Guide
Is GPS Tracking Company Vehicles Legal?
Tracking an asset you own is not the same as tracking a person. Lawful programs start with ownership, notice, purpose limitation, and a written policy.
- Company-owned assets can often be tracked for a stated business purpose if people are told.
- Personal vehicles, covert employee tracking, and off-duty monitoring have much tighter limits.
- TruckerPro is not a law firm and will not enable a use that the asset owner cannot authorize.
This is not legal advice
Privacy, employment, and surveillance rules differ by Canadian province, US state, and sector. What follows is a practical map of questions to take to your counsel—not permission to track someone.
Usually lower risk
- A company-owned tractor, trailer, or piece of equipment.
- A stated purpose: dispatch, utilization, after-hours movement of company property.
- Written notice in a policy, handbook, or agreement the driver actually receives.
- Access limited to people who need the location for that purpose.
Usually higher risk
- A personal vehicle, even if it is used “sometimes for work.”
- Tracking a person rather than an asset, including off-duty or personal-conveyance time, without a lawful basis.
- Covert devices meant to hide from the operator of a vehicle they own or reasonably treat as personal.
- Retaining precise history longer than the purpose requires.
Canada and the United States
In Canada, private-sector handling of identifiable location data often engages PIPEDA and, in some provinces, substantially similar or stricter statutes. In the United States, rules are a mix of federal sector law, state privacy statutes, and employment case law. Neither country treats “the truck has GPS” as a blank cheque to publish a driver’s movements.
If you operate both sides of the border, write the stricter common policy and keep it. TruckerPro’s vehicle tracker page is explicit: any future service would require owner authorization and compliance with applicable law. The interest form is not a surveillance order.
Related reading
Questions
Is it legal to put GPS on a company truck?
Often yes, when the company owns the vehicle, the purpose is operational, and drivers or employees are notified. Confirm this with counsel for your province or state.
Do I have to tell drivers?
In many Canadian and US contexts, notice is required or strongly expected. Hidden tracking of people is the high-risk pattern.
Will TruckerPro GPS track employees covertly?
No. The planned service is authorized asset tracking. Owners must have the right to track the asset, and must follow applicable privacy and employment law.
Share a pilot use case
Tell us what you would track and where it operates. This records interest; it does not place an order.