Free GPS Tracking Policy Template For Employers

There are both federal and state GPS tracking laws that restrict when and how employers can track the locations of their employees. For example, in states like California, Arizona, and Delaware, it’s illegal to track an employee — or an employee’s personal vehicle — without the employee’s knowledge and consent.

The good news is that getting consent from your employees is as simple as having them sign a consent form that notifies them of the fact that you’re tracking their locations and explains what data will be collected and how it will be used.

To help, we’ve created a free GPS tracking policy template you can print, edit, and distribute to your employees to get their consent quickly and easily.

Legal Disclaimer: This blog post is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. Consult an attorney for specific guidance on what GPS tracking laws apply in your state and how to legally obtain consent from your employees.

Free GPS tracking policy template

Easily notify your employees that you’ll be tracking their locations with our free GPS tracking policy template, available for both Microsoft Word and Google Docs.

How to use the GPS tracking policy template

1. Start by making a copy of the template in Google Docs or download a copy for Microsoft Word using the buttons above.
2. Once you have your own copy of the document, change any information displayed in brackets, including your company name and the name of the application you’ll use to track employee locations.
3. Review the rest of the policy and remove anything that doesn’t apply to how your company will track employees. For example, if you’re only tracking employees using a GPS time-tracking app, you can remove the language about tracking vehicles and equipment.
4. When you’re finished, print copies of the policy for each employee, and distribute the document to employees to collect their signatures.

How to write your own GPS tracking policy

If the template we provided won’t work for you, you can write your own policy (or, better yet, have an attorney write it for you). If you choose to write your own, make sure to include: 

• How employees will be tracked: List the specific hardware and software applications you will use to track employee, vehicle, and equipment locations.
• When they’ll be tracked: Explain exactly when employees’ locations will be tracked. If you’re using a time clock app with GPS tracking, they’ll be tracked from the time they clock in to the time they clock out. If you’re using hardware on a company vehicle, they’ll be tracked while using company vehicles.
• Why you’re tracking their locations: This isn’t required by law but can help employees feel less like you’re trying to gather data to punish them. Keeping employees safe, optimizing delivery routes, and protecting company assets are all great reasons to list that employees will understand.
• How their location data will be secured: Employees shouldn’t have to worry about a malicious actor gaining access to their location data. If you’re using an application to track employee locations, you can contact the provider team to get an explanation of exactly how they protect employee data.
• Who will have access to the data: Similar to the bullet above, specify the roles/individuals in your company who will be able to access employee location data.

Make sure to also include a section where employees can sign the policy so you can prove you have consent if any issues arise down the road.

How to introduce the GPS tracking policy to employees

We recommend having a meeting where the GPS tracking policy is introduced and the agreement is distributed. This gives employees a venue to ask questions and share concerns so they don’t feel like they’re being forced to do something they’re uncomfortable with.

In the meeting, explain the different components of your policy: the purpose of GPS tracking, how they’ll be tracked, when they’ll be tracked, who will have access to their location data, and how that data will be secured. This will answer the bulk of the questions your employees are likely to ask.

When you’re finished, ask employees if they have questions. Answer any questions you receive, and then invite employees to submit feedback privately if they’re more comfortable with that. 

When you’re finished, distribute your agreement for signatures and collect the signed documents.

How likely are employees to push back on GPS tracking?

While you might expect a lot of reticence from your employees when you first introduce your GPS tracking policy, you might get less pushback than you expect. 

A study QuickBooks conducted about GPS tracking in the workplace found that seven out of 10 employees are okay with their employer knowing their location.  

Ironically, QuickBooks found that the things employees were most concerned about when it came to GPS tracking were battery and data usage on their phones. So this may be another question to be prepared for.

You should be able to get battery and data usage information from your GPS provider. For example, our GPS time tracking app — Buddy Punch — uses only a miniscule amount of data. 

If you’re only collecting GPS data at clock in and out, very little data is used — less than 10 KB on average. And since the app only needs to be active at clock in and out, there isn’t any battery drain associated with it. 

For our real-time GPS tracking feature, while the app will shorten the battery life somewhat, we’ve designed it so that it can run in the background and minimize this impact.

If you want to learn more about how Buddy Punch can help you track your employees with GPS, start a free trial, watch a recorded demo, or request a personalized demo.