James Turner learned an expensive lesson in the perils of speeding last fall, but not from the highway patrol. Instead, Acme Rent-a-Car in New Haven charged Turner a total of US$450 for speeding during a business trip.
When Turner, a theater manager in New Haven, rented a van one Saturday last October, he signed a rental agreement with Acme that included a warning that read: "Vehicles driven in excess of posted speed limit will be charged US$150 per occurrence. All our vehicles are GPS-equipped." Global positioning system equipment can determine a vehicle's location at any time.
Turner, who had previously rented from Acme, did not notice the warning. When he returned home to New Haven, he discovered that the rental agency had deducted US$150 from his checking account three times during his trip.
It turned out that Acme had recently installed GPS devices manufactured by AirIQ of Toronto in its fleet. But it did not provide Turner with location information and driving directions as some other automotive GPS devices do. Instead, the AirIQ system was used to pinpoint where and when Turner traveled at what Acme contends were "speeds in excess of 90 miles [145kph] per hour," said Max Brunswick, the lawyer for Acme. The incident was first reported in The New Haven Advocate, a weekly newspaper.
Turner took Acme to small-claims court, arguing that the information on the rental agreement was not clear enough and that it was not within Acme's jurisdiction to enforce speed limits.
"I thought the state was the only agency that could authorize a moving violation," Turner said. "I didn't think anybody on the back end of a computer could just deduct money out of a checking account."
The court deferred the decision to the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection. Acme has since made its rental agreement clearer, Brunswick said, and the company now charges for speeding only when drivers exceed 127kph. "Acme believes they have a right to protect their vehicles," he said. "The customer can always decline and go somewhere else to rent a car."
Many commercial trucking and rental car companies use GPS equipment, known generally as telematics, to track their fleets and to provide drivers with useful information. So far Acme seems to be the only rental car company using GPS to track customers' driving speeds.
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