Company installing driver cams. Now what?

OK, stop and think about this for a moment. NOBODY is going to watch hour after hour of your ugly mug just driving down the road. They don't care if you pick your nose while driving, or how bad your voice is when you sing along with the radio. They WILL want to see what you were doing when you drove off the road into the ditch. Have you seen that famous driver-cam from South Africa showing a driver who attempted to remove his sweater while doing 60 mph pulling fully loaded doubles?

The REAL problem is when a company uses one of those facial-surveillance softwares that marks you down for every time you take your eyes off the road for longer than a millisecond. I've heard horror stories about these sorts of 'driver nannies' that can't tell if a driver's eye is open or closed due to the color of their iris. Some even complain if you keep looking forward TOO long. Also, if you start to fall asleep, your head starts to bob up and down, but also does that when you are going over bad pavement joints, or when listening to 80's hair bands.

So, the real question here is this: is it JUST cameras, or is there also some sort of intrusive software being used?

 

Your not wrong. They record every second of every day. They can go back and watch a particular time period, or your whole day if they want. And yes they are using AI to review events. All the camera companies use it.

 

Correct, as I posted before, I spent 10 months in the office as the sole Maintenance/Compliance sometimes Safety Guy at my current outfit, at their Terminal here in Calgary (Samsara). I also got a peek behind the curtain at Bison, when they started using this crap (Lytx).

These things record everything, and have eye/face tracking since 2018. They will be reviewing the footage at some point, as the system can be configured to flag anything they set it too (looked away to long, drank something, touched phone, etc etc). Its dystopian as hell, and if something does happen, they basically will use it, so YOU get sued as an individual vs. them as a company. When I went back driving city, I told them i'm out the day its announced for every truck, and not just people who earned one.

@Canadianhauler21 whatever you do from now until the end of time, DO NOT BUY A TRUCK. I mean it, just don't. We're actually buying more company trucks, Daycab and Highway, for all the failed/bankrupt O/O's to move into. I know some people might still disagree with that statement, but trust me, I deal with these types of situations daily, its not worth owning a truck in Freight anymore. (Van, Reefer, LTL doesn't matter). Now is a good time to look at LTL companies again, as you have over 5 years experience.

 

I've been self employed for 45 years, and although I do own a truck and do pretty good with it I've paid in heavy coin for the experience I've learnt. And still it's all based on world markets, my health, luck and good decisions. So I'd say in 99.9% of cases, I'd agree with what you say. Very few o/o here seem to make the 5 year mark never mind 10. As regards the inward camera, I don't understand how anyone who does the job we do could possibly have a counter opinion to yours. It is only there for one reason and why would anyone work anywhere where the first tenet of employment was basic lack of trust?

 

I work for a large fleet. They started installing the cameras 3 years ago. I covered mine up as do most the other drivers. Nothing has been said. The usual cover is a mask

 

"basic lack of trust"!!! My doc told me I could go back to work after surgery. HR then request I get a note from my doctor after Id already returned. I told HR I been here 20 years and you pick today to call me a liar. Ended that discussion with HR

 

Exactly 100%.!!!!

 

Well the driver facing camera can see your eyes dip down as you write a text or can see your lot lizard in your lap going up A30 at 1:30 right before you drive thier $1000000 of rig, trailer and load into a ditch. It sees your reactions at the important times of accidents and right before the accidents so the insurance company can say, no we won't pay out because "Mr.Smith" was yelling and swearing out the window and hucked a half empty piss jug at Mrs. Chang for cutting him off 2 seconds before he plowed into the back of her Tesla.

Let me be frank, as a driver, broker and Canadian above all else, im on your side...I think it's appalling that our society is one where people are so ignorant and entitled that they think they can play dangerous games around the biggest, heaviest, slowest reacting vehicles on the road. It blows my mind to think we live in a country where we've gotten so out of touch with reality that, and apparently ALOT of people agree, we now see a real need to record our drivers while they're going down the road to make sure they're following the road laws. This is due to the overwhelming rise in accidents basically since the invention of the cellphone and then a huge increase when social media became availible on cell phones. That coupled with the excessive increase in the population is a dangerous mix, and the sad fact is that truckers are doing it as much as 4 wheelers these days...you can go on about how trucking is a lifestyle blah blah but at the end of the day it's your job and you either represent yourself as an owner operator or you represent someone else who is trusting you with $$$ of equipment and other people's products/commodities and your IMAGE matters......people only respect what they see/experience, if we all as truckers drive courteously and within the laws, people take notice eventually.....driving unsafely makes ALL OF US look bad, doesn't matter if the truck says Aladian and Jaffar transport or Amderson haulage, we have an image to maintain and we are doing a poor job. Again, if the TRUE nature of having the cameras is to educate myself on poor driving habits and I get better as a result, then it's better for everyone around me! Considering it's costing me nothing, and I consider my time on duty as company time(in a roundabout way) I don't really care whether they record while im driving....as long as it's off when I'm off duty, who the hell cares?! Once more, I'm not FOR cameras but they don't bother me either, the insurance company isn't legally allowed to show or use any footage that doesn't pertain to an accident/incident anyway but if they want to listen to me talk to my buddy about a dump I took at the J, be my guest lol

 

If the rest of North America would just drop the stigma around it and actually try it, the roads would be a WAY more relaxed place.