Companies currently using driver cameras...

I am a one truck owner operator and I have had one for many years. I wouldn’t drive without one ever again. The carrier I am leased to recently put their camera in my truck, which is only forwarded facing. If I didn’t allow it I couldn’t stay leased to them, but I am ok with it as they are a great place to make money.

 

Had simlar my first year trucking but I was at a reciever they wanted to scale it at there property before and after load the scale had fenceing next to where you get out and caught my leg on my jeans i fell down to make it worst there was a flight of stairs right there I fell down them also. tore my back up i had to go back texas for workmans comp and was unable work for over 6 months

 

Let's see how many Ruan drivers have the balls to walk away, versus how many mice stay.

 

No need to walk away because most of the big companies will have it installed within 5 years. My company has had the driver facing camera`s for seven years it was aggravated at first, but now it`s probably the best thing for me & the company.
The mice that stay will benefit in the long run while the mice that leave will soon be caught & be unemployed.

 

I could not disagree more. Driver facing cameras are not there to protect the driver. They are there to protect the company only. They are used to focus blame on the driver, or catch the driver in a moment doing something a pencil pusher thinks should not happen. Touch the GPS for a moment, or don't look in the mirrors often enough, or any number of other micro-managing minor infractions that some non-driving person feels are a problem. Under scrutiny, there is probably not a driver around that could not be dinged when being recorded all day long.

No other profession would accept having a camera 3 feet away facing them to be analyzed by some unknown person, randomly without knowing it, for proper or improper purposes. It is an unacceptable invasion of privacy.

Any driver with a camera facing them didn't stand up for their rights to not have intrusive monitoring on them for 10 hours a day. There are, and have been, plenty of companies that don't use them. Even today after all the years with them, every driver for Ruan could easily walk and get a job as good as they have or better with a company without them. There is no reason why one must accept them. The only way the day will come when all drivers have them is if the mice keep accepting the cheese.

 

I didn't like the cameras when i work for other companies because they all the time getting on you. Just like when they told us we can't even talk on the phone at all with a hands free head set. And they where firing driver for talking on the hands free headset when the camera went off. Talking on the phone is fine to me as long as you are keeping your eyes on the road and are not playing with your phone. But as a owner operator I'd have cameras to protect my business and fire people if they are putting my business at risk. I've learned that people you hire don't care about your equipment or your business.

 

While I'd like to disagree with you about people not caring about company equipment or business, it seems it is mostly true in this industry. I see evidence of people with lack or morals or common decency at my company and on the road all the time.

But then again, there are many people that can be trusted to respect a companies business and equipment. A small owner should be able to sift though the driver prospects easier than a mega or big outfit, to find drivers that don't need cameras in their faces. In my previous job, I managed a small team or a dozen or so people, most of which worked at home remotely. I could trust each and every one of them. They were professionals and I respected them for it, and like to think they respected me. If they were driving, they would not have had or needed cameras. The bad ones didn't last long in that business, and don't last long in trucking or if they do I imagine have a record that follows them to some degree.

 

Well, so much for "triggering events" like collisions of complaints from motorists... I was told they've been monitoring drivers and writing them up for all sorts of nit-picky stuff.

 

I've seen to much. The only way they take care of the truck is if it there's and coming out of there pocket. I hauled gas and saw how people treated the truck. And not just where i work at. The other company truck that would come under the loading rack don't take care of the trucks. At the place i work at in one week i drove 5 different trucks and three of the 5 there was no oil on the dip stick because driver are to lazy to take the time to put oil in the truck. And this happens alot. Not just that week.

 

But none of that would be caught by a driver cam. I would think the most effective way to ward off that type of bad behavior is through a careful app screening and interview process. Then a policy to pay for lost earnings from breakdown or maintenance that costs the driver miles. Yeah, bad apples get through, but the advantage small owner would have is the personal relationship.