companies with no inward/driver facing cameras

I talked to an Amazon driver who said if you yawn they get you for drowsy driving. They can’t do even 5 over. Their camera watches your blinking, where you look, the whole deal.

I felt like telling him why are you putting up with that? But he seemed happy. I left it alone.

 

screw THAT.

 

Not so fast! The decision of whether or not to install an inward facing camera into a driver's truck at Crete has motivations well beyond the scope of safety. Please let me explain. I just a few weeks ago had my "safety clearance" revoked by the safety department at Crete, and it was a done deal from the start. As it is pretty much everywhere, the safety department enjoys an autonomous existence, and it is they who will have the final word on who can and cannot drive one of their trucks. Yes, the safety associates are minimally educated, and no, they don't have CDL's or any professional driving experience, but they are in charge. In order to expose the underhandedness of this supposed purveyor of "Midwestern values," I am willing to include personal details in my account. If you are considering a career with Crete Carrier, you will want to read this. My story starts at home.

I just this past Spring relocated to Central Pennsylvania from out of state. I downloaded the Driver Pulse app and began applying to those positions more in line with my experience and expectations. And since it had been over 10 years since I last searched for employment as a driver, I wasn't aware of how the entire Driver Pulse thing worked. It's like watching a bunch of vultures descend upon a rotting carcass, if you ask me. But anyway, I'll eventually get a phone call from a Crete Carrier recruiter, and I'll talk with him for a few minutes about some of the positions available in Central PA. He wasn't exactly the most polished of recruiters, but I found that refreshing in a way. I didn't like the Dedicated position he was pitching, primarily because it only offered 36 hours of off duty time a week. Didn't like that much at all. The Northeast Regional, however, will get a driver home for 48 hours (or more) every week, and the pay scale wasn't too bad. The starting pay for the Northeast Regional out of Mechanicsburg, PA is 66 cpm, but since I had over 15 years of experience and a very good driving record, I was eligible for the top pay of 69 cpm. Okay, and so as another week or two goes by, I don't receive replies from the top companies to which I specifically applied, and the clock is ticking. I want to get back in the truck, so I give Crete Carrier a call back. The woman that first answers the phone doesn't want to connect me with the gentleman I first talked with. She wants to get me in touch with the guy who sells toaster ovens in his spare time. That's the guy who will eventually lead me into the driver orientation at Crete in Mechanicsburg. Besides knocking me down to only 68 cpm, because I had taken a couple of months off this past Winter, I am also told about the inward facing cameras. Now, I never liked the idea of having anyone watching me while driving, but I know that a large percentage of companies are turning to these contraptions in their trucks. He describes to me the basic operation of the cameras and even goes so far as to suggest that covering up the inward facing camera while the truck is parked is a bad idea. And why is that? According to this recruiter, a towel or baseball hat thrown over the camera would prevent the outward facing camera from recording a collision from another truck. If, for example, you were parked at a Pilot with those notoriously tight spaces, your outward facing camera wouldn't record the act of another trailer hitting your truck, so long as that inward facing camera is covered up. This wasn't anything I ever experimented with obviously, but it sounds like total BS. On to orientation.....

In the days leading up to my reservation at the Crete terminal in Mechanicsburg, I'll get a call from someone in their safety department. She noticed that I had not included a "non-preventable incident" on my application and it was something that needed clarifying. Approximately a year prior, I had hit a small deer with my truck at the last company I worked for. Because there was no damage to the truck, I didn't think they even recorded it as an "incident," and the managers never informed me of this entry to my record. But since it was, in fact, non-preventable, it wasn't much of an issue. And so what does all this mean exactly? It means that Crete Carrier had all of the relevant information on my driving record that was required to process my application. I also was once awarded a One Million Mile Safe Driving Award, and the accident-free streak associated with that award was still intact at the time of my application.

During orientation, I will receive two big surprises on the camera system employed by Crete Carrier. I should've just walked out of the classroom and drove home, but I didn't. The first will come on the second day, which is at a point in time in which the major obstacles are cleared. The DOT physical, the drug screening and the driving exam are generally completed on the first day, which then frees up more time for the indoctrination of those incredibly vital "Midwestern values." Of the ten drivers originally attending that orientation, it will be only myself and one other driver that will be required to have inward facing cameras in the truck! I think we lost at least 3 guys along the way, which is fairly typical, but that still left at least 6 drivers who successfully passed the orientation. And of the 5 other drivers NOT needing cameras in their trucks, at least 3 had approximately one year of experience. It may have even been 4 drivers who had only one year of experience, but the message being sent by Crete was clear. If you come to Crete, and you are demanding that they pay you in accordance with THEIR pay scale, it may result in retaliatory measures via the discretion of the safety department. How dare anyone claim to be a "professional driver" when being recruited by Crete Carrier! Don't you know who they are? They're "the best!" It even says so on their website. And the other driver chosen to have a camera fitted into his truck? He was by far the most experienced us all in this orientation. I didn't know a whole lot about his past, but it sounded as though a non-preventable accident steered him off course a bit. He was once inside a stationary truck, parked legally and safely, that was struck by another truck. And well, you know how that goes.

