no cam please

some trucker heard on the internet some guy saying at the truckstop
blah blah blah

793 traffic cams in salt lake city
your on candid camera already

these co with 1000 trucks cant watch everything all the time
it takes a load shift a braking action to trigger the recordable

insurance co are demanding the cameras
says more about the quality of the drivers

i have had my hood taken off twice in last 2 years in the TS
and no i wasnt on the end of the row
light goes green to red on the cam

 

Not true, the company can activate the cam whenever they choose. That is, look in on you whenever they choose. The driver I spoke with that was fired, had nothing going on, just driving down an interstate. The company claims it takes an "event" to activate, but it does not. I used the one driver I talked with as an example but there was three that I spoke with personally that were fired over the cams. Out of the three, only one had any sort of event. The cold truth is the cams are always on, they just need to pull a truck up to see what the driver is doing.

 

again some driver said it

 

But let's say you know nothing about cams, lets think about it logically. Can a driver fall asleep and rear end another vehicle? In this case, the cam could turn on too late to get the full picture. I could go on and on about situations that could happen where it would be too late for the cam to activate unless, it was already on. JBS had claimed the cams only activate when there was an event. Why would you put a cam in unless it was always running? The answer to that is that they are always running. When an event happens, JBS gets told an event happens so they know to look at the cam. Besides that, they can watch you any time they want.

 

I have yet to hear of any system that live streams video back to a terminal. The systems i have seen are interfaced with the Qualcomm and it takes an event to trigger the sending a specified length of video to the safety dept. They are loop recorders that maintain a certain numbers of minutes info and record over itself if there are no events in the preset time frame. Events such as Hard braking. collisions, rumble strip, rapid acceleration, and in some cases lane wandering would trigger the transmission of data.
Can you even imagine the bandwidth required for a company with 500, 1000, 2000 or more trucks to live stream back to the main office. And how many twerp's they would have to hire to monitor all those feeds.
It may come in the future, but now it is beneficial to the driver as proof if it is not your fault.
And until i actually see myself that a driver says him/herself was fired, it is just some persons story they heard.

 

My experience with other companies with other types of cams was similar to what you stated. They would turn off and on, recording a few seconds then turn off for a minute or so (according to the company), and only send something back when an event occurred. As the 3 drivers I mentioned goes, I was there I talked to them when they were fired. One dozed off for a micro second, had his steere hit the right line a was fired for that. Another, also fell into a micro sleep, but did not touch the line or rumble strips. The third, just eating a bag a chips. But, let's say for arguments sake that the two that did not hit the lines were not telling the truth and did hit the line and that's what set it off. Is eating chips a reason to fire a driver? I don't eat and drive but I still wouldn't call that reckless driving. As far as the two others that dozed off, after 17 months with JBS one thing I learned, they really don't care if you have slept or not. With the constant check call and break interruptions, it's a joke. I was even told by Darin that they can interrupt your break whenever they want; but that's a little off subject.
Like I said, if the cams are there, they can look in on you. I'm not saying they are live streaming 700 cams at once, but they can pull up A truck if they want.

 

Sounds like paranoia to me. Sounds like the same freak out conversations when they first started puting locator devices on the equipment. They are watching me. Besides I just cant trust he said, she said. Bet there was more to the story of those that were fired.

 

I wouldn't call watching people having to clean out their trucks "he said she said". Could there be more to their story? Of course. Do I know everything there is to no about cams? No. Do I know a lot about JBS? Yes. If it's possible for them to look in on a driver, would they do it? No doubt.
Reminds me of a driver I would always run into in Greeley. Young guy, said they wanted to put a test cam in his truck. He protested saying he brought his wife with him here and there and didn't want a cam watching her dress, ect ect. JBS said he could always close the curtain and no problem. He replied, she sometimes doesn't close it all the way and would prefer not to have her watched. They ended up not putting the cam in his truck. So, if it's only activated during an event, why would this be an issue?
but I know, it's a conversation I had directly with the driver which makes it he said she said or I'm just paranoid. There is a reason the vast majority of drivers are against these things. One mistake with the wrong company, your in trouble. Now I'm not saying all companies would fire you for a small infraction like I have explained but, JBS has proven to me that they have no problem doing so.

 

Another JBS the evil empire dead thread awaken by beerslave. Hell hath no fury like a trucker laid off

 

You know it. Hey, were you in Cali on I-5 about a week ago?