Wal-Mart Transportation has found itself under intense scrutiny from the public ever since the high-profile crash involving one of its drivers put Tracy Morgan in a coma and killed fellow comedian James McNair. Now it is testing out a pilot program which would put driver-facing cameras in its vehicles.
According to ArkansasOnline, sources inside the company are calling the initiative a “soft pilot” program which is asking drivers to volunteer to have the cameras installed. Drivers will have the option of installing a front-facing or a dual-facing camera which would show both a forward-facing view, and inside the cab.
Already some drivers have signed up for the program.
“I think it’s a protection for the driver group,” said Gary Mars, one volunteer. “As long as I’m doing my job and doing what I’m supposed to be doing, there is no other reason to worry about it.”
But not all drivers see in-cab cameras as a good thing. Many drivers have made it clear they have concerns about privacy, especially with cameras that are always on. Some drivers are made more comfortable by cameras that only record during an incident, or cameras that are on, but don’t store video unless there is a ‘critical event.’
Even Howard Frost, the company’s driver manager, says that driver-facing cameras can feel “a little intrusive.”
“The way that I look at it is the front of the cab is my office, and behind the seats is my home, because that’s where I sleep. The last thing you want is a Peeping Tom in your bedroom,” said Frost. But he also acknowledged how important it is for truckers and carriers to protect themselves from liability and “from people being stupid.”
Wal-Mart hasn’t said whether the pilot program will lead to mandatory driver-facing cameras in all of their vehicles or not, but it says that the decision will be based off of driver feedback on the pilot program.
Source: arkansasonline
Several years ago, the company I drove for statedd they were thinking about driver facing cameras in the trucks. A large percentage of the drivers’ responses were that they would quit if that happened. Given the amount of time a driver spends in his truck, it could be considered his home away from home. I doubt any of the administrative personnel would want cameras watching them in their homes.
It’s gonna be the standard. Pilot program simply means “get ready to be watched”. Last company I worked for did the same “pilot program” which led to them placing cameras into all the new trucks 2yrs later. You have no expectations of privacy in their truck. It belongs to them.
It’s nothing that a piece of tape won’t fix.
A nice and sweet piece of gum will do the magic better
How would the cameras have prevented the crash that injured Tracy Morgan?
They wouldn’t have prevented the crash, just enabled them to put 100% of the blame on the driver and avoid or deflect lawsuits which actually in this case was drivers fault but that’s what they’re going for. Less lawsuits, bigger bottom line and cheaper insurance premiums
Walmart is run by Lawyers….The head of safety is a lawyer…The head of transportation is a lawyer…And they are now pushing ALL liability on the driver…..I know….I drive for Walmart.
No freakin way! The day I get a driver-facing cam put in my truck will be the day I hand back my keys! Invasion of privacy, don’t care what anybody says.
We won’t miss you.
Haha I guess you’re one of the idiots that volunteered for this absurd violation of privacy because “you do no wrong”. Won’t miss you either… Smile at your camera and blow a big ole kiss for me…
The camera’s should only be activated along with electronic log books somehow, or some device that only records during divers doing their jobs, downtime, personal time, off hours they should not have the opportunity to record personal time unless the driver activates the system some how to prevent theft when they are out of the truck.
I blame the lack of Technology. Those Trucks should have radar that automatically slows the vehicle and to a complete stop, before a wreck occurs. And I have seen lots of unruly smart ass T.drivers who just ride up on your bumper as if wanting to push you out of the way, even if you are following the speed limit. I have never agreed with the way the Trucking Industry does things, such as only paying drivers per miles, or hourly. All loads should be paid according to Contract. This is what you get paid going from Point A to Point B, and no time constraints. The roads would be much safer.
Technology doesn’t solve all problems. If I’m an obnoxious kid with a knack for electronics, and I want to have a few laughs at the expense of some drivers (think rocks dropped from an overpass), then I build a small microwave repeater, turn it on, and drop it on the roadway.
It repeats the radar signal back to trucks on the road, as the approach it, and simulates a signal being reflected off of an object in the path of travel – forcing trucks to stop in the middle of the highway.
Similar devices can be constructed simply and cheaply as handhelds, and/or to be activated on demand, causing hard-braking conditions. Activated during winter weather, such a system can easily cause catastrophic accidents.
Now put one in a car with someone that hates trucks and suffers from road rage…
Technology is not the answer to everything.
Flat rate is the same as being paid per mile, it’s just done as a lump sum.
