New Camera System Coming to all company trucks.

I don't understand.

 

Are you being sarcastic?

 

Whatever do you mean? Ok maybe just a little

 

Lets just sum it up this way. My father taught me many years ago, pick your battles. This is one that you are not going to win. If you have the 1 year after school or will before they install the cameras for line haul in 18 months, then just find another carrier. Why stress out over something that you can not and will not control. It is that simple. For me there are other things going on at Swift right now that are just a little more important since they affect MY PAY. The camera does not. CSR, planners, Plus 1, and Micro map are my battles. They affect my pay and just about everyone else here. Look at it this way also. You walk into terminal you are on camera. You call anyone in Swift, anyone, and you are being recorded and yet you have no problem calling.

 

But those are things that we can control to some degree.
A driver facing cam can't be, except to cover it while shut down.
It can still record audio, and some of that will be private conversations that no one else has any business listening to.
They will also be used to 'catch' drivers doing things that are quite normal for anyone driving a long distance, but that could be used against the driver.

Do you really not see the difference? It isn't the same thing.

 

from all that I have read as far as recording, they are only going to be concerned in the event of a critical event. Do you really think that they are going to have someone watching 16,000 trucks and listening to audio 24/7. As far as using it against a driver and they know of drivers that are doing things that are not safe and they just can not catch him in the act and if this allows them do, then all for it. More and more I am seeing our drivers day in and day out breaking the rules. The other day a local out of Lancaster going down the road texting. One with his foot on the dash. How many others are there. Few years ago I had a critical breaking and swerving. A buck and doe and baby in the median. It was daytime so could see and prepare. At the time of the event, it was recorded. I was brought in, showed them what happened and they agreed with what I did to avoid a situation. Taken off my record right then and there. If there was a cam facing me then they would have seen me preparing for a possible situation. Again, do you really think that someone is going to be sitting there 24/7 watching and listening to every truck.

 

Couple things are going to happen:

1 Swift stock price will go up significantly by the end of the year.

2 The news will be filled with Swift drivers going to jail for crashes in the past they were simply fired over.

 

Nope they don't have the man power to do that. But it goes thur a 3rd party 1st then to swift. But it's quite simple for me I'll quit. Cameras are my line in the sand and they crossed it. But they can audit your camera sorta like logs and all the video that it's saved going over bumpy roads or critical events they will watch will it be all 18000 trucks a year na guessing 10% and then safety will say looks like you are not scaning your mirrors every 6 to 8 seconds or you picked up that coke/coffee a lot that will have to stop. And just wait 3 to 5 years it will get worse.

 

To tell the truth the only thing I'm worried they will see is me lighting my pipe from time to time.
It takes both hands.

I don't text, I don't have phone conversations while driving.
I do sometimes eat a hot dog while driving, though.

I just don't like the intrusiveness of the whole concept.

Those little things can be used against me even if there is no critical even that triggered the camera, because 'they' have access to at least an hour of past footage.
All they have to do is download a few files at random on each of us, which might be done if the watchers are bored by not having enough critical events happen.
It really is Big Brother at our doorstep, and coming into our homes.

And the thing is, it is probably going to be industry wide before long.
It may take 15 or 20 years or more, but the powers that be will find a way to monitor everyone at all times - for our own good, and safety.
Driver cams are a good starting point to cams in every apartment, then into and around every home. Into every car.
All it takes are the laws that make it impossible to rent or buy anything without some surveillance attached to it.

But that kind of thing doesn't happen over night.
The first steps are small one's, perhaps with company policies.
Then when some kind of advantage can be shown for the usefulness, it can be made into law for everyone.

I know. I'm being paranoid.
It's what I do best, so I do it to the best of my ability.

 

Moose I'm really thankfull I'll be dead by then because no your not that paranoid. This stuff will continue to creep up into peoples lives and as we die off it will become normal and acceptable.