Camera's are coming to a truck near you or Yours.

Swift isn't the only company doing this. TMC is doing it as well. I'm not sure about the smart way part of it, but get definitely have driver facing cameras for the new guys, and anyone who's been in accidents and such. I think these cameras are bs and a huge violation of privacy, but at the same time it seems it will benefit the smaller companies and owner operators. If swift start losing drivers faster and can't handle their freight, won't it just filter down through brokers, then eventually lost contracts? Just a thought. I could be off too, I'm not the brightest bulb.

 

And you'll go to the next company I assume? So what happens they install them too? And the company after that? And the company after that? And the company after that? And the company after that? And the company after that?

These things are coming, companies like them and its very likely they will become the norm. If you quit and move on, your next company is likely to adopt them too and then what? How long are you going to run? Will you always be able to find a company that runs without cameras? Probably. But how are you going to like driving that '87 freightliner rust bucket they put you in and making $400/wk because your truck is broke down as much as it runs?

Because remember, you're not the only one saying you'll never have one in your truck. So you and everyone else who decides to run from the cameras will eventually be competing for jobs from only those companies that are small enough (and therefore low budget enough) or dumb enough not to care about the cost savings in reduced liability these devices are proving themselves to have. So what will you do then? Perhaps you could go work in a factory or something like that I suppose. Of course, people in factories already have cameras on them while they're working.

This is like elogs all over again. All the same comments.
They'll never put one of those in my truck.
They day they put one in my truck is the day I quit.
If they put one in my truck I'll break it with a hammer.
If they put one in my truck I'll sue them for <insert bogus reason>
And so on and so forth. Everyone saying they'll quit. But more and more companies install elogs every day and as far as I've seen at my own company and a few others, extremely few ever end up quitting over it.

 

Hey Johan, good point. It was just like drug testing in the late 80's. I knew many people that moved to different companies to get away from it. Even I quit a good job because there was talk of them starting a program, and bought my own truck, thinking, that should do it.(among other reasons) Well, a few years down the line, the guy I was leased to implemented a drug program, and we were outraged, this guy would sit around and smoke with us, "there's nothing I can do", he said. You can't blame people for being defiant, it's in our nature, but in the end, we all succumb anyway.

 

And so on and so on and so on...Johan, I bet in high school, you were voted most likely to stir the pot. I don't have any case studies, just guessing.

 

I have a dash cam in my truck.... but I installed it myself under my own choice of course it's pointed where it needs to be....In front of my rig....for litigation protection purposes only.... other than that....I am planning to install another one and pointing it towards me and drivers window to protect my rights from illegal search or seizures from Law enforcement such as D.O.T.

 

If your doing what your supposed to, then where is the issue???

 

Trust......If you have to keep me under servailance that means you obviously don't trust me.....why work for a company who doesn't trust me....and not to to mention privacy.....

 

A few facts about dash cameras...

1. Yes, they do record all the time. They record in a loop, typically about 30 seconds. After that time, the old video is overwritten.

2. No, they don't stream the video. Even highly compressed, that would need ~250 megs of data per hour. A gigabyte every four hours. 6 gigs a day. 180+ gigs a month. Times 10,000 trucks. Who wants to pay *that* phone bill?

3. If an "incident" happens, the camera continues to record for about another 10 seconds, then saves that loop. That 30 second video is what's uploaded. An "incident" can be an inertial change (collision, hard brake, and the like), or the driver presses a button.

4. If you're in an accident, everyone is going to assume you are at fault anyway. You rear-ended a 4 wheeler? You're screwed. Unless the company has video showing the idiot cutting you off and slamming on the brakes.

5. Don't text while driving, and the inside camera won't be a problem...

 

They don't need a camera to determine you were texting. And I can think of many other scenarios where the inside camera would be a problem for drivers.

Yawn, take a sip of coffee, take a bite of that donut, adjust the radio, adjust the A/C, adjust yourself, hold the steering wheel wrong, Don't scan your mirrors properly, look too happy, look too mad, etc, etc 10 seconds before some 4 wheeler induced wreck and their lawyer is going to run you thru the wringer.

You won't fudge your HOS?, ok. You won't run that shoddy equipment? ok. Your employer isn't suppose to retaliate. But now you just bumped a dock hard enough to trip the hair-trigger critical event and you weren't wearing your seat belt... Fired.

The scenarios are endless.

And just because SOME systems operate as you describe, there are other systems that do record constantly and for long durations (police cars, taxi cabs, buses) regardless of critical event triggers. Not every driver is out for weeks at a time. Many of us are home at the end of each shift. A vindictive manager, or safety director WILL find something on any driver when they have access to hours, and hours of evidence.

 

at the same time there is already a driver shortage, going that far will only make it worse. I can understand driver cams in trainer vehicles to improve training and prevent sexual harrasment, but it only a witch hunt for solo drivers.