Can you GPS track employees' company cars in Denmark? What GDPR and the control agreement require

Yes, you can GPS track employees' company cars in Denmark. But only if you have a legitimate business purpose, give employees notice at least six weeks in advance, state exactly what the data is used for and collect only what that purpose needs. GPS in a company vehicle is a control measure under the Danish control measures agreement and personal data processing under GDPR. Skip one step and the tracking is unlawful.

What is GPS tracking of company cars, legally?

GPS tracking of a company car means a tracker in the vehicle that records position, time and driven routes. Legally, it is two things at once.

First, it is a control measure. The Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) lists GPS in company cars as an example of employee control (DI). Second, it is personal data: once you know who drives the car, its position is information about a person (TEKNIQ). The Danish Chamber of Commerce names four sets of rules you have to work through: the control measures agreement, management prerogative, the cooperation rules and data protection law (Dansk Erhverv).

Why does this matter in a service business? Because GPS solves real problems. You can answer the customer who calls asking "when are you coming?", send the nearest van to an urgent job, and prove the windows were cleaned on Tuesday at 10:40. But the same data can also be used to check how long someone took for lunch. That drift is exactly what the rules exist to stop.

What does the control measures agreement require?

The agreement between the Danish employers' confederation (DA) and the trade union confederation (LO, now FH) sets three requirements (DI):

• A business purpose. The control must have a legitimate operational reason.
• Not degrading. It must not be degrading to employees.
• Notice at least 6 weeks before. Only if the purpose would otherwise be lost may you give notice afterwards, and then as soon as possible.

According to DI, the purpose and non-degrading requirements apply whether or not the employment falls under the DA/LO main agreement. If your collective agreement has its own rules on control, read them. My advice is simple: give six weeks' notice even if you are unsure the agreement covers you. It costs you six weeks and nothing else.

A case from this year shows what skipping it costs. A Danish municipality had fitted GPS in its service vehicles for fleet management: routes, location and mileage. It later used the stored data to review the cars of all 13 evening-shift employees for long breaks, without notice. An arbitration ruling fined the municipality DKK 50,000 because it had no concrete suspicion against each individual employee (DI). The tracker was legal. The new use of the data was not.

What GDPR requires: information, purpose and data minimisation

The legal basis for GPS in company cars is typically your legitimate interest under GDPR Article 6(1)(f), and where relevant section 12(1) of the Danish Data Protection Act (DI). So you don't need consent. You need a good purpose, and you need to state it.

Information: say it like it is

In 2020 the Danish Data Protection Agency ruled on five cases about employee control: two got criticism, three got serious criticism. The failure was the same each time. The companies had not clearly stated the purpose of the control or the employees' rights (TEKNIQ). If you use GPS in service vans to check effective working time, it is not enough to write that the system finds the nearest van for urgent jobs.

Purpose: data may only be used for what you said

If you announced GPS to save fuel, you can't later use it to check a technician's working hours (TEKNIQ). The data may not be used to monitor an employee's behaviour or whereabouts unless that was part of the original purpose (DI).

Data minimisation: only what's needed, only as long as it's needed

You may only process the data that is necessary, and only for as long as it is necessary (DI). If the car may be used privately, it must be possible to switch the GPS monitoring off. And recording people's movements without justification can be a criminal offence (DI).

How to write the notice: 7 points

A good notice fits on one page. It answers what the employee actually wants to know:

1. The purposes, specifically. For example dispatch for urgent jobs, arrival times for customers, proof of visits. If data feeds pay or working time, say so here.
2. What data. Position, times, driven route, possibly speed.
3. When. Only during working hours, and what applies to private driving.
4. Who sees the data. The owner, the office, the team lead? Name people or roles.
5. How long it's kept. A specific period, not "as long as necessary".
6. Rights. The employee's right of access under GDPR.
7. Start date and receipt. At least six weeks out, and get the employee's signature confirming they received the notice (TEKNIQ).

When does GPS tracking become surveillance?

When the purpose drifts. My line: you track the vehicle to run the business. You don't track the person to keep an eye on them.

It's surveillance when you:

• go through the week's trails looking for long breaks, with no concrete suspicion
• check the map in the evening or at weekends
• rank drivers by who drives fastest
• use the data for anything the notice doesn't cover

It's operations when you send the nearest van to an urgent job, tell a customer when the van will arrive, or document a visit a customer complains about. If you have a concrete suspicion about one employee, raise it with them directly. Don't trawl the whole team.

How we do it in Clientflow

I helped build our GPS features, and we chose a setup where tracking follows the vehicle:

• The tracker sits in the vehicle, not the phone. It's fitted to the car battery and linked to a vehicle under Indstillinger → Flåde on the GPS tab (Installing GPS devices).
• Today's car. In the calendar you choose Today's car per employee and day, and the GPS map shows who drives the car that day. That way the data belongs to the right person. Put this in the notice.
• Tracking. On the Flåde (Sporing) page you see a live map and trip history with route and speed. Speed is personal data too. Decide in the notice whether it's part of the purpose.
• Pay. Hourly pay can be calculated with Effektiv tid (GPS-dwell) (Payroll, commission and hourly pay). If you pick that mode, you're using GPS for working time, so it has to be listed as a purpose in the notice.

Our employee information template is on the GPS tracking & GDPR page. You'll find the module itself under Fleet & GPS. GPS tracking is available on Enterprise (DKK 1,199/month + DKK 229 per user) and costs DKK 99 per tracker per month, excl. VAT.