Working on the Road
March 5, 2010
The inter-office dynamics that make NBC's The Office television series so popular is becoming less a reality for growing body of employees who work from remote locations, including the mobile office. Increasingly sophisticated advances in connective technology and vehicle features are creating virtual working tethers from office to far-flung field staff, service tech, or salesperson.
Most cars and trucks now offer Internet access, broadband connections, or in-dash communications systems allowing employees to connect laptop computers and digital devices to in-office management, schedulers, data files, etc.
While the mobile office has helped boost business efficiencies significantly, some cautions must be addressed. Security is one. Laptops, in-vehicle printers, even company records and documents, can be a target for thieves. An About.com Web article by Catherine Roseberry, Are You Ready to Turn Your Vehicle into a Mobile Office offers the following security-conscious tips:
- Now more than ever, it is important you lock your vehicle and store your work materials in a secure manner within your vehicle.
- You should not advertise nor talk about what you carry in your vehicle - you never know who may be listening. Don't leave things in plain sight - a possible target for theft or vandalism.
- Use trunk space rather than back or front seat space for a more secure and protected area for work materials.
- If you have an in-vehicle storage organizer/laptop desk in the front seat, stow it in the trunk when not in use or you are out of the vehicle.
- While this may seem to be plain common sense safety, it is important to remember that people do become complacent after time, and forget to lock doors or keep work materials out of sight when they are not in their vehicle.
- You can purchase additional security features such as a vehicle alarm and locks for containers you store work materials in.
- Make it more difficult for anyone to get at your property, and you can decrease the risk of loss.
The other caution with conducting business from a truck or car is the serious, potentially deadly issue of driver distraction. A New York Times article first published last September as the federal Department of Transportation began its distracted driver awareness campaign examines in depth the dangers mobile offices can present when drivers work while operating their vehicles.
"At 60 M.P.H., Office Work Is High Risk" cites cases in which field employees crashed their vehicles while looking - or working!!! - on their laptops or conducting business calls while driving. (Check out the video of a San Francisco businessman working behind the wheel.)
Author Matt Richtel writes of the pressure to produce propelling employees to multitask while behind the wheel:
"Real estate brokers, pharmaceutical sales people, entrepreneurs, marketers and others say they have little choice but to transform their cars into cubicles. In this merciless economy, they say, they have to make every minute count, and respond instantly to opportunities and challenges.
And they argue that the convenience of constant contact - and the chance to tick off items from an endless to-do list while driving - far outweigh what they think are slim chances that it could lead to a wreck.
For white-collar employees, pressures to multitask are largely self-imposed. For blue-collar workers, the demands to stay connected while driving are often imposed by their bosses.
Truckers, plumbers, delivery drivers and others are tethered to dispatchers with an array of productivity devices, including on-board computers that send instructions about the next job and keep tabs on drivers' locations. Such devices can require continual attention - distracting drivers who are steering the biggest vehicles on American roads."
Richtel notes a growing body research that indicates such multitasking can lead not only to accidents, but also bad business decision-making.
(Most in-vehicle computer and communications systems warn against operating while driving, but many allow overriding any safety locks.)
In his article, Richtel reports some companies - including international engineering and project management company AMEC and Exxon Mobil, have prohibited employees from using their cell phones while driving on business and found no loss in driver productivity.
So, the message to fleets and mobile office workers: use the growing toolbox of technologies to go forth and produce - safely.