Having a company car can be a great benefit.

Of course, all company vehicles will come with certain rules that the employee has to follow.

Sometimes, those rules can be overly strict and actually cause problems.

That’s what happened in this story, where the employer said that employees couldn’t use the company truck at all on nights and weekends. Not even to move it out of the driveway.

Check out how this policy backfired in the best way.

Can’t even drive the company truck 12 feet on the weekend? Okay.

This is my husband’s story from a few years ago.

He was an equipment salesman and had a company pick up that he brought home at night and on weekends.

Having a company truck for the workday is a pretty nice benefit.

His company did not allow personal use aside from driving it to and from work.

Some salesmen took advantage of having a pick up and did use it for personal use, so the company installed GPS systems on all company vehicles at the first of the year.

My husband was pretty miffed as he really hadn’t misused his truck, but he figured he had nothing to hide, so he shrugged it off.

You would think that the company would have planned for this type of thing.

In February, he had to attend a trade show on a Saturday.

This triggered the GPS and he would got a nasty call from his boss who was located in another state.

My husband had to provide documentation that he was attending a company-sanctioned event; he felt like he was being babysat.

This happened a couple other times as well.

One Saturday that spring, he backed the truck out of the garage and onto the driveway to get the lawnmower out.

After he finished mowing, he pulled it back into the garage.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

Yup, you guessed it, this triggered the GPS twice and on Monday, his boss called him and chewed him out.

My husband tried to explain, but ”Lou” was mad.

“You know you are not to drive the company truck on the weekend!”

“I was moving it out of the garage so I could get my mower out. Does your report show how far each trip was?”

“They were .0025 miles each…(he paused as he seemed to realize how short of a distance these trips were)…but, well, that doesn’t matter. No driving after hours or on the weekends. This is being noted in your file!”

So on the weekends he either parked on the street or in the driveway.

A few weeks later, his compliance became malicious.

I can see where this is going and I love it!

We lived in the Midwest where thunderstorms, tornados, and hailstorms are not uncommon.

We were under a storm advisory with a strong probability of hail.

”Should you move your truck into the garage?” I asked my husband.

”You’d think so, but today is a Sunday and I am forbidden from driving my truck even a few feet, so it’s going to stay where it is,” he said.

As the hail came down (about the size of a quarter), he stood looking out the window at the truck grinning.

I wish I were there to see the look on the bosses face!

He loved explaining the damage to his boss and reminding him why the truck was no longer parked in a nice, safe garage.

When he reported the damage, he reminded his boss that it was a shame he wasn’t allowed to move the truck into his garage when he became aware that a storm was coming.

The boss knew dang well he had maliciously followed the policy.

The policy was relaxed/reworded a few weeks later, not sure if it was a direct result of this.

Her husband really didn’t want to cause trouble, but the company forced his hand.

Let’s see what other people thought of the situation.

Now that is a great idea!

This is the biggest problem in the story.

Just goes to show that if someone wants to game the system, they will find a way.

I can just see his look of satisfaction.

Wow, this guy used the GPS tracking to prove an employee didn’t break into a house!

Imagine that, micromanaging always make things better.

Color me shocked.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.