Would like opinions on a current problem at work, Employers are insisting on us drivers downloading apps onto our private phones for booking holiday, another app to see your wages and even sending you tube links to watch the latest employment legislation about equality in the workplace.
I have said no, my phone and it’s private, any legal pointers or case law that exists? Ta.
just download the app but dont allow it access to the world or anything else. Then when they see it doesn’t work they should give up
I have to log onto a site called ADP to check my payslip am not happy about it. Have asked for paper ones but was told no.
My issue is data protection I have no idea who ADP are and if there site was ever to get hacked thed have all my pay slips ni number etc .
Your best bet buy a cheap non smart phone shove your SIM in n show it then tell em this is my phone it doesn’t do YouTube apps etc. Unless your providing me with a phone you can’t do it
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ADP is the one, doesn’t work and constantly wanting you to change your password, even with fingerprint id, can’t remember the name of the other app to book holiday but not prepared to have work stuff on my phone, just need to know what the law says, as I don’t believe they can insist on it, or face disciplinaries.
We have ADP, and i think UK Dimensions for booking holiday. There was talk that they were going to provide a computer in the transport office for drivers to use if they needed to.
I don’t attempt it on my phone, but do use the computer at home to do both.
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I would guess that it depends on what your Contract of Employment says.
Is is legal for employers to require workers to provide their own tools etc, so long as that is clear in the C of E. It may be a condition of employment that you are contactable by phone, and I would think that is extendable to other forms of contact including www.
If you are a long term employee, and this is a new condition of employment you may have a case.
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It’s like everything else in this job mate, it all depends (or should discounting the ‘yes men’ 
) on how the employer treats you and looks upon you.
If it is a ‘Team Firm’ where they are good with you, treat you as a grown up, back you up etc, then you don’t mind doing this sort of thing for them…or anything else really.
My old firm supplied me with a phone, and it was also for my unlimited personal use…ie a good firm.
If they aint, and they are a ‘Them & Us’ type outfit instead, you do nothing other than what you are paid to do…end of.
If they are the latter, it is YOUR phone not theirs, so YOU decide what type of sh you do and don’t put on it…unless they pay towards your bill.
My lot provide a phone, so all the crap is on there, but there is no way in hell I would clog up my phone with it all.
I tend to treat and react to people depending on how they are with me.
As I said it is like everything else in this job, they reap what they sow…or should, but as I said the ‘Yes man’ is always there, and you will be compared to him if you refuse their request.
Personally that aspect has never bothered me nor made me change my mind on things…
But it is YOUR call mate.
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The last agency job wanted me to download and use the fleet check driver app for our daily checks. Fine if I was a regular driver and not an agency driver.
Then they wanted me take POD pictures and to use WhatsApp to send POD’s to the office, along with using WhatsApp to receive start times and job instructions. But I have 2 mobile phone numbers (ok actually 3, the 3rd is Portuguese) on my phone, 1 for personal use and another for work, and any WhatsApp use is linked to my personal phone number, and to switch them back and forth on WhatsApp is a pita.
Some of the big 3PL’s can be the worse by having large fleets and non of the trucks have a cab phone and they think they can freely use your phone for company business at will.
“Give us a call when you’re tipped”……
Trucks broke down/tyre blowout “ok we’ll pass on your number to the tyre fitter etc”……
Several years ago I was sent to work for Canutes at Worksop, and no sooner did I get thru the door the guy behind the desk started a game of pocket billiards trying operate his phone, making my phone ring, “ah I got you” he said, “I’ve got your number and I know yours is working”.
The following week I walked into the office to be greeted by a same game of pocket billiard.
But he was met with a deafening silence, as I’d switched off my phone in the carpark.
“Why isn’t your phone ringing “ he asked?
“I don’t have it with me” I replied
“”How can I contact you if I need to” he asked
“gimmi a cab phone or a spare one out of the office, that way it’s your phone bill, my phone is mine to use and not yours” I replied.
Needless to say it didn’t go well for them
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But to answer the OP
If you feel like you are out of pocket for phone calls, an extra 15 minutes here & there before pulling out of the rdc, or 15 minutes in a lay-by will re compensate you for the expense.
