Camera's are coming to a truck near you or Yours.

Well, I've had a camera on my truck now for possibly a couple months and, so far, the world hasn't come to an end. To be honest, I almost forget it is there. It's hard to say when it is actually going to save an "event". I've been over some super rough roads that practically bounce you out of the seat, and nothing. I've hit the rumble strips, nothing. A lot of things you would think would set the thing off has had no effect. But there are things that will set it off, like hard braking. I got a call from my DM today for a little discussion about a video that was recorded on my truck. I stopped at the Memphis terminal to review the video on the kiosk, there were actually about six videos. The first video caught me eating a bag of chips, but there was no apparent reason for why the video was triggered. No, I didn't get in trouble for that one. In fact it was never brought up. Then there were five videos triggered by hard braking events. Four of them, there were no issues with and she didn't discuss them at all. If I learn anything from them, I need to approach intersections slower and be prepared to stop. The last video was the problem though. I was caught in a hard braking situation with a phone in my hand crossing an intersection and then almost blowing by a stopped school bus. Oops. Yes, it was a stupid thing to do, in all aspects, and I'm sure everyone here will agree. There was so many things I did wrong in that situation, and although nothing critical happened, it very well could have been extremely bad. After reviewing the video, I had no excuse, I was clearly doing something I should not have been doing. All I could do was say yes I did that. I know it was wrong and I realize how bad the situation could have been and I won't do it again.

I guess when they first started with the cameras, my behavior would have got me fired on the first offense. Fortunately for me, they have lightened up some, and I get a written warning this time, but I may not be so lucky next time.

So, after all this, what is my opinion of the cameras? I think the driver facing cameras suck, just like everyone else does. But, did it catch me doing something I shouldn't have been doing? Yes. And did I learn my lesson? Yes. Has it made me a better, safer driver. I hope so. As far as the conspiracy theories out there about Swift spying on us with the cameras, I have seen absolutely no evidence of that all. Except for the first video where I was caught eating, all of the videos were triggered by seemingly legitimate events. I do have to say, the quality of the videos were very good, too. Not that fuzzy, grainy, black and white "security footage" looking videos they've shown us as examples. This was clear, full color, high def video.

 

Thank you.

I think that is the best information I have seen so far.

And thank you for sharing about what you did wrong.
That took some guts.

 

Moose, you can be sure that Swift knows about this forum, the question is how much they are really concerned about it. I've spoken with a couple different fleet managers who knew about the forum, but I don't know if they have spent any serious time here or tried to figure out who any of us were. And they didn't ask for my screen name, so it seems to me they weren't too concerned about it.

 

We all make mistakes, I'm just being honest about mine. And if sharing my mistakes helps any of the new drivers (or older drivers) avoid the same mistakes, than it is worth it.

 

Of course they know, and some probably monitor it.

But if they wanted to know who you were they would not ask for you screen name directly.
It would be someone contacting you on the forum, probably in a PM, asking for some information for a seemingly innocent reason.

 

If they wanted to know my screen name, I would probably tell them. I've got nothing to hide. If you review my posts, I've mostly had good things to say about Swift, and defend them against the idiot trolls that keep popping in here. I may have had a few bad days when I've needed to vent, but mostly Swift has been good to me and I'm happy with them. Like I said, I've got nothing to hide.

 

Companies that big will have lawyers on retainer to make sure any company decision protects their assets and liability. I imagine they'd update contracts or agreements and you either sign it and agree as a required term to be employed by them, take it or leave it.

It's like the iTunes terms of agreement, they put whatever they want in there, it's their right, they created it and own it, don't agree to their terms then hit disagree and find another piece of software.

 

its kinda like a frog in the frying pan, turn up the heat little by little and before you know it ur fried without even knowing it. people accept way too much these days,

 

I think all points have been discovered and valid. Think about this you are recorded almost everywhere you go. The bank, out to dinner, the bar, I could go on forever....

As the person above states I was holding my phone xxxxxxxxx and I was clearly wrong. Thats it period. He wasnt fired, I am sure the company has unfortunately seen worse from other drivers. Think of the company exposure with this driver doing this right by a school bus. We all can do better. Thanks for sharing..

Be Safe Out There

Captain Dave

 

Talking to a Swifty that lives close to me, that had a camera installed in his truck. Talking about it driver said that his DM call him up and asked him why he was on his cell phone while driving. The driver told him he wasn't the DM said we have video of you doing it. And the driver asked them when was this the dm said about 45 minutes ago.


The driver said he was stopped wasn't even moving he just forgot to put himself off duty and it was windy. Then the driver said after about 15 minutes is DM called him back up and apologized and said yeah you're right.


He also told me when he was in Connecticut doing 62 the speed limit was 65 but the Qualcomm for some reason thought it was 45 through that stretch and the camera goes off. And then when he got to is terminally couple days later safety and his dm wanted to talk to him and ask him why he was speeding?

He looked at the video and then he told the safty guy to stop it and ask him what the heck does that sign say right there it was 65 miles per hour of course both safety and his dm apologized again.

Yeah you guys have fun with those cameras.