The second surprise concerning the camera system was that it records audio. I guess it seems like just a simple step up from only recording visual, but I honestly didn't expect to see this at all during orientation. The instructor will play a couple of short video clips to the class and the audio comes over loud and clear. One young driver will even use a derogatory word for a bad-tempered woman after his truck is nearly side-swiped. The clip is only a few seconds long, but it was clearly chosen as a way to demonstrate this particular capability. Big Brother Crete is watching. The instructor, by the way, never actually discussed WHY the audio recording feature is enabled on the cameras. But if you're a driver, you need to ask yourself this question: How exactly does Crete Carrier benefit from recording all of the sounds inside of their trucks? Would these audio recordings assist them in a court of a law, should an accident ever be brought to trial? Take this for example: The odds of it ever happening are slim to none, but if a driver were to somehow say just moments before an accident, "Today I am going to be the safest driver I can possibly be," it wouldn't matter one iota in a court of law. If a driver was determined to be negligent in his or her ACTIONS, then any words spoken in conjunction with that event, would fail in exonerating that driver from wrongdoing. I'm not a lawyer but I am apparently better educated than anyone in Crete's safety department. (I suppose the one redeeming feature of a camera that does record sounds is it could provide evidence that a driver may have been talking on the phone as the phone's speaker was enabled. Which is to say, the driver would not be wearing a headset, but might have the phone positioned close to the driver seat somewhere).

I guess the reason I decided to stick it out with Crete was primarily due to a naivete regarding their operations. I mean, How bad could it be? I never talk on the phone when driving, and I AM A SAFE DRIVER. There's no two ways about it. I am a safe driver. Not to mention, the benefits offered by Crete kick in fairly soon after hiring, and I wasn't real keen on paying those Cobra costs from my last job any longer.

 

Before I get to how nitpicky the safety department at Crete can be, I'll give a quick rundown on my first few days. Quite unexpectedly, I would run into a late season snowstorm when heading for a pick-up in Ticonderoga, NY. This past Winter was unusually mild in the Northeast, and that made a forecast of 2 feet of snow for certain areas of NY and New England seem even more unlikely. But the storm sure did come and I was in Vermont at the time. I start my shift as early as possible in hopes of beating the worst of it........I'll drive slowly and cautiously......I'll put on my 4 way flashers when heading west on I89 towards Burlington, VT, even though it wasn't absolutely necessary.....I'll stop 4 times on my way to Ticonderoga to clear the snow and ice off of my windshield wipers......I'll eventually get to Ticonderoga and have trouble just navigating the grounds and parking lot.......I drop and hook and slide my tandems back to where I think they should be (BOL says almost 45,000 lbs.).......I'll take Route 74 straight westward through a mountain pass towards I87......it's a challenging drive and the roads are completely covered in snow at this point......I'll engage my differential for a good portion of this trip.......I'll get to Scotty's on I87 in Wilton eventually, and there' s already a foot of snow on the ground.........I have to scale my load and then get a reweigh, and that was a lot more difficult than it should've been......I also need to get an emergency fuel fill up and buy a few gallons of DEF from inside the truck stop....buy it myself and fill up the tank.....then, even though I haven't even been in the truck a week, I make the decision to wait out the storm and start my shift at 2315......In order to make my appt. for Monday morning by Chicago, it's the only choice I have.......I drive through the night, and will have a couple of idiots to deal with, one in another truck and the other a four-wheeler......I drive 584 miles and make it to the last service plaza on the Ohio turnpike......if it weren't for having to stop and get new wiper blades at the TA in Harborcreek, PA, I could've gone a little further.......before going to sleep I'll go over my directions for the consignee for at least 30 minutes, I don't have time for any wrong turns.......I only take 10 hours and head out to beat that Chicago traffic.....I'll drive around 225 miles and will BARELY beat the expiration of my 70 hour clock. When I arrive to the consignee, I literally have 5 minutes left on my 70.......and when the first shift finally arrives, and I'm told to drive around to the other side of the building......I'll only have 1 minute left on my 70, and that was after sliding my tandems to the rear without being asked........WHEW, right?

