Camera? Not on my watch

Do you actually believe that someone sits there 24 hours a day 365 days a year, and watches every driver facing camera installed in a truck, while it's rolling down the highway?

 

Maybe not live, but recorded and cataloged somewhere. Now I imagine the bandwidth for constant surveillance would be a little much for a company to bear, more for safety events monitored by sensors, which they are now (sans the reality show footage).

 

If you're a safe driver it would be useful to have that camera in my opinion. That way if some ####### hits your truck they will be at fault.

 

Over all I have been driving a commercial vehicle 17 years.

 

Exactly! When my last company started switching I got a chance early on to play with it and was impressed with how simple E-logs were. Today I run E-logs and can list some positives. However I have insomnia, I have gotten a call during the restful sleep I finally was getting because my DM was trying to get me moving again.

if I have my own forward facing camera it can only be used to protect me since if I get into a crash I can walk away from I can delete the footage before the cops get there and claim it was malfunctioning. With the company cameras I fear that the company would throw the driver under the bus every time in an accident. I'm afraid of what you just said. There is no benefit, nothing about them helps or protects me but can greatly hurt me. Plus you have the fact that I enjoy this industry for the freedom and autonomy it offers. But more and more I see this freedom being taken away, and the longer I stay with these mega carriers the more I feel like I'm stuck in a prison on wheels.

Maby the driving convicts and foreigners think this is acceptable, but I sure don't.

 

They may not watch every driver all the time, but they do review if you have a hard brake. Some of the cameras only record when you hit a bump or pot hole (rough road etc.), when you stand up and shake the truck when you walk to the sleeper to change your clothes. Whether they watch the camera 24/7 365 or not, is really irrelevant.

That truck is my home away from home. It's a privacy, and a trust issue. The company hired me to do a job based on my credentials of many years of safe driving experience. A driver facing camera just says that they don't trust me to do my job correctly. If that's the case then I will not work for them. I have passed over companies that have driver facing cameras, and I will continue to do so. Evidently the majority of drivers on this site feel the same way.

 

camera in the truck? what a farce!

 

Oh I agree 100% with what you say. My reason for making that statement is that some drivers actually believe they are being "watched" the entire time they are in the truck. I don't drive. Was going to, but family life changed my plans. Personally, as an unexperienced wet behind the ears newbie, I could understand the need for a driver facing camera, and would accept that. For how long? 100k or 200k or more....certified accident free miles? I don't know. But as an experienced driver with a safe clean record, I would also avoid companies with driver facing cameras. I do believe that these companies are being pressured by insurance companies and government to install them in their trucks. Driver facing cameras are something that is not going away, and will only increase in time. I think eventually all major U.S trucking companies will have them. The only way to avoid them will to buy your own truck and become an O/O.

 

An your not in the 99.9 % and you want us to believe that RIGHT

 

Cameras facing forward yes anywhere else no if enough quit these companies they will quit