cameras & listen devices

I believe cameras are good for the industry . Just not the drivecam . ​

My problem is they have one on the road in front of you and one in the cab and nothing on the sides or rear. I severely resent having one face me while I sleep, and believe its totally unnecessary. They do show the sleeper and anyone telling you they don't is lying , I have watched the videos and was surprised to see how well you can see in the sleeper. I wrote a long post then deleted it because we live in a world where companies spy on your facebook and forum post's.

 

What I was told the cameras were there to stop fake insurance claims, which we get all the time. Now it's been some time since I left but talking with the drivers they seem to have no problems with it. Sure you'll get the ####### driver that lights up a cig but we've had that before with drivers doing that right along side the company VP. If you want the better jobs then you learn to follow all the rules. However, I can see where there's a potential where management could violate the system and abuse it to where the driver would have too much pressure on him or her. Only time will time because I do believe they are here to stay. At least with the deep pocket companys anyway. For those scams a video could make the difference of paying out a lot of money or having the case thrown out and the company going after the scamers.

 

Husband had the OnGuard on his new International. It loved the ghosts too, white lines, bridge guardrails, merging cars, going up hills was on of the best so you could lose speed and momentum. It was worked on in Feb after he just got truck in Jan., the tech didn't even really know how to correct it. It did a little better after that, but it went back to its' old ways; he was getting gigged for hard-braking, his students were getting gigged for it. So if you are having problems with it hard-braking make sure you call safety and report it, otherwise they may look at you as being the problem and not the truck.

 

Fact is...computers and programs are man-made. They will forever make mistakes and have many problems and invite more problems because they are man-made. Seen too many get blamed for things they didnt do WITH and WITHOUT these different systems. Always a double edge sword either way. Be safe out there drivers.

 

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You sleep with your curtains open??!?!

As long as you close your curtains, it can't see you while you are sleeping, not until they come out with the TSA X-Ray version.

 

Not only with the curtains open, but totally nude as well.

 

Well then, just sleep facing away from the camera. If you're anything like an "average" truck driver, the problem will take care of itself.

 

It's interesting that after having DriveCam in the trucks for 6 months now, both DriveCam and my company have released the results of a study on the over 5000 DriveCam recorded events in that 6 month time period. The results are that in over 96% of recorded events, it showed the drivers of our vehicles to have reacted properly and clearly showed that everyone was utilizing the proper techniques (i.e. NOT tailgating, PROPER lane changes, signaling etc. seat belt usage, NOT on phones). Less than 4% of the remainder involved some type of informal coaching. It has actually helped our formerly clueless management see that we are GOOD drivers and will actually help us in our upcoming contract negotiations. They see now for themselves that they have great drivers and don't mind paying higher wages, because they admit they have saved a bunch on insurance and claims. It can work both ways..

 

I know you and your company are proud of the results. Truck drivers do take the rap for a lot of things. I just don't know though, there are so many things that they introduce that perhaps could be remotely turned on when you don't know it; that is where they need to perhaps make note of the terms of when the unit could be activated.

 

I hate the fact that cameras have to be everywhere, but then, I'll be the first to use it against the creep who tries to screw me. I used to have a regular video camera on the dash, but the 32 g card would only go for a couple hours. the sound pickup was excellent, and it saved one of my trainees from a firing when the conversation with the offending party was heard in the boardroom... i now have a cheapo dashcam programmed to go on any time the truck is running, even idling. about a 4 hr loop with a 32 g card. i like the big card because there are some clips i just have to send in... I very much would like to have a 24/7 cam for the exterior and interior of my truck, but only accessible to me. being a personal item in my possession, i can give them the clip in question and a few minutes before and after and have the same protection... of course, this now brings up a whole new can of worms when officer pushy decides that a set of lies will be the rule for the day, and a cam with sound is catching everything and transmitting it over 7 state lines where he can't get his destructive paws on it... i'd like to see that day.
but the real world here... 8 seconds of loop? hmm. i'd like to see a full array of this tech around the truck, and then have two buttons inside the cab. an amber one for a 5 min back and continue shot, until its hit a second time, and a big red panic button that goes back 15 min, and continues, but it also alerts a safety man back at hq to start watching. that being said, the red button would have to be pressed any time a cop was to pull you over, and that way, all can be recorded for posterity, sound and all. nice small letters on the exterior of the truck stating that it records all the time for legal purposes. is it legal? my opinion with regard to the law is yes. the truck is a place of business. will it stand in court? yes, unless the cops can legally tell a convenience store owner to turn off his security systems when a cop is around. i don't see that happening anytime soon. mark my words, there will be a test case of this, and some cop is going to go down big time after a protracted federal court battle.
sorry for weaving such a flag, people.