A Connecticut man is taking a car rental company to court after they tracked him and fined him for speeding. James Turner of New Haven rented a van several months ago to drive to Virginia. When Turner signed the rental contract he didn't pay much attention to a clause stating the company's vehicles were equipped with a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system. He also failed to notice the warning that stated going over the speed limit would cost $150 per infraction.

Turner returned home and discovered the rental company had taken out $450 from his bank account. According to published and televised reports, Acme Rent-A-Car had reportedly determined that he had exceeded the speed limit three times and dipped into his account for each violation.

Turner was stunned the company took money out of his account and claimed he was unaware what GPS could do. "I thought it was an onboard navigation system, to use when you get lost," he told news reporters.

In addition to being equipped with GPS, the van was equipped with a much more sophisticated monitoring system. The rental company had installed a device called AirIQ, which tracked Turner's speed and location.

With attorney in town, Turner went to the state's small claims court, but Acme contends he was well aware of the contract provisions and he knew the risks. "The warning is printed in big bold letters on top of the contract," an Acme spokesperson told news reporters. "It's not something that's in fine print. It's explained to the customer, and the customer has to initial it."

Acme defends the technology saying the real purpose is not to make money from people speeding but to track cars. The monitoring system allows the company to find cars that are not returned -- a problem that typically can drive small rental companies out of business.

The use and abuse of the black box technology and the opportunity it provides for surveillance has been debated in the trucking industry over the past few years. The technology is only now making its way into some rental company agency vehicles as an added safeguard to help retrieve unreturned rentals. Budget Rent- a-Car Corp. uses the technology in select models they rent. "We use GPS to track for theft of select models," Budget Corporate Communications spokesperson Kimberly Mulcahy told Land Line. "It's only used after we've pursued all other avenues to locate the vehicle."

Mulcahy said Budget doesn't utilize the more sophisticated AirIQ monitoring system. "We only use GPS. It's used as a last resort when we're unable to get in touch with the renter."

Enterprise Rent-A-Car doesn't use any technology to track or retrieve its rented vehicles and doesn't intend to start. "We don't use anything to track vehicles," Christy Conrad, corporate communications manager for Enterprise, told Land Line, "and I don't anticipate Enterprise using any technology in the future."

The small claims court is waiting for the consumer protection board and state's attorney general to make a ruling in the Turner vs. Acme case. That ruling is expected in the coming weeks.--Keith Goble, staff writer