Knight: Driver-Facing Cameras?

Can anyone let me know if Knight has made the leap into using driver-facing cameras? If not, does any one knows if they plan to get them? How about inside microphones? I'm trying to find a new company now that mine is installing them 😠

I've been employed by Knight for nine years. I could never guess what they might do in the future, but I can tell you they don't have driver facing cameras. At one point they had microphones, but stopped using them a long time ago. They decided they weren't helpful.

They do incorporate forward facing cameras that are triggered in an event. They use data from the cameras in their calculations for the driver's monthly bonus. When their drivers are safe and productive their monthly bonus can add about ten grand to their annual income.

I can second that, I've worked for Knight for a bit over 2 and a half years. Just outward facing. Between production, safety and fuel bonuses and a kicker bonus for all 3, you can make 8 cpm on all your miles so it's pretty important to hone your driving to what makes the camera happy.

What is the fear with driver facing cameras? Are you planning to do things wrong?

CFI had them and told us we could cover them.

PFG has them, just don’t drive distracted and you won’t have anything to worry about.

PFG has them, just don’t drive distracted and you won’t have anything to worry about.

I remember getting a call from my "coach" at PFG trying to rip me a new one for not using my seat belt in the yard. I was moving the truck less than a hundred yard below 5 mph to clean my windshield off. In general I'm not opposed to the cameras. I dealt with them for a year and a half at PFG. Unfortunately most drivers there had an assigned route and knew where the rough patchesof road were that triggered the camera so they made sure to behave in those sections.

Currently where I'm at we have forward facing with the driver facing lens covered. There's speculation within a year they'll remove the cover. I have nothing to worry about so it doesn't bother me to the point of quitting. My only issue is the feeling of not being trusted. In a way it makes a responsible driver feel as though they're being penalized. I wouldn't base any career decisions strictly on driver facing cameras but if all things were equal I'd probably go with a carrier without the driver facing. To me, treating me with respect and like a professional is important. At the end of the day insurance requirements and lack of professional behavior on the roads is what forces these decisions. From what I've noticed it's typically not the large carriers driving distracted or too fast for conditions but that very well may be due the driver facing cameras many companies are using. It's often the independents or small carriers driving unsafe because they have nobody but themselves to answer to.

Rtfirefly, I have a weekly conversation about this topic. I see where you're coming from about privacy but I don't understand the problem so many drivers appear to have with inward-facing cameras or microphones.

My take is this: I'm entrusted to maintain and operate a very expensive piece of equipment that belongs to someone else - they have every right to monitor what I'm doing. I don't feel untrusted. The camera is there to record everything that happens, and I'm not doing anything wrong. I drive, I eat, I sleep, I repeat. I don't touch my phone while my truck is moving, so, no problem there.

Just last year I was involved in an incident where a car in front of me at a traffic light put their car in reverse and backed into me while I was stopped. The camera showed everything, including me sitting inside doing nothing but watching them back into the brush guard on my truck. I chose not to use my horn because, in that split second, my thought was I didn't want them to claim I startled them with it. Turns out that was the right thing to do. It was quite comical to watch.

Also, as old school mentioned, those cameras help me earn a lot of extra money on a quarterly basis - thousands of extra dollars just for driving safely. They are so sophisticated that the insurance companies use them to calculate the insurability of a driver, and that can make you more money as well.

On another note, I don't want cameras monitoring anything in my personal life space. I don't trust them. They are too easy to access and hack. My so-called smartphone is quite enough.

Recently, a friend of mine left the company to drive for another company because he hated the camera's inward-facing feature. Well, a month into the new gig, the new company installed new cameras with inward-facing tech, and now don't even allow their drivers to use hand-free headsets while driving. Needless to say, he is not happy but his bridge appears to be burned.

Anyway, good luck in your search for a company that doesn't use them.

Never been in a truck with driver facing cameras but, even the forward facing cameras busted drivers on their phones in the reflection from the windshield.

Heck, one guy was even busted when the reflection caught him pleasuring himself and watching porn when an incident happened. Bet all kinds of stuff is going on all the time.

If they only look at the cameras when an incident happens I don't have an issue with it. It saves them a ton on insurance and, in return, can mean pay increases for the drivers. It can also weed out drivers that do the wrong things.

If they monitor the driver facing cameras just any time they want I wouldn't care for that. The idea of them using audio recorders in my truck would be a nightmare scenario IMO. I've been known to make some really off color comments when drivers around me are driving crazily or texting and causing issues.

Never been in a truck with driver facing cameras but, even the forward facing cameras busted drivers on their phones in the reflection from the windshield.

Heck, one guy was even busted when the reflection caught him pleasuring himself and watching porn when an incident happened. Bet all kinds of stuff is going on all the time.

This is by far the biggest argument for driver facing cameras in my opinion. Phones have been a huge issue where I was working for the last year and a half. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen guys using their phone when I passed them. We even had a guy making TikToks while driving and posting them (he wasn’t holding the phone but he was watching and scrolling and posting reaction videos all while driving). We had another guy get into an accident and the videos were still playing on his phone when the cops showed up. I have a friend who used to watch entire shows on Netflix while driving and we had tons of arguments about it because I really believe it’s distracting.

It’s not hard to find companies that don’t have driver facing cameras. Personally though I’m really starting to have a hard time arguing against the cameras.

Perhaps I'm just against the grain on this, but the harm in them is that they contribute to the survalience state, help establish a database for facial recognition which in turn leads to centralized control of individuals, think 1984.

All despotic regimes basis for control begins with surveillance of its subjects. With millennials and zoomers, we have two generations that openly embrace mass surveillance and control. I refuse to be a part of it to the extent that I can and still live a reasonable daily life.

In terms of the industry, driver facings cameras treat the symptoms not the cause. The cause is that the barrier to entry is very low. We need better training, testing, ongoing testing to keep your CDL and more selective hiring processes.

To the best of my knowledge, commercial airline pilots don't have pilot facing cameras. They do have better training, testing, qualification standards and enforcement of regulations. The problem that were not addressing is cheap labor, you get what you pay for.

One other thing that comes to mind is natural selection. It's a philosophical argument, but given enough time idiots on their phone will eventually wreck enough to be purged from the industry. Yes, people will get hurt in the process, but that's the reality of living. Their behavior doesn't benefit the society as a whole, and by its own nature will take them out. Instead like many other things in society, we want to turn everything into a safe bubble wrapped environment that's nice and safe and happy. The price for that world is individual freedom.