Considering applying with Millis

I got to be honest with you Steve. You seem smart and articulate, but it seems you have an agenda that extends beyond that of a tried and true driver, and I say that with only 3 months under my belt. I say that knowing how corporations work. I am with the other guys here - you must either work for Millis in the office somewhere or you have an interest in the cams.

I did not read much of your last two posts. I skimmed them and it's more of what you've been preaching about the cams. I am not opposed to a cam facing out, but the one facing me serves no purpose other than to tell me what I'm doing incorrectly. None. Nothing you can argue about that. As another said, if it's to show I'm not at fault, what will it show that the outward one will not? Nothing that helps me. One shot will show the car cutting me off and slamming on the brakes, and the other will show me with one hand on the wheel and the other scratching my ear. In the real world, I'm not at fault and doing nothing wrong, until some suit looks at the driver angle. There are zero scenarios where the inward camera would help. That outside cam will show at fault or not at fault all on its own. No need for the other, and no defense for the other if you're a driver.

You can continue to preach regulations and trends and try to predict the future all you wish. Do it till you're blue in the face. Will the industry end up there? Maybe, if there's enough men I am suits with enough money and power to topple trucking lobbyists. If there's enough men in suits with a vested interest in selling those cameras to every driver and company in America.

I'm not against change or technology. I'm HAPPY I'm not expected to fudge paper logs. I'm HAPPY I can "only" run 11/14 a day. I'm HAPPY to have the qualcomm in the truck. I'm HAPPY to drive (most) of the roads I'm told to. I can't imagine what trucking was like 30 years ago without cell and gps technology. God bless you vets! However, an in-cab camera that looks at the driver does not help the drivers one iota. Look at the big picture as a driver - if you have ANY accident at all, you no longer have even a 1% chance of not being blamed with it under any circumstances. The companies will likely start firing senior drivers who actually have great safety and service records, and replace them with puppy mill drivers. Wages will drop even further, and to what end? Where at the bottom of the hill does the snowball effect stop? Illegal immigrant drivers working for $20/day? That might be exaggerating, but really, where does this end up in 30 years?

 

Ok Steve, I'm a numbers man myself. I read the one about labor breakdown. Let me ask you, how much does a company that sells and monitors the cameras have to charge a company like Schneider to watch the videos? Let's work backwards.

First, your 35,000 is too high. I estimate it's right around a data entry position - you're watching truckers pick their noses and scratch their butt all day. Not $15/hr work. Let's give them call center wage - $12/hr.

100 events per day X 15,000 trucks = 1.5 million clips.
1.5 million clips X 0.5 minutes = 750,000 minutes.
750,000 minutes ÷ 60 minutes to an hour = 12,500 labor hours per day
12,500 hours X $12/hr = $150,000 in wages.
12,500 hours per day / 8 hour shifts = 1562.5 people per day to sift through the clips. Let's call this 1563 since we can't have half a person.
Let's look at a structure to keep those 1563 people organized and productive:
1563 ÷ 20 people per manager = 78.15 managers. Round to 78. Someone gets 21 people.
Since a worker making 12/hr makes 96/day on an 8 hour shift, let's estimate the managers make a bit more than that. Let's say 110/day. That's right about 40k/yr.
110 X 78 = $8,580 per day for the managers
Lets give those middle managers a boss:
3 upper middle managers making 50k/yr is another $411/day (rounding to make things legible).

So let's add that up:
150,000 + 8580 + 411 = $158,991 in wages PER DAY. It is $4,769,730 per 30 days!

Ready for the annual?

$57,236,760

Now what did we not figure into that number? The sales department that is trying to sell new upgraded products and services to SNI. The IT department for when it all goes belly up. The accounts payable, the accounts receivable, and HR departments. Building overhead and maintenance for an operation of around I'm guessing 4500 total employees. The amount of money said company would need to charge to turn a profit would be staggering. $57m in costs per year just to watch SNI trucks. Now what about swift, Roehl, hunt, England (oh god let's up the number to 250 per day for that one lol), Walmart private, and the countless number of smaller operations.

Now how much does an average accident cost a carrier?

According to www.truckaccidents.org/statistics/ it says it's right around $60,000. On www.fmcsa.dot.gov/facts-research/facts-figures/analysis-statistics/cmvfacts.htm that number is closer to $90,000 in the early 2000's.

Let's just say $100,000 per accident. $57m would mean it would take 570 accidents valued at $100k to break even on that monitoring. These aren't the "I hit a barrier" or "rubber a trailer" preventable. These are some pretty good amounts of damage to property. Of course medical would be a lot higher, but I'd speculate that there aren't 570 massive accidents with SNI per year. Plenty of petty stuff, but I doubt that many major accidents.

And remember, that $57m/yr is only for the team watching the truck's, and just SNI trucks. Add the rest in and I'd speculate - conservatively - they would need to charge SNI $65-70m/yr to turn a small profit.

That is an awful big problem to overcome before you see these cameras in every truck nation-wide.