The skinny on FedEx Ground DriveCams

I got that thing too. Get to close to a truck or go out of your lane it makes a retarded beeping noise. My dude don't bother me with my camera so I'll stay put too.

 

I hate the lane thing.

1. It's insane, goes off when I'm nowhere near a lane edge, seems to care a whole lot about the right lane marker but nothing about the left.

2. If i'm not on the drunk bumps, I don't want to hear a word, ####.

3. it's totally useless in the rain at night. You know, when it might actually be helpful, when you can't see. Nope, total silence.

useless "technology"

If I ever find that speaker, it's getting ripped out.

 

As a FedEx Ground contractor - I am amazed at some of the bad info spread around in these forums.

Paranoia and conspiracy theories run wild...




Anyway - We have our choice of about 12 companies that offer cameras and lane departure technology.

As long as the equipment meets the standards agreed upon - the company is fine with whatever your choice is.

I went with Omnitracs and their IVG systems / reliable and easy to use.

 

FedEx ground is now forcing the contractors to set the speed on trucks at 65mph!! This will be mandatory by August 28. This is it for me. Totally babysitter Trucking.

 

dude, you don’t know what your missing.... gotta take it out for sum fresh air every now and then

 

The biggest issue from a legal standpoint is the ability to record audio. Sure they can 'turn off' audio recording but how can the drivers actually know their conversations arent being recorded?
Also, the cameras aren't just 'triggered' by accidents. They can be 'triggered' by things like 'hard braking', 'sharp turning', speeding, etc. These 'events' generate recorded loops and will be most likely used to nitpick at driving habits. While that may be annoying its not illegal like audio recording is.

 

Cameras are always looping on record. The “event” tells the camera which part to save. By the time something triggered a camera the event would be over otherwise. Our company has them, and the facing driver portion is covered by the company. Audio however who knows...

 

The funny thing now is that before Fed Ex had to ask the contractor for the footage only if there was an accident otherwise they did not have access to the camera, now the companies are building up the databases specially for fed ex within next year they will have access to see all the cameras and pull video whenevery they want.

 

Fedex can't even get guys to do the job now. Get worse with the cameras they going to be hurting for drivers. Especially teams. No one going to want to ride down road dealing with that for 5 days a week. Maybe contractors will come off that pay when no one can find drivers.

 

We've been hearing rumors of that for about the past year. It's about to suck! Starting soon, probably September when the contract renews, FedEx is requiring contractors to go through all recordings and assign who the driver was and also confirm what happened in the video. FedEx will get a report of what the driver did, and if it is certain behavior (so far I've heard speeding and no seat belt, I'm sure there is more) the driver must have a talk with the contractor. If within 30 days they get two of same bad behaviors they will be suspended for 30 days! If you do it again my contractor said they want the driver gone... ridiculous!!

With the latest update I've got on my camera it uses software and it's able to tell if I'm not wearing my seat belt (its not a sensor in the buckle, I can have it unbuckled just hanging over my chest it doesn't know any better. I wear it just not in the yard like FedEx thinks we should). Hooking in the yard it says "check your seat belt" over and over every ten seconds the whole time the truck is moving. Also said distracted driver for reaching around in the cab, eating/drinking, and even picking your nose!

This is a lot of stuff to put up with when the contractors haven't really gotten that much more money since all these extra rules/unnecessary expenses in the past three or so years. So it's hard for contractors to give a big enough raise to make drivers want to stick around. I'm getting paid well enough, but not well enough if I end up getting suspended over something like 2mph over the speed limit...