neighborhood on the weekends somehow.
Just wondering who still has the take home policy and if so, what are your company rules and regulations.
Randy
I've also heard of guys taking trucks home on the weekends and doing work on the side. I'm sure that must not have gone over well!
I've always wondered why people would do work on the side without insurance. Was it just different back then (70's), as far as insurance was concerned?
Gregg
When it comes down to whether my help has a way to get to work or not and it would be out of my way to pick them up in the morning, the truck is available on a short term basis for them to take home.
Usually there are conditions of a wash and minor maintenance when it arrives at work.
Some of the places I worked, it was safer for someone to take the truck home because there was absolutely no security in the company parking lot.
There will always be that guy that will always abuse the gifts they are given.
B-)
Liability is part of the issue ....
but I think what really put a stop to it was the interpretation by the Infernal Revenue Service that allowing an employee to take a truck home constituted a taxable benefit.
When I worked for others I was always allowed to take a truck home. I liked it because it saved me fuel mileage as well as wear and tear, but there were other advantages. When I had the truck at home I would clean and organize it on my own time. I also built several different equipment boxes over the years, which I probably would not have done if I didn't have the truck there to measure against.
As a result, I usually had an fairly clean and organized truck to work out of, which probably would not have been the case if I had to take care of it at the office (not as well, anyway).
I would usually take care of oil changes myself, which I liked because I could do it at my convenience and not waste time taking it to an oil-change place. That would save the company a little money, because I would only expense the cost of the oil and filter.
When I was last employed I had pretty much unrestricted use of the company pickup. The company bookkeeper would produce mileage numbers every year that purported to accurately represent personal usage. The process by which those numbers were produced remains mysterious, but let's just say that I didn't get dinged for much in the way of personal usage.
I recall hearing of one guy (at a different former employer) who called the boss around 11:00 p.m. one night to let him know that his truck was upside down in a ditch a couple miles down the road from the bar he was in the habit of stopping at on the way home. He said something along the lines of, "I need some help picking up the instruments and other equipment, which is scattered over a hundred yards of roadway."
Wouldn't want the headache. You become responsible for the company vehicle and your company is extending it's liability to off-hours mishaps. I'd like to just leave work, at work, when I'm off the clock.
Just coming home seems like work all over again, there is always some other chore to take care of.
Been up since four this morning baking my work jeans in the oven so i'd have something to wear today. Now I have to make mashed potatoes, 'cause Deb doesn't know how to, and it will get her out of the kitchen, which is where i need to drag the clothes dryer to for repairs.
I've got my own vehicles to repair and worry about.
At my old company, an RLS hit a cow in the road while drunk at 2am in the company truck.
I still have a company truck and I WILL NOT do any of that ^^^^^ stupid crap.
I have stopped at the grocery on the way home but not a habit and I wouldn't dream of using the truck for personal use without calling the VP first to clear it.
> .... I managed to never get caught going to the grocery store on the way home or garage sales in my neighborhood on the weekends somehow.
Those sorts of rules exist to serve as a cause for dismissal if it becomes necessary.
> Just wondering who still has the take home policy and if so, what are your company rules and regulations.
Our company allows PCs to take the trucks home without any real restrictions at all.
These days it is pretty easy, and not very expensive, to have GPS trackers installed so you can tell where each truck is, or was, at any time.
Why would you take the truck home? I would never allow that in my company. Why? Because a truck is a major asset of the company. It is used for work. If a drunk PC hit a post or something then work assigned to that truck also stops.
If you need a vehicle for your personnal use, then I would suggest that you request the company to purchase for you and you in turn would pay the company based on an amortization agreement.
Company assets should be used for company use. How would you feel if your boss borrows your son's bike or your wife's ref for use in the company?
:-/
If they don't furnish me a truck, I don't furnish services.
Worked for a company once that had GPS on their trucks. It was monitored over the web and they set up "zones" for the peoples houses that had the trucks. It would send an email when they entered and left the "zone". Also if they went over a certain speed, had the truck idling for too long, etc... The zone feature worked good because they set up zones for the larger job sites, so we could see when they got to the job and left. That saved us with contractors saying that we arrived late or left early or never showed up.
If I don't take it home, to my office, how the heck am I supposed to get home.;-)
> Why would you take the truck home? I would never allow that in my company. Why? Because a truck is a major asset of the company. It is used for work. If a drunk PC hit a post or something then work assigned to that truck also stops.