Doing it in an RDC or in a delivery point won’t show up on the company tracker, but pulling in a motorway service for an unexpected 15 will stand out
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If your employer passes on your phone number to a 3rd party, without your permission, that might be a breach of data security law.
Having said that, when you sign on for a company or agency the contract of employment might very have some conditions about passing your number on in connection with your work.
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When I worked for GXO we used to book £5 a week on our expenses to cover us using our own phones. No problem with that as it amply covered my monthly bill. A new TM started and immediately cancelled that so I persuaded the drivers to use the company tablets as phones when calling the office and to not answer any calls on their personal mobiles.
The reason for this was that I knew that regarding the tablets GXO had negotiated a deal on data but never bothered about getting a deal on voice calls as it didn’t occur to them.
The upshot was that from paying me £20 a month for using my personal phone they ended up paying on average £200 per month for voice calls made on the tablets for each driver (50 of us) Plus we’d never answer when on the move and would pull In somewhere to call them back.
More than one way to skin a cat.
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Thanks for the replies and advice, bought a £10 phone to ‘use’ as a work phone and will just swap sims as necessary, just to add, it’s not so much the money, more the assumption that the company can use our private property for their benefit.
Yeah right…but ONLY if a driver allows it!
Ok it’s only a tenner, but way I see it it is the principle.
You have eventually given in to them, and this is why these firms do this sort of thing…
THEY should have supplied YOU with a phone.
Whether you only bought a cheapie crappy one or a top of the range I phone is irrelavant, it was primarily for their convenience, so their responsibility to supply it.
It is maybe trivial, but this is how this sort of thing started in the first place in the job, drivers giving in and bending over.
It all started by these firms tried to see just how far they could get away with stuff,.and pushed the boundaries after each attempt…sucessfully.
If this sort of thing, trivial or not, is not nipped in the bud at first instance, they end up doing wtf they like to drivers, and this is why we have the state of play that we have today in this pi55 poor industry.
Same hourly rate right through, cameras in cabs, maxing out/minimum rests as a matter of routine rather than a choice or option to name a few of many.
Look mate I know I’m going off on one, but this sort of thing annoys me about the job.
I could not give a flying one if you have bought a phone, I’m just pointing out what I have observed with drivers and this job since I have done it…TOO kin long maybe.
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Only bought to flash at the office wallahs to show them im a luddite and not into this technology lark at all, no sir 
, will be getting returned when I have made my point.
Not been on for a while, nice to see some familiar faces.
Yep few years back I worked on agency for Wincanton on a B&Q contract, all hire vehicles, no cab phones, got paid £5 a week to have my own phone just incase the odd call was needed. XPO took over the contract and from day 1 stopped the fiver. I said ok I won’t be using my phone, they soon changed their mind and continued to pay me, a small amount of cash but a bigger principal and of course the majority of drivers just accepted the penny pinching by XPO and lost the fiver. In my mind if a firm is going to carry on like that then they aren’t worth a toss.
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Also, appreciate they should be buying us phones or installing them in the units, but that’s not going to happen, so buying a cheapo 2g phone means no email, no internet, not a deal of anything, so I cannot do as they wish, which is my main aim. Had same with last firm, and still no go.
Ok got ya, bit slow this morning.…
My apologies mate, you aint a ‘‘one of them’’ after all, you’re a ‘‘one of us’’. 
So you are saying the phone you have aint capable of downloading all their b/s.
Nice one.
You can sure as hell bet though when you show them it they will ‘insist’ you upgrade it for them.
Let us know what they say.
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Absolutely, but not so much about money, more the bloody cheek that I will use my property for their benefit.
Robroy, nailed it with the observation about the yes men, never have been one and am not starting now.
Will do, also have the benefit of living in the middle of nowhere, where the internet is rubbish (ho ho) so completely plausible that I would have no comms 
You have 2 phone options:
Buy a cheap 2nd phone with a cheap £5/month sim deal, or add a cheap eSIM to your current phone to use as a work phone. Having 2 phones means you can switch off the work phone outside of work hours. But adding the eSIM means you’d have to manually switch off the work phone number in settings.
I originally had 2 phones (work & personal numbers) but recently consolidated them into 1 and added a 3rd non uk number for my travels