I would have no problem with it IF it could be controlled by the e log and shut off when I am off duty. I have a road facing camera and it has protected me by proving a car cut it front of my truck and slammed his brakes on. He thought he would sue. The police charged him with dangerous driving.
If there is a camera facing you, someone somewhere can turn it on. On ELDs, anyone designated as a log manager can simply put you on-duty, and thereby turn on your camera. Target, Yahoo, Sony, and the US government cannot protect your privacy, when it comes to information ranging from your email to your financial information – all the way up to and including information gathered about you for classified security clearance processing.
Do you really believe that your carrier (or whoever they contract with, to run your ELDs/cab cameras) is going to be any better at protecting your privacy? Do you think that they care, more? When your privacy gets compromised, do you think that they will do more than hire a monitoring service, to let you know how many Pakistanis have seen video of you picking your nose?
I think that a forward facing camera is fine and can help to protect a driver. But I don’t see much point to a camera facing the driver.
The point is catching a driver texting or talking on his cell phone while driving ( actually holding his phone) or not wearing his seatbelt. That’s why my company does it
HAHAHA !!!!!!!
Welcome to big brother climbing up your posterior again … Mark my words, Truckers are once again going to cower to this insanity and keep driving for Wal-Mart. Hahaha!!!
Can you imagine the average office worker having a spy camera openly installed on their cubicle wall for their bosses pleasures ….. Talk about ACLU protests and creepy !!!
But Nooooo trucking is going to bow down and kiss Wal-Marts feet begging to keep their jobs like a bunch if bullied little wimps.
Actually the office workers you speak of may already have a camera on them in the computer they use. They just don’t know if it’s recording or not.
It’s the future.
Rear facing cameras are there for one reason: to protect the company. If recordings show the driver was sleepy, nodding off, distracted or whatever, it shows whether the driver was doing his/her job. The costs of lawsuits is quickly becoming the single major cost of operating.
After the cameras are widespread (or even mandated), will come the software that recognizes a driver being tired or inattentive and that will inform the company safety officer and/or the driver.
It’s all coming.
Good… When Carriers and DOT see how often a driver is sleepy, weary or fatigued they will be forced to consider how overworked (i.e. forced load), underpaid (i.e. mileage versus hourly) and inconvenienced (i.e. lack of parking) they are.
Wow. What kind of a clueless moron wants a camera in the truck, monitoring him?
Absolutely not! You drivers that keep volunteering for this crap are just opening doors for the government and carriers to add additional crap in the future. I have no problem at all with cameras facing out, in fact I have my own dashcam, but I WILL NOT tolerate my space being invaded by in-cab video/audio! If investigators can’t figure out what happened in an accident with information from ECM’s, outward facing cameras, witnesses, and video from other video from traffic cameras or dashcams then they should probably find another job. And for all you drivers that say that you have nothing to hide, I’ll absolutely guarantee you that one of those dirtbag anti-trucking law firms will find that you in fact DID have something to hide. They will take the smallest little thing that you do that you think there’s nothing wrong with doing and make you look like a dangerous family murdering dirtbag truck driver and your company will disavow any knowledge of ever having known you. Haven’t we put up with enough in this industry? Enough is enough!
Well said, Rayzer
Well Said
The diffwrench between a driver dash cam and a company dash cam lies in who has access to the video, and (therefore) who it protects. Police cruiser camera footage is released to the public and the courts only at the pleasure of the police department, and therefore protects the police department – not the public, or even necessarily the officer. Driver dash cam video is released at the pleasure of the driver, and therefore protects the driver. Carrier dash cam video is released at the pleasure of the carrier, and therefore protects the carrier – not necessarily the public or the driver.
The distinction is important, and deserves to be highlighted, because traditionally, every invasive activity by carriers or government is sold to drivers as a way of protecting the driver – and almost invariably, this has universally turned out to be a deception.
Thank-you; I’ll install my own camera/s, facing where *I* want them, and *I* will decide to whom and when to release recorded video – and decide for myself, at my own discretion, why or why not to release it.
Here is another opportunity to make the control freaks back off. Every Walmart driver should do what the Swift drivers failed to do: quit. Right now. Tell the big bad boss to suck eggs, and see how fast the cameras go away……Why do people bend over and take it so easily? Smh
Because Walmart pays better than most, and if the drivers quit, others are eager to take their place. This establishes a precedent, and the question becomes not whether or not the cameras are acceptable, but at what rate of pay they stop being accepted. At that stage, if carriers cannot find alternative labor markets willing to accept the cameras, they *may* consider removing them. Or just buy self-driving trucks. It depends what the options are that present themselves, at the time.
