New Camera System Coming to all company trucks.

It's already becoming that way, no need to die first.
And for every one of us that quits over an issue there are 10 more waiting to fill our position.

How did they put it?
Resistance is Futile.

(Well, unless everyone resists it at the same time. - Not Likely.)

 

For all you people saying "it only records during critical events"... and "they can't turn it on to see whenever they want"

Put something in front of the driver facing lens to block the view and watch how fast they'll get on your case about it.
I've heard about this from multiple drivers from other carriers who tried it.

 

Swift has already said that it is OK to cover the camera if you are not driving.
We'll just have to wait and see if that is true.

 

Don't have to, if you don't like someone or got a feeling they're going to split, you can just dial them in and listen to see what they're up to or if they say/do something you can fire them for, preferably as far away from home as possible to really screw with them. Very easy to manipulate people with this kind of surveillance.

 

That's just it, there are NOT 10 more drivers waiting to take our seats. There will still be people coming into this industry who will go with Swift to get trained and then move on, but there will be even more people who will not come into this industry because of the invasion of privacy. I am continually amazed at what trucking companies and the Feds are doing that will keep people from coming into this industry or will cause them to leave it. The continued cry of "We need drivers!" becomes unbelievable when companies do this crap and won't pay the driver a living wage and won't demand that appointments that are required by the shipper and receiver, be honored. No more of this arrive early and then wait 4 or 5 hours to get a door, then another 3 or 4 hours waiting to get unloaded and get the bills. The backward facing camera is just one more nail in another trucking company's coffin. Rant off.

 

They would like to get many people in line to replace you. People they won't have to pay unemployment to, or worker's comp, or benefits, or social security / medicare taxes, or any taxes period. People who eager to drive twice as long as you for half as much.

These people usually have funny sounding names and come from the south. South of the border, my friend. I have nothing against them, but I don't like to see them exploited.

The more these companies can scream driver's shortage! and prove it, the louder they can whisper, "give us permission to hire illegals."

 

The stock holders, maybe? Swift's stock value crumbled last year from people quitting. If people flood out the door and the stock holders get wind of it, changes will have to be made.

Swift's stock has a website with a 'contact us' section. Maybe CC a copy of your resignation to somebody in authority over there, see what the reaction is?

Send at least one copy to the company pres himself. Only costs a stamp to vent.

Good on you for having enough self respect to walk away. Hope many more do the same.

 

Point taken, but how do they hand that 10 mill liability over to the driver, if he doesn't have the 10 mill? What lawyer is going to go after a seriously underpaid Swift driver when he can go after the company?

Basically, I'm saying you can't take what the driver don't got. You could garnish a driver's wages for a hundred years and never collect a million. A Swift driver, significantly longer.

 

I was thinking more from a company driver's perspective, but thanks for your input, and you also highlight something I was saying earlier in this thread, in response to someone whose post made it seem like they were under the impression that lease operators and owner/ops were one in the same, and I said that I was sure an actual O/O had some freedoms not afforded to lease drivers... case in point, the ability to tell the carrier to pound sand, and take your truck elsewhere.

I agree (although I don't know what Plus-1 is).

And that's sorta where my question lies... if a company is installing these things with the intention that they'll incriminate drivers, were their intentions ever all that benign to begin with? To me, to see people coming to that conclusion, makes me think that warning signs were present which were ignored up to this point.

Yeah, that would be. I'm a bit skeptical that Swift collectively would be that interested in what you're doing 24/7. But, like you, I agree that how these cameras operate is merely a matter of programming... I suppose my concern, were I in that situation, wouldn't be so much a matter of, "is this company using this to spy on me?" so much as a matter of, "is a certain dispatcher working out a way to use this thing against me?". But, if I had to feel that way about a company or my coworkers, I think I'd have found greener pastures before things came to that point, too.

But you say they're installing a system which can only serve to incriminate drivers. While you haven't specifically said so, I get the impression you feel as if they already realize this. So may I ask to what end do you think they're doing this?

Well stated.

