Technology: all the ways a driver & equipment is tracked/traced?

Chinese spy balloons

 

Put a lot of miles on WA14 when I ran out that way.

 

Nothing new.
After everyone learned how to doctor a Tachograph, there were early 'black boxes' to record everything.
They uploaded every time the unit fueled at a company location.
We've gone from green and white 'mainframe' computer printouts to video's.

 

Well, a tachograph( or speedograph) is a far cry from todays OBRs. Only 2 people saw the tachograph sheet, you and the dispatcher. I don't remember any "black boxes", as I knew older trucks front to back, I would have noticed that. Some people are so gullible, thinking nobody knows their conversations, just the opposite. But I agree, nothing new. People thought the TV became a transmitter when turned off, or if you "hang up the phone", can "they" still hear me? Besides, if "they" are tracking me, a big waste of time.

 

We had teamsters paid off the tach chart to the minute.

So Payroll and Safety saw the discs too.

As far as 'black boxes'...

Late 80's I worked at the US office of a Canadian carrier.

Multiple Canadian drivers on layover found out that the company knew when exactly they drove the tractor from the strip bar back to the hotel at 0200 and they never located the black boxes.

The contact of the fuel nozzle [at a company location] uploaded all the info recorded since the last upload.

The drivers found out at the union discipline hearings......

 

I have a flip up plate in mine but I would never do this...lol

 

Lot lizards

 

On board cameras. One job employer could log in and watch.

Phone is biggest imo. Weigh station cameras, interstate cameras. Air tabs? Qualcomm.

 

Used to work for a paving company old guy would come in and dump his truck and pup and he had air flippers on the tongue of his pup so that when you dumped the truck he would hit a switch and clean the tongue area of the truck so he didn't have to spend so much time wiping it off, always thought the same thing on the flip up plate would be pretty cool, but my #### name is all over the truck anyway so it wouldn't make much difference