Hmmmm…what are the probabilities that Wal-Mart will discontinue the program when they get all sorts of negative feedback from their drivers in the pilot program?
About the same odds as me ever shopping there again:
0.0
Walmart told a few suckers that this will benefit them the most. They also sold these same guys some of their ocean-front property in Arizona!
Walmart probably offer to pay these “volunteers” to do it so the other sheep would fall in line.
Try hiring some properly trained drivers… stop hiring from truck mills.. Maybe you’ll have some professional attitudes out there.. piss on these cameras.
Well there’ll be no shortage of opinions on this subject…If the government decides that cameras need to go into the trucks…That’s when we have a problem…A company however can if they so choose to install cameras in their trucks…After all…The trucks belong to them, and the driver is the employee…O/O do as they please…Most of them have cameras facing towards the front to record the traffic to protect them from 4 wheelers that try to cover their asses by lying about what happened during an accident involving them and the big rig.
And when it’s found out that the 4 wheeler driver is lying they should have to forfeit their license for 5 years and whatever amount they were suing for should be what they have to pay the truck driver. Not the company, the driver. That would help to stop much of the stupid crap the people try.
If it is a daycab no problem but a sleeper were drivers do a lot of personnel things. No way I would work for a carrier with a camera facing me.
Rayzer and Chuck said the best points about
Lawyer Cams ( ah, cameras facing drivers).
Imagine if every Car had a Driver facing Camera, with Insurance company policy discounts !
How many people would sit straight and level for Hours ?
Or work for Hours with the Insurance Lawyers ready to jump on you being a Risk Liability ?
8000+ Professional Fleet Drivers are going to be punished because of the
criminally negligent behavior
of one person.
I don’t like being watch all the time .
Maybe you can cover the cam when you go off duty ,otherwise I’m sure they have to think something specially for female drivers .
Tirdad,
Where is your sense of Equality?
In a truck, Women and Men have the same expectations of Privacy.
It’s already mandatory in All Swift company trucks, & is very annoying, having some scrutinize your every move, & message u to discuss it. They call it Drivecam & it sucks & is downright creepy… I can understand the dash cam that only faces outwards, but I absolutely hate the cab facing cam…. after I collect $2000 of this $4000 bonus they’re offering, I’m out…. & the sad part is despite all the negative things I’ve heard about Swift they are a pretty decent company…..They just need to speed up the trucks, & remove the Driver facing camera, & they would be able to retain more experienced drivers…..
I have spoken to drivers who say they like the cameras in the truck because it shows that they aren’t doing anything wrong. I never can understand why they think that over the course of a wokay that the camera isn’t going to show them logging sleeper or off duty while at the customer, reaching for the radio, talking on the phone eating/drinking while driving, etc… I won’t work a job with someone standing over me now and most definitely don’t plan to drive with a camera that is monitoring me.
I been driving 24 years and with loose leave logs. VERY LOOSE…..no accidents or speeding tickets. I contribute my record and skills to training and common sense. Driver training is lacking as I see it. Education and abilility to handle the equipment accordingly. Good habits should be second nature. The compitance level of a good number of drivers these days I hold in question. Their lack of good training and decision making is leading to “Driver facing cameras”. Good traing, habits and common sense, their would be no need for these such devices. But….some schools and company training, they’re pumping drivers out like puppy mills!! NOT ACCEPTABLE!!
Our culture is obsessed and addicted with tech and voyeurism…. It wouldn’t matter if we great at our job or not
This too will one day be mandated no matter what
I am all for cameras all over the truck, but inside the cab? No freeking way.
I quit the industry to import and sell multi channel truck cam systems, and am dead set against them being pointed at drivers.
