FYI
Matt Murray
mattm@optonline.net
New Haven Advocate
GPS: Gotta Pay for Speeding
Coming to small claims court: Roadrunner vs. Acme Rent-a-Car.
By Colleen Van Tassell
Published 06/14/01
James Turner is taking Big Brother to small claims court.
Turner's taking his own car. Big Brother's driving a rental.
A rental outfitted with a high-tech device that tracks your every move. One
that records your speed. One that enables rental car agents to rip off
unsuspecting drivers.
Turner's really suing Acme Rent-A-Car on Whalley Avenue in New Haven for
cozying up with Big Brother. He's trying to recoup a $450 charge for
allegedly speeding on his way to Virginia in an Acme minivan. The van was
equipped with a Global Positioning System, or GPS, which transmits data via
satellite. It clocked him "going at speeds in excess of 90 mph on three
separate occasions," according to court papers. The internal device did, but
the cops didn't.
When Turner signed Acme's rental agreement last October, he didn't notice
the warning at the top of the contract that read: "Vehicles in excess of
posted speed limit will be charged $150 fee per occurrence. All our vehicles
are GPS equipped."
Little did Turner know that his van was equipped with a sophisticated device
called AirIQ.
Turner was a regular customer at Acme. His position as box office manager at
the Palace Performing Arts Center takes him out of town to check out shows.
Acme's close to his home for convenient pickup and drop-off.
He's signed many contracts with Acme. That day last fall, he didn't notice
the warning at the top of the contract. He provided his bank debit card and
left.
"Even if I had seen the GPS warning, I'd think it was for getting lost, not
to track my every move," said Turner. If he had understood the warning came
from Big Brother, "I would've requested another car without GPS."
There's the rub. GPS falls under the vast heading of telematics, and can
mean a variety of services.
What's not clear in the contract is that Acme uses AirIQ, a Toronto-based,
worldwide wireless application service provider. It's geared toward managing
fleets of commercial trucks and rental cars. AirIQ is much more intrusive
than many auto navigational systems. In addition to providing maps and
location tools, according to its Web site, it also allows rental car agents
to "manage driver behavior by auditing location information" and "receive
boundary crossing and excessive speed reports." An agent can even shut a car
off by remote control if it's going too fast or heading into territory it's
not supposed to be in.
But defining "excessive speed" is in the hands of the fleet manager. An
AirIQ spokeswoman says the system allows the rental car agent to set an
internal speed limit on each car. So if the limit is set at 55, a driver
traveling the legal speed limit of 65 would be "speeding." (There's no
evidence that happened to Turner, since Acme claims he was going over 90.)
AirIQ's speed reports cost Turner $450 in "fines." When he returned to New
Haven on a Sunday night, he drove to an ATM to get some cash and discovered
his account was drained. There were three mysterious $150 withdrawals.
Before he returned the car on Monday he called the bank and was told Acme
withdrew his money.
An Acme employee handed Turner a map with arrows pointing to the three areas
where they claim AirIQ tracked him speeding. The employee showed him the
contract and pointed to the warning.
"I was tracked across seven states," said Turner. "It felt creepy."
Turner called a lawyer.
Acme called a lawyer.
What seems like a simple contractual dispute in small claims court has
larger legal significance, according to Turner's lawyer, Bernadette Keyes.
Acme's lawyer, Max Brunswick, agrees, but for different reasons.
Brunswick says his client is forced to use the AirIQ system. "People leave
the state and abandon cars, resulting in devastating revenue losses for my
client."
Fine, that's where locator types of GPS come in. But why does Acme use speed
tracking?
Brunswick claims it's for humanitarian reasons, that it's not about
collecting money. "It saves lives by discouraging speeding. It's an accepted
[rental car] trade practice." He didn't know if his client was presetting
speed limits.
The Advocate called five major rental car agencies in Greater New Haven.
Only one, Hertz, uses GPS, and only for navigation. "We don't track
speeding," a manager says.
Which is not to say that other, smaller rental car agencies may not be using
GPS to track speeding.
This is Keyes' fear--that small rental agencies will use devices like AirIQ
but not make it clear to their customers. She challenges the assumption that
the warning atop Acme's contract tells customers enough about GPS.
"I never heard of it, have you?" Keyes asks. (I hadn't). She believes Acme
should explain GPS (and AirIQ in particular) to customers. She believes it
discriminates against technological have-nots and especially poorer people.
"More important is the issue of due process," says Keyes. "There's no system
for challenging this fine. At least when you get a ticket, the court system
allows you to contest it." She claims the speeding charges are
constitutionally invalid and go against public policy.
Keyes has alerted the Connecticut attorney general's office and the state
Department of Consumer Protection.
A Consumer Protection lawyer says the department is investigating six other
complaints against Acme but won't explain the nature of the complaints.
No court date has been set. Yet.
|