After I get unloaded, I personal conveyance my butt on over to the TA in Hampshire, IL. I need a 34 hour reset in the worst way and was dead tired.......
And then while parked at that TA in Hampshire, I'll get my first message on the OBC to call the safety department. Yes sireeee, I had a couple of "drive cam events" on my way to the consignee and the safety department was genuinely concerned about it. As it turned out, the two other "problem drivers" I encountered along the way "triggered" my truck's camera and I was clearly seen not backing off and giving myself enough following distance in both instances. Both of those drivers were out on the road playing games, and I generally don't behave in the same way with "game players" as I do other motorists. You are hardly ever rewarded for it. Everything from this point forward would be like "What the.......Are you kidding me????" The things that the safety department finds fault with will definitely surprise most drivers new to the company. I guess it depends on where you may be coming from--but do not expect to make it 60 days without having the need to call the safety department at Crete Carrier. If they were to harass you in the same manner as myself, it will be virtually impossible to have the camera taken out of your truck.

It is claimed by Crete Carrier that a third party is responsible for the monitoring of all video and audio footage resulting from these drive cam events. The third party, therefore, is responsible for flagging which of those events are to be sent back to the safety department at Crete Carrier for review. I, in no way, believe this to be true. There is no way of obtaining the proof, but everything I experienced with this company suggests that they can tune in and out of your truck at will. Whatever entity is responsible for this relationship with Crete Carrier's safety department, is about as "third party" as the Internet Research Agency was during the 2016 elections. Look it up if you're not familiar.

Furthermore, Crete Carrier has a point system in place to ensure that their driver's won't receive any quarterly bonuses. OH WAIT....I mean... it's the exact opposite. Yeah, that's the ticket. In accordance with this point system, a driver will want as low a score as possible to be eligible for the quarterly safety bonus, but if you have a camera installed in your truck, you will be seriously disadvantaged. And here's why: Not even one month into my employment with Crete, I was called into the office for a written warning. Even though I had already been amazed at just how ridiculous this company was with their safety operations, this took it to another level entirely. The written warning I received put a total of 15 points on my record and it was composed of not one, BUT TWO, events. One was a following distance violation, which is the most commonly cited. But the other one was a "seat belt violation." Imagine that. Huh. The manager had the video cued up on his desktop computer to play for me as I entered his office. He plays it for me.......and I see.....what's this?......I see myself not wearing a seat belt, but also driving on a private road into a Target distribution center with a posted speed limit of 15 mph. (I think it was 15 mph, but could've been 20 mph I suppose.) I recognized the road clearly because I had been up and down it twice in one day. It honestly looked as though I was about 100 yards away from the guard shack for that DC, and although I may not have been driving the exact speed limit, I certainly wasn't much above it. The manager will explain to me, and take note of this young drivers, that since Crete Carrier does not have any technologies in place to detect if a driver is wearing his or her seatbelt, then it must have been triggered by something. AHA! So he got me! But actually, he didn't. Because I knew that nothing unusual occurred on that drive into the Target DC, and because I knew I was driving at a lower speed, I subsequently knew that the company was going out of their way to lower my standing as a driver. It's really that simple. Obviously, if there was no inward facing camera, there would be no way to see that I was not wearing my seat belt. There are, of course, a few ways in which to have points taken off of your record, but they are factored in at a highly disproportionate rate to the overall score. If, for example, a driver drops off a trailer at a Crete terminal and informs the mechanics in the shop that it needs an inspection, you'll get one point back. In order to get 2 points back, a driver can attend a "designated Safety Training Meeting," which are held at any one of the various Crete terminals across the U.S. And also keep in mind that Crete has high expectations of their drivers in other facets of trucking as well. On the Northeast Regional, for example, you are expected to drive 108,000 miles per year. In order to log that many miles, you will be putting in a lot of 10 and 11 hour driving days. But a 600 mile day will mean little to your future with the company if the safety department decides to go through that entire shift of driving and find something to hit you with. Rarely will you drive for all 11 hours and not have something that could be cited as "unsafe."

Just some things to think about with Crete. Eventually those points caught up with me, and they revoked my safety clearance. Now, in order to get a GOOD JOB, I'll have to convince a prospective employer of my capabilities as a safe driver, and in total opposition to what some moron from the safety department at Crete Carrier posted to my record. I had no accidents or traffic tickets while driving for Crete, but it sure was a big ol' waste of time.

Coincidentally, as anyone who has been to the Crete terminal at Mechanicsburg knows, severely damaged tractors are towed in there frequently. Over the course of 3 months, I saw at least 5 trucks that were completely smashed up and parked outside of the shop. Complete losses, I'd imagine. Without having any inside information, I'd guess that the damages were sustained from either high-speed rear end collisions or rollovers. You know, maybe they should start targeting those drivers with only 1 year of experience and let the professionals be for a while.

 

I knew X1heavy wasn't gone forever.

 

Cardinal at one time only had forward facing cameras. But they got bought by Ryder a couple months ago. Have been told that they will be going to some type of AI camera that WILL be watching the drivers as well as forward facing.