I suggest we put cams in the upper management’s bedrooms, bathrooms and offices, you know, for safety…
The average college student that actually sticks it out till she/ graduates has no prospect of a job in their chosen field and is $75-100 K in debt. As long as someone 22 years old with a high school diploma and 4-6 weeks of training can get a job making $30-35 K their first year with relatively little or no debt, there is not going to be a shortage of drivers to climb into driver-facing camera-equipped trucks. All drivers are replaceable and there is a steady, unending stream waiting to replace each and every one of us. Whether those replacements are as good, as safe, or as productive is a minor consideration. If these cameras meant that companies couldn’t move enough freight to make an acceptable profit, they wouldn’t be installed or, if they were, quickly removed when it negatively impacted the bottom line. If the cameras resulted in losing drivers to the point that freight was sitting and profits falling = cameras gone. Somehow, right or wrong, such cameras increase overall bottom line profitability. If it’s a publicly held company, that is all, repeat: ALL, that shareholders care about. They don’t care if drivers are happy, safe, rested, healthy, and well paid. They don’t care if they are unhappy, unsafe, exhausted, unhealthy, and broke. They just want a steadily increasing rate of return on their investment. That’s who and what manipulates EVERY decision made by management. When managers keep those above them happy, they keep their jobs and get their bonuses. The top bosses are the stock holders. Like e-logs, passive braking systems, automatic transmissions, and eventually and certainly, autonomously-operated trucks, driver facing cameras will be in every truck because, somehow, it increases profitability. If they dont, it will be a short lived ‘fad’. At least while we’re performing ‘safety related functions’, we’re on company time and property and, like at a bank, we’re subject to company supervision, including by video. For the folks that have others depending on their income from driving that say they’ll just quit, I envy your financial position. Let me know how that minimum wage replacement job does in paying the bills that took all of your driving salary.
I don’t want people watching me scratch my but when it itch. Digging in my nose. Having a conversation with my wife and my girl friend. Talking bad about my dispatcher. Leaning left and right as I pass gas. And the many other things I do while I sit in the drivers seat. It’s the small things that makes me comfortable while driving.
How about making it a driver incentive by bonus pay for drivers who accept the camera? ~And allowing the camera to only see the driver’s face while in the driver’s seat, while moving…and anything else constitutes violation of privacy. No video is live streamed…only recorded to the proverbial black box. Also…if trucks are ever required to do this, then so must the general public. Let them be shown for the aggressive, raging, and altered drivers that they are! How many times have you been brake checked just because you couldn’t get over, or get up to speed while going over a mountain?? How many times have you seen four wheelers doing crazy things!? Why should they be held any less responsible!? We all know that the commercial drivers are blamed for most every wreck, while the four wheelers collects big bucks, even though it was the four wheeler at fault! I am certainly not a fan of driver cams, mainly because the rules aren’t clear, such as can a driver smoke, eat, or use a bluetooth while moving? Do they have to fear changing the radio station? Will a face cam absolve an innocent driver in court? The public is so used to crucifying the trucking industry! Also, if a driver accepts a face camera, then the driver needs protection against companies that force them to drive while tired, sick, or under poor conditions. All communications between companies and drivers recorded! It can’t be one sided to protect only the company! And why is it that rarely does a company provide forward facing cameras to protect their drivers? A truck should be equipped with three cameras…one facing forward, and one on each mirror facing backwards, all for the protection of the driver in the event of contact, or aggressive four wheelers. This alone would be as valuable as a camera that faces the driver! Companies only wish to protect themselves from lawsuits…how about protecting the driver for a change!?
This again is another instance where the final judgement will come from judges looking in from their safe heated or air conditioned environment with no real world knowledge of the truck drivers current dilema as opposed to those hired for their highly regarded skill looking from behind the wheel.
I agree with the forward facing cameras just because of the way people drive and you know it’s always are fault if something happens because we are professionals. As far as cameras facing us it doesn’t change anything
I have heard that with facial recognition software the camera can detect if the driver is getting fatigued.. if you never feel tired when you’re at work please let me know your secret.
Don’t be fooled by the companies spin that cab facing cameras are there to protect the driver. Forward facing cameras can provide all the info the company needs should there be an incident. I will bet my last dime some companies will use the video footage to discipline/dismiss drivers will spying on them. Life’s hard enough on the highway without the employers having big brother in the cab 24/7. If companies are that concerned for the welfare of their drivers then pay them a decent wage with decent pension and health care.
Having a camera face you in a truck means the company doesn’t trust you flat outv
Having a camera face you in a truck means the company doesn’t trust you flat out and that means wal mart transportation doesnt trust there drivers
And the drivers should quite thats privacy for a driver
What’s the difference if there’s a camera facing the driver? I don’t agree with it, but Employees at Walmart, Target, a gas station/Truckstop, a restaurant, a manufacturing job have cameras facing them all day & you don’t hear them complaining. Why is it drivers in the trucking industry think they should be exempt from rules & regulations? Why don’t we just quit screwing around do our jobs right and we wouldn’t have to worry about petty things like a camera facing us.
