Subject: [NEXTEL-1] State to track snow plow contractors.

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 12:03:34 -0400

State to track snowplow drivers
Fraud is target of innovation: satellite device
By Anthony Flint, Globe Staff, 10/23/2003

Nowplow drivers who work for the state had better not take too long 
on their hot cocoa breaks. With the help of a sophisticated new 
global positioning system, the state will know exactly where they 
are, every minute of every shift during a storm. 

''We will track the amount of hours worked and they will be paid 
accordingly,'' said Jon Carlisle, commissioner of the Massachusetts 
Highway Department. ''No more payment for an hour stop at the 
doughnut shop.''

The state is requiring the private contractors to carry global 
positioning satellite phones, to keep better track of how roadways 
are being cleared in eastern Massachusetts and to prevent fraud.

''You turn that phone on, it's just like punching a time clock,'' 
said Jon Cogliano, commissioner of the Massachusetts Highway 
Department, who could not put a dollar estimate on the fraud that 
allegedly occurs. ''For the first time, we have accountability. If 
someone is plowing a private lot on state time [and] using state-
purchased salt, we'll know.''

Snowplow operators, who recently formed the Massachusetts Snow and 
Ice Contractors Association as a formal way of communicating with 
the state, said they resent the assumption that they try to abuse 
the system. Their new group plans to meet in Raynham tonight to 
address the GPS system and other issues relating to the state's 
contract with them.

The state hires some 2,200 contractors with 4,000 pieces of snow-
fighting equipment every winter. Clearing snow and salting roads 
costs anywhere from $20 million to close to $80 million each year.

The state has spent $261,000 on 2,900 Nextel walkie-talkie phones 
made by Motorola, and has outfitted roughly half of the private 
contractors with the phones. The rest will have them by Nov. 1, 
Cogliano said.

When the snowplows are out on the roads, the phones use a 
combination of satellite and cellular technology to beam the 
equipment's location to central or regional operations headquarters. 
The stretches of road that are plowed and the salt used will all be 
recorded permanently and available on a printout.

''There'll be a paper trail now,'' Cogliano said.

Asked if fraud had been a big problem for the highway department, 
Cogliano said. ''I don't have a number on that,'' but added 
that ''if it's just one person misusing state-purchased salt, that's 
one too many.''

''I get calls all the time saying there are plows off to the side of 
the road,'' he said. ''The majority are hard-working people, but 
there are always some who try to cut corners or get paid for hours 
that they didn't work. Those are the people who are not going to 
like this -- the people who try to beat the system.''

But Henry Zion, a private contractor in Middleborough, said private 
snowplowers are being unfairly targeted. ''Ninety-nine percent of 
the contractors in this state do a fabulous job -- and it's not an 
easy job.''

Zion said the new snow and ice contractors association intends to 
address that and other matters with the state. ''The GPS system is 
not alone the major problem. There are other issues,'' Zion said.

http://news.google.com/news?q=State+to+track+snowplow+drivers&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wn

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