Did they say they're recording 24/7? Not trying to contradict you, I'm just trying to get an understanding of how this system's set up. As for me, if I were that worried about it, easy enough to cause a short to power. Chances are, there's a fuse which supplies that thing, and that'll be in the fuse panel, since Swift will have them professionally installed (perhaps even at the manufacturer or the dealerships where they'll actually receive the trucks from).... just swap in an already blown fuse... repeat as needed. Oops.. must be a short in the circuit somewhere. Oh, well.

There are more reasons to leave trucking already. Just prepare yourself for it if things come to that.. don't just decide, "oh, I'm gonna leave trucking" without having worked to educate yourself in a different skill or trade. It's like these guys I served with in the Army... I was assigned to infantry units, and all the 11Bs (infantrymen) would ETS without having ever done any job skills training or higher education, and they'd somehow expect to end up in a white collar job... most vets end up not using the GI Bill (it wouldn't be sustainable if the opposite were true), and they go out without any job skills... let's face it, knowing how to kill people and blow #### up is useful only in the military and in organized crime. Same thing with trucking if you plan to make a clean break from it and hang up the keys permanently.

Doesn't really work that way. Drive cam or not, Walmart would still be paying. All it would really do is give them something to use in a separate suit against the driver.

And I appreciate yours.

It wasn't targeted at you directly, but there have been some posts in this topic which would certainly be reasonably called rants and tirades, and what I wanted was to provoke these posters specifically into putting some substance behind what they were saying rather than, "I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll storm off to another megacarrier". For one, that's kinda counterproductive, and two, I'm skeptical that much of it will amount to anything more than chest thumping, given the collective industry's willingness to bend over and take it.
I've worked for two major carriers. The first was Swift, pulling flatbeds for them out of Eden, North Carolina. I've always described my experience with them as "fair", and don't bear any particular ill will towards the company.. I was green, I needed to get my foot in the door, and they did that for me. The other was Navajo, and what they did for me was similar to what Swift did for me, albeit as a mechanic, and not as a driver... they're not the first company I wrenched for, but the first I worked for as a truck mechanic (rather than a heavy equipment mechanic), and I still put in my weekends with them as a part-timer. I won't contradict what anyone says about Navajo from a driver's perspective, but I enjoy working there and I like the people I work with there. Rest of my time as a driver - coming up on 13 years.. I just put 'ex-' since that's the time I spent where driving either was my primary occupation or a significant part of it) was mostly in construction, and some time overseas, as well.

Absolutely. It really comes down to computer code, and that's the difference between a camera which will only transmit certain snippets and one that'll transmit frequently. No argument there.

I think of it more as a double-edged sword, especially since instances exist where they have exonerated drivers. As for liability, it doesn't work that way. By hiring you and insuring you, the company is saying, "we're vesting in the competence of this driver, and accept responsibility for their operation of our equipment". Trying to say, "his #### up, not our problem"... it doesn't work that way. Take the case of Dick Simon, when their driver ran his truck up the steps of the California state capitol. It was entirely the driver's decision to do that, but that didn't absolve the company of any liability, whatsoever... if anything, it only opened up new avenues for the company to face fines and lawsuits. Same with these cameras.. kill a family of four or whatever while driving their truck - camera or no camera - the company's getting sued and will be paying out money. The only thing the camera will do in that regard is open grounds for a lawsuit against the driver in addition to lawsuits against the company.

While I do think people expecting to be live monitored mostly lean towards the paranoid, I can't dismiss the possibility... not live monitoring of the entire fleet, but I could see it being done to a potential problem driver at a time when the company's on the fence about what to do with them, or t least regular unannounced recordings of certain time intervals. I don't think it's far fetched to anticipate something like that happening.

Well, there never was. Whether it's stored by Swift or a third party, a breach is possible. Look at what happened with Apple. But... that being said, I think Kate Upton's tits are going to be a lot more enticing to people than the day-to-day dealings of truck drivers. There's a big difference between photos of truck drivers topless and photos of supermodels topless in that one's likely to invoke masturbatory reflexes while the other's likely to invoke gag/vomit reflexes, and I don't think I need to explain which ones has which effect.

 

I have enjoyed your posts. Good luck, I hope the new company treats you well.