They hired a guy that lived in GA to drive out of New Jersey….The driver had to drive his car to NJ to drive his truck before driving his truck for 12 hours or more…..That is why most companies dont want their drivers to live more than 50 miles away if they dont take their truck home….It was Wal Marts fault for hiring this guy from GA…
once the company installs a camera in their truck then they have 100% control of the device. Do best you can to not let it get installed in your truck. Swift transportation have camera in their trucks and the camera records pretty much everything. One time there was a swift driver going 50mph in 35mph zone and they got him. Only the company knows what that camera does and you the driver just sit there and stare at it like an idiot. The camera go off and on based on the company settings. if you go over 20mph over speed limit it will record the incident.
I know for a fact that nearly ALL Wal-Mart Drivers, like any other Driver does not want a camera facing in. And those cameras have a microphone..why? They want to see AND listen inside the cab. I also know that Wal-Mart isn’t talking much to thier Drivers about it either. Lytex DriveCam company has given Wal-Mart a bunch of propaganda to BS the drivers about how it’ll protect them. I was running dedicated for Wal-Mart & I heard a lot of the drivers complaining about the in-ward facing cameras & microphones , which they should. Wal-Mart claims to hire Only “The best of the best” but they clearly don’t trust the drivers if they install those cameras. I was thinking I want to work for WAl-Mart, no way, not now, I don’t care how well they paid. Good luck Wal-Mart when your try hiring new drivers..
Seeing how Wal-Mart drivers are the highest paid in the nation. They are being paid to put up with the camera in there face. Walmart typically make double to triple over the industry standard of $32 to $37k a year. So to put it simply. If got paid $75k+ a year driving a truck. I wouldn’t mind the camera. I make $32k to37k. Who I work for are putting them in. I already told them I’m leaving. Not being paid to be on camera in a truck.
Not only are the cameras facing inward but there is a microphone inside too so they can hear what you say….should be interesting:) They brag about the 200 volunteers…well they have over 6000 drivers..that doesnt sound like a rush to embrace the cameras:)) You figure some of them will be flat spoting tires to get a video of them with a blow up doll in there lap or just to cuss the camera. You should have heard the lame crap the dispatch managers were “trained” to give us for the reason “the drivers need the cameras” …laughable:) No court case has ever been won by footage from a driver facing camera but hundreds of cases where drivers have been fired by the cameras! Each event will require you to go in for a coaching session also….unpaid. The heads of safety and transportation all took Caribbean vacations just before this all came out…I figure the deals are already signed…test program or not…they are ramming them down our throats next summer. Good time for a lot of us to retire:))
Corporate officers that institute policies like this should either put up or shut up. If they’re going to put inward facing cameras in their drivers trucks they should be forced to put cameras recording them in their office, in their cars driving home and then in their own bedrooms as well. They should also have to have microphones installed to hear any sounds that might be occurring in their bedrooms because inquiring minds want to know the details.
I’m an OO for a parcel shipping company and Walmart has been recruiting me like a mother. I applied in early October of this year 2018 and after 2 1/2 months a Recruiter calls and give me the rundown and a Preliminary Conditional Job offer. Long story short, I have Orientation in January 2019. But I’m finding loads of Intel about the retail giant that’s quite disturbing.
CAMERAS, AUDIO DEVICES, 6 – 10 min talk intervals, mandatory release of phone records, starting pay .48cpm and .02 cent increase every year up to 3 yrs max out at .50cpm for the next 15yrs???
A new driver can expect to earn 80 to 85k per year. But prepare yourself for a lot of time away from home and a lot of truck sharing and weekend work. A new driver probably won’t have a truck assignment for ten years or more. And no that’s not an exaggeration.
I know of Walmart drivers who volunteered to have forward and rear facing cameras installed in their trucks who were terminated for violating the hand held cell phone law. How STIPID is it to volunteer for a camera in your truck and then get fired for breaking the law and company policy. LOL.
I see this is an old article. Does anyone know if the driver facing cameras is now mandatory? My company is now making them mandatory so I will not be driving for them any longer. After 29 years of driving, I would rather give up driving than to have my privacy Violating!
The inside camera is audio only according to reps. How long it’ll stay like that is not known.
I think the problem most people will agree with remote cameras. Is that they have no idea when someone looks at the camera. Could have the truck idling, having your partner in the back banging the crap out of them. The rocking might set the camera to record.
The solution would mandate each driver to have a dash camera duel facing. Allow the recordings to remain local. The driver would only have to legally give up the data if he was involved in an incident. This would allow for the security companies want and the basic privacy the drivers want.