Inward facing camera a deal breaker?

@chralb I feel your pain. I fear the cameras are inevitable. Every company that has them now sets theirs differently. But as you pointed out, the data that the camera company collects is total regardless. Hollar at @Chinatown for suggestions on where to look for a new job quick. He's the guru. Best wishes and good luck to you.

 

Marten Transport advertises no inward facing cameras.
If that policy has changed, I haven't heard of it.
Marten Transport - Expect the Best
WEBMarten is a leader in time sensitive transportation and distribution services to customers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

 

Your not living in the office but if you are living in a truck it's a different story. Even driving a day cab a driver facing sucks but I can see it as being acceptable. Just dont do OTR in a truck with a driver facing camera. Yes the company has a right, it's their truck but it's an invasion of privacy.

 

Interesting, thanks for that information. I work as a glorified office shmuck, former driver. Our corporation uses Lytx but as far as I'm aware we do not have any software to link directly to any camera and I have a fairly high level of authorization. We are only sent clips directly from Lytx that have been reviewed by their team of "experts" (I use that term extremely loosely) that we try to help coach or speak to our drivers with. Audio is absolutely non-existent with our system.

I will say as a driver I would not have been a fan of the system previously. As part of the management group, I can wholeheartedly agree they have improved our company safety score tremendously over the past few years. I suppose it's not the actual videos but *how* they are being applied to a driver that could cause issues. We've never fired a driver for anything they've done on camera, and that included rolling a truck. We have however been able to improve a lack of seatbelt usage, cellphone usage, etc. Smaller bad habits that we all should be avoiding.

I certainly wouldn't want to watch someone on their lunch break hammering down a few sammies and wiping bread crumbs from their lips. Can't imagine who would.

 

Especially those guys watching movies on a mounted iPad while flying 75mph

 

The inward facing cameras being pushed now use artificial intelligence to monitor if you're holding your phone, distracted, eating, sleepy, yawning and not wearing your selt belt even if you're in a yard. The outward facing camera monitors if you're speeding, following too close, hard braking and all the other basic stuff. The worst offender is the one that will trigger a recording if you go over your company's speed limit(IE, 70mph down a hill). Unless you want to be treated like a prisoner for 10hrs a day, don't ever work for a company that has these. These would be the first things I ask about.

 

People think I am being hyperbolic when I make statements like having a probe stuck up your rear and otherwise attached to the vehicle. I am NOT. There used to be a political pundit who used to say he was demonstrating absurdity by being absurd. This is closer to what I am doing. While I am now retired I am however still VERY old school when it comes to this job. It scares me when I hear about drivers listening to music so loud they can no longer hear the truck. I am not advocating sitting in a seat for hours at a time and not listening to the radio. I did, but I also kept my windows down a few inches so I could hear the truck. This may come as a surprise to some, but a smart driver can tell in some limited situations that something is wrong by the change in the sounds made by the engine. I still can't understand how a driver can avoid scratching gears when they can't hear the sounds of the engine and the sound of the tires on the road. Another problem with this job can be best summed up by this Top Gun scene.



It scares me when I hear about drivers with LESS than 2 years of experience training new drivers. With one exception every single safety critter I know has told me Mike we are paying out more and more every year for damages caused by drivers. Remember most of the top 50 carriers self-underwrite. If I understand the law correctly most have to put an X amount of money in escrow to do this.

What I am attempting to say is worrying about a (redacted) camera in this industry is like using a water gun to put out a 5 alarm fire! People need to wake up and look around!

 

The camera don't matter. The pay does. Safety can call you for an event even if your don't have a driver facing camera and only an outward facing camera. These days, a hard brake, overspend, following too close for too long, etc can get a call from safety.

 

At a job orientation, I had to drive one of those simulator things. I drove like I normally would, left hand on the wheel and right on the shifter. Icy road, winter driving. The woman conducting the test apparently didn’t like my nonchalant approach to winter driving and asked if I should use 2 hands on the wheel. I stated that this was how I drive on icy roads. She blew the right steer, truck wanted to turn right as if I had hit the brakes. I pulled left one hand and eventually steered the truck to the shoulder. The instructor was livid, telling me that I should always use two hands.

I can only imagine an idjet like this instructor having anything to do with a driver cam or AI programming that would ping you every time you took a hand off the wheel.

Now if AI had actual intelligence instead of programming, AI would learn the driver instead of doing the typical idiot desk jockey thing and set a safety standard based upon the crappiest steeringwheelholder in North American history.

AI: Hey Six…
Six: Sup, AI?
AI: I noticed that you drive on icu roads with 1 hand…why?
Six: I also drive with only my fingers.
AI: I was programmed to insure that drivers keep both hands at the 9 and 3 position…
Six: Sounds good in theory, but leads to over correcting in slippery situations. Usually the number one thing to put a truck in a ditch. Fingers are much more precise than arms.
AI: That makes sense, Six. I am glad to have this dialogue.

 

Actually, shouldn't that be fingers and wrist?