Hungary - Postmen tracked

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.budapesttimes.hu/2013/06/21/postmen-tracked/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

State-owned postal company Magyar Posta’s postmen now have to carry tracking devices, the left-leaning daily Népszava reported, citing a mail carrier. The man said the Global Positioning System device, which he estimates costs HUF 8,000 (EUR 27.2) apiece, is aimed at tracking postmen’s every move.

The devices are fitted for protective purposes, not for systematic monitoring, Magyar Posta told the newspaper, saying their purpose is to ensure main postal offices can provide a quick response by sending police or paramedics if a postman is attacked or becomes unwell.
Increasing numbers of retired people ask to take delivery of their pension payments at home rather than having it transferred electronically and made subject to the bank transaction tax, Magyar Posta gave as one reason of why it is introducing the tracking system.

The new Labour Code allows employers to keep tabs on workers’ whereabouts, head of Hungarian data protection authority NAIH Attila Péterfalvi said in answer to concerns about privacy issues. The question is rather what the employer will do if he finds a worker resting for half an hour at the end of his round, Péterfalvi said.

Tracking parcels too

More interesting for Magyar Posta’s customers will be when packages, rather than postmen, are equipped with tracking devices as a foil to the Hungarian postal services’ most common scourges – packages sent by post that never arrive, and notice slips left in letterboxes by postmen who may not have bothered to ring at the recipient’s door.

[UnhappyGremlin]

I would normally say don't give RM ideas.
But, we already have PDA's that have GPS in them. So we're probably being monitored already, albeit unofficially.

[Pompey Boy]

Yeap and don't forget you can be spied on/followed by IB and guvnors. Oh and if you drive a van they have trackers too. Throw in the nosey public and there you have it

[UnhappyGremlin]

Yeap and don't forget you can be spied on/followed by IB and guvnors. Oh and if you drive a van they have trackers too. Throw in the nosey public and there you have it

The DOM in my office has told all the staff that the trackers are no longer being used, as they have now proved too expensive to pay the 3rd party operator etc.
I didn't believe them for some reason......