 

Good Lord, I guess you quit? This is shameful. So much for the freedom of the open road. I agree, if you have more than a year of experience and very little on your driving record whats the point of this micro mgt.? This is why my brother in law left Swift, he had over 20 years of driving experience but everytime he turned around they were calling him about some stupid hard brake etc. He hung it up and retired. Fortunately my current company has only outward facing and they dont treat us like babies. If they did stuff like this I would be out the door, too old for this crap and had enough of that in my other profession. Good luck!

 

As I said, no camera unless you have tickets, accidents, etc. Apparently you had an accident reported by your previous company on your record when you started, so they gave you a camera. I totally agree that a non-preventable deer strike with no damage shouldn't count, but I don't work for Safety.

One time I had a loaner truck with a camera in it from the previous driver. I got a call the first day about following too close, which was objectively ridiculous. Thankfully I only had that truck one week then got my old non-camera truck back.

If they ever do put a camera in my truck, I'll almost certainly look for another job. I agree, when they dropped that on you, probably better to beat feet out of that orientation for greener pastures. Cameras are silly. If you have a driver that has a record that makes you think you need a camera on them, you probably shouldn't hire them.

 

But I DIDN'T have any accidents. That's my point entirely. Sure, I have had minor accidents in the past, but they were well over 10 years ago from the present day. And the reason that I never suspected my previous employer ever recorded the event as an "incident" was mostly due to my interacting with these same managers on a daily basis. They never told me it went down as an incident, which in my opinion, exposes their negligence. Secondly, there was no damage to the truck that needed repairing. It's really not a big deal either way, but I raised that point to highlight the fact of how thorough Crete Carrier was with their investigation of my driving record. There should have been no camera in my truck, and I should have just walked away from the company before even being hired. Of the 10 drivers starting that orientation, it was the two most experienced, and likely the two best drivers who were selected to have those cameras installed into their trucks. In essence, they are the "cameras of equity." You can't simply waltz into an orientation at Crete Carrier and "claim" to be a good driver. Hell, NO. It detracts from their mission to have complete control over your life.

Before recapping a few points, I will say that Crete does have good people working for them. Pretty much all big companies do, and they may even have a higher percentage of good drivers than similarly sized trucking companies. I did meet several veterans at Crete who genuinely seemed content with their employment. I can only assume, however, that they never experienced anything like I did over the course of a few short months.

To recap: According to everyone at Crete, it is the safety department, and the safety department alone who determines which drivers are to have cameras placed inside their trucks. I don't believe this for one second--the company is constantly looking for ways to cheat drivers out of their wages. I'll save this topic for another post. Secondly, it has been posted here and in numerous other outlets of how allegedly easy it is to go 60 days without having any drive cam events with this ###### camera in your truck. From what I just experienced, it is virtually impossible to go the distance of 60 days without a single drive cam event for the eventual removal of the camera. As I stated before, I am a good driver and I am a safe driver. But I also am not going to just BRAKE, BRAKE, BRAKE every time some idiot is out to cause me trouble on the road. If you keep slowing down, it becomes even more difficult to get out of the very trouble that wasn't your fault to begin with. That may sound worse than it actually is to some, but anyone who actually DRIVES A TRUCK for a living knows how difficult things have become. Thirdly, Crete Carrier claims to employ a third party service for the collecting and reviewing of camera footage. I have serious doubts about there being any measure of neutrality in the way Crete Carrier implements this policy. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this alleged "third party" was located in the very next room from the safety department's headquarters. You know, like "Hey Bob. How's it going over there?" Furthermore, the safety associates will tell drivers of how "incredibly sensitive" the cameras can be to outside stimuli. I view this as nothing but good old-fashioned subterfuge. I honestly believe that they can look in on your truck at will, and often do so without being prompted by the third party. Fourthly, Crete Carrier has a point system in place to gauge the safety performances of their drivers. Similar to golf, you want the lowest score possible, ideally a zero or negative number. But good luck maintaining such a low number if the safety department wants to dock you up to 15 points for merely not wearing a seatbelt in a 15 mph zone on a private road! Lowering points from the total is a very time-consuming process, that may or may not even be attainable. If you are expected to drive 108,000 miles annually, with that amount being factored in to include 48 hours of off duty on the weekends, just how much time remains available to attend "safety meetings" at various Crete terminal locations??? And don't forget: they are recording every single word you say when that camera is activated. There aren't many truck drivers who end up running for office, but what if someday those video and audio clips were to be released to the public somehow? I already know what Crete Carrier would say in response to such an accusation, but I have no faith in the integrity of their existence.

 

That'd be fun.
pick yer nose, try to fling it out window.
Get mouthy at no one because you can’t get it off finger.
then flip the machine off and act like it’s the machines fault.