Do you know where your sales reps are?

DALLAS - HME providers can wave good-bye to the days when sales reps and other field staff padded their mileage reports and felt free to take off the afternoon and go golfing or shopping, say officials at On-Board Communications.

In 2002, On-Board released FleetTraks and tweeked it to create HMEGPS, a fleet management tool for delivery vehicles. Since then, the company has received many requests from providers for a product that allows them to better manage sales reps, clinicians and other staff that use personal vehicles in the field. The result: MileageTraks.

"The real goal is to accurately pay the expenses that employees incur when they are out there," said HMEGPS's Bob Wagner. "Not overpay them, not underpay them. This allows them to do that."

MileageTraks also helps companies determine if their field staff are indeed working during work hours and taking the shortest routes between stops. In fact, Wagner said, employers are more concerned about employee productivity than mileage reimbursement.

"You can have the most honest person in the world who wouldn't think about sticking it to you for a mile, but who is also the most inefficient planner going from point A to point B," Wagner said. "Now the employer is able to make sure the employee is being efficient."

MileageTraks includes a portable unit for the employee's vehicle and a unit that records the travel data back at the office.

To avoid appearing like "big brother," employees turn on the portable unit during work hours and off during personal time.

"An employer has every right to know what his employee is doing when they are on duty, but does not have the right to know what the employee is doing when they are off duty," Wagner said.