How to deal with a driver facing camera?

Pedigreed is right, like a lot of drivers. If you don't like it, find somebody else to hire out for. Personally, I like the electrical tape solution, but I don't think I'll be sitting there in front of a camera any time soon. Stupid idea, actually. The sole purpose of that camera is to detail what the driver was doing before and during an incident. So it's good, or bad. If you get in a crash or collision and you're smiling face is on camera texting, talking, or dialing a number, naturally you're toast. If you're being a professional and a situation comes up as they often do, you're in the clear. Double edged sword, I guess. I don't care much because I'm pretty careful in the truck. At the wheel in the truck. Off duty? Off camera.

 

A driver-facing cam can only hurt you. It cannot help you. Forward facing cams may help you but a driver-facing one never will.

If you're in an accident and were driving safely and professionally, you don't think an attorney will be able to find something you did wrong?

Did you glance out the side window?
Did you sneeze?
Did you yawn or rub your eyes?
Did you reach for your soda in the cup holder?
Were your hands at 10 and 2?
Was your music too loud? (pretty sure these record audio, as well)

It would be very easy for a lawyer to paint a picture showing you were at fault even if you were driving safely and responsibly. I realize we have to put up with a lot of crap in this job. That's just the way it is. But this is pretty much the only issue that is a no-questions-asked, automatic deal-breaker for me. I will never drive a truck that has a driver-facing cam.

My company won't even allow drivers to have their own personal forward-facing cams in the truck. Way too much liability, regardless of actual fault.

 

The cameras are probably part of an insurance discount.

I was shagging fleet vehicles for a service dept and had a nannycam tell me to slow down!
I turned the stereo up louder..... Might have picked a booger or two!
I thought about getting a mask for the next time I drove it!

 

I too agree and I am willing to stand for my actions in the cab good and bad. What I am not willing to stand for is a pack of legal wolves going over frame by frame of driver film, in slow motion, until they find something that they can interpret as fault on your part and not on their client. If you think it won't happen just look at the billboard that you are passing on the road. Those wolves are out there and they are hungry and have no rules. They don't need to prove anything, only to muddy the waters and cause doubt. And your company is handing them the the key to the store, all in the name of "protecting you" and making any judgement applicable to you.
I only see this as a lose lose situation. I will continue to drive diligently and safe but I will be doing it for a company that trusts me to do so with out the camera.

 

possibly but if you have the ability to prove your innocent, doesn't it make more sense to do it, then to tie up a bunch of your time in a company's time and a whole bunch of other people's time, just to stand on principle and make a point?

if somebody wants to argue for a week or two or a month or two in court by all means be my guest,

I'd rather just look at the tape show them that I wasn't doing anything wrong and get back to making money

 

Problem is, if a dash cam or witness statements prove you did nothing wrong, the driver cam can (and will) still be used to pin some or all of the blame onto you. Perhaps your eyes weren't moving around enough scanning what was going on around you (inattention). Maybe you took a sip of coffee/tea/coke/water (distraction). Perhaps you spent a little too long reading that billboard (distraction). Fact is, even the BEST driver in the world isn't on top of his game doing everything perfectly 100% of the time. If there are enough moments of indiscretion found in the memory of the camera (4G of data that hasn't yet been overwritten) it could be twisted to show a "pattern of bad habits" which contributed to the wreck...even if none occurred in the few seconds immediately prior to the wreck. The plaintiff's lawyer isn't going to show 8 hours of you driving responsibly with a handful of slip-ups along the way. He's going to edit that tape down to show slip-up after slip-up after slip-up to paint you as a bad driver. That is his job, and the driver-facing camera makes it easy.

The driver-facing camera will NEVER exonerate a driver if an outward-facing camera fails to do so. The driver-facing camera MAY incriminate a driver, even if an outward-facing camera would have otherwise exonerated him.

As a driver, I don't see any good reason to drive a vehicle with a camera pointed at my face.

 

what the driver facing camera does it serves as a constant reminder, to be aware of every single thing you do, how it may affect your driving, at the potential impact on those around me. With the drive-cam filming me, and yes it does record audio as well, I Drive every mile as if my safety manager were sitting in my passenger seat. I guess it's not for everybody, but my daddy always told me to choose my battles carefully, and this is one that just doesn't seem to be worth fighting to me. there are a lot of issues and challenges that we face as drivers, that seem to be more deserving of my energy.

I'm certainly not saying we should all demands cameras on us at all times, I think that will become mandatory at a federal level soon enough without our help.

I'm just saying for me and my truck its no big deal.

as long as they keep depositing those dollars every week in my bank account, they can put a camera on me, they can't write their name on the back of my shirt, Hell, they can even put a chicken suit on me if they want as long as they keep paying me what I need to make

 

Black electrical tape. Cover the inward facing lens with black electrical tape. I have no problem with a forward facing camera to record the goings on in front of the truck, but they don't need to see what is going on inside the truck. If they insisted I simply would not work for them.

 

They installed a camera in our break room. Management was not impressed when a picture of the empty break room was taken from the same angle that the camera would see it and then hung it from the ceiling in front of the camera.

 

If you aren't responsible enough to do what you are supposed to be doing when you aren't being watched, truck driving probably isn't for you. You shouldn't NEED a "constant reminder" to do the right thing.

I understand that everybody's "line in the sand" is going to be reached at different points...but stuff like this is a hell of a lot easier to beat back if it is fought early. The more drivers just bend over and accept whatever the carrier wants to do to them, the more the carrier's are going to try to get away with. Before long, you'll be wearing that chicken suit.

I won't. No e-logs. No driver-facing cameras. And certainly no chicken suits.