In the last 17 years I have worked for 4 companies. Two of them allowed PCs to take the truck home. I do not recall any real problems arising out of that, it cost the companies comparatively little, and the PCs sure appreciated it. Very little turn over at these two companies. All the PCs were very trustworthy and sober people. Any who had stopped being so would have been easily replaced.
The other two both had problems with trucks of one sort or another. One, a small company, had a truck stolen from its parking lot and ransacked. The other had a PC get drunk on the job, while on an out-of-town job, and wreck the truck, himself, and his helper. Major legal and hospital bills out of that. This fairly large company has a very high turnover of staff. Including me, after 15 months.
> If you need a vehicle for your personnal use, then I would suggest that you request the company to purchase for you and you in turn would pay the company based on an amortization agreement.
>
> Company assets should be used for company use. How would you feel if your boss borrows your son's bike or your wife's ref for use in the company?
> :-/
I sense a hostile attitude towards your employees, Gerry. Very likely they deserve it. But I have to wonder which came first, poor employees or the hostile attitude. Offer the benefits you have to to get the quality people you need to run your business. After hours use of the truck may be benefit cheap to you, but very valuable to an employee, that may help you find staff worthy of it. If you treat your people like chattel then you may only be able to recruit people who deserve to be treated as chattel.
My brother is a chief for a rather large self insured company and they're chief's all drive the trucks home. It makes sense since most the crew's mostly are down to one man (hard to call a guy a chief with no one to chief). He lives 40 min. north of the office so he goes directly to the job sites in the morning and only visits the office once a day if that. With cell phones if they need to get a hold of him it's pretty easy. The guy's with the trucks are expected to service them or have them serviced which they do on their one time. I don't know how many weekend's the kids are cleaning the trucks for him. All the money is taken into account in their wages but most of the guys live at least 20 minutes away and enjoy not having to go to the office every morning or return the truck every evening after working until way past when everyone else is already home. The only real restriction's on the truck is no non-employees in the truck for liabilty reasons. That means even if the day care is on your way to work you'd better get up early because you've got to haul them in your own car then go back and get the truck. As for the drunk PC wrecking the truck, hire better. I had a drunk chief wreck a truck after lunch and learned my leason.
Back in the old days before cell phones and when we had 3-4 crew members the company I worked for didn't assign truck to the chiefs, eveyone met and left from the office everyday. They'd loan out a truck if your needed it to anyone in the company. I can't count how many Christmas trees the little inspector's trucks picked up over the years. After driving into work and then getting the suburban to go around picking everyone up after a few snow storms a couple of us just started taking them home on nights it was suposed to snow. Worked great and nobody had excuses not to come in. Then the company sold and we were told we couldn't do that anymore so we stopped going and getting people, if I made it in my firebird I expected everyone else to do the same. There were quit a few mornings that 20 man office was staffed by just 4 of us and it was mighty quiet in there if we decided we could work outside.
One crew chief we had was in Michigan running control for a FIS for 2 weeks and came back home to Dayton. Rather than go home first he had to go to the local bar, at which truck broken into and all equipment stolen. I meant former crew chief.
At my company the PC takes the truck home, but it can not be used for personal use. They sign papers and such. Most use this to keep them clean and organized, which they should do.
We have had a few incidents over the years (typical dumb crap our guys do). But recently we have installed GPS trackers/monitor systems. Which has made the extra curricular driving disappear. We had to do this with the $100K+ worth of equipment in our trucks, plus our company logo is these trucks.
Now the big bosses and VP have trucks assigned to them that they can use as personal vehicles. These tend not to have company logos on them.
As a business owner, having the PC take the truck home at night can be a win/win. I don't think that you can give them free will with the vehicle after hours so you need to set up some limits on personal use. Also, instruments must not be left in the vehicle over night, but this is the same for the office or in a hotel so no real change there (it always amazes me when someone on this site says the instrument was stolen out of the truck over the night). Finally, they need to keep the truck clean and serviced. These are a cheap trade offs for the PC to get a free ride to work with gas at $3.3 a gallon.
On the company end, I benefit from a happy employee. I also have the truck parked somewhere other than my office with limited parking. This was a real big point for the first firm I worked for with our office in downtown Portland. Since the PC is maintaining the truck on his own time I save a couple of bucks there. But the biggest savings in being able to have the crew mobilize from home when need be.
As for the DUI thing, that would be ground for dismissal per our employee hand book.
Just my nickels worth
John
I consider it a privilege to take the truck home every day. It's a win/win for everyone. If I were to abuse it or get drunk and wreck it, I would be by far the biggest loser. Just comes down to responsibility I guess.
