SWIFT In Cab Cameras

Been busy lately. All those situations you spoke of can be handled mostly by dash cams. By the way add a disclamer to this statment "you'll enjoy unparalleled sense of freedom and independence," from carriers who do not enforce in cab cams. (truckingtruth, is truckdriving right for me?)

Spoke with a dozen SWIFTies last few days at two terminals. They were all ****ed off about this except one 66 yo lady who was laughing. She basically said, I'm retiring in 2 years and it sure sucks to be you guys. Had to lol, it was funny.

They can claim all they event that the cameras only record in an event. I don't believe it. My brothers company added these cameras in their truck's last year and within 3 months of them, fired 2 drivers for talking on their cell phones while driving and no event taking place. They can claim all they want these are for drivers protection. BS. It's 99% company protection.

Commercial airline pilots dont have these things, why in God's name is only truck drivers getting these?. We're anyway one of the most regulated jobs in the country, now privacy invasion to boot?

Notice I'm not flaming swift in particular, but I strongly disagree with this "safety" feature. It's a trojan horse.

My brothers company added these cameras in their truck's last year and within 3 months of them, fired 2 drivers for talking on their cell phones while driving and no event taking place. They can claim all they want these are for drivers protection. BS. It's 99% company protection.

I'm sure they can turn them on remotely if they so choose. Heck, maybe the company is the one that called the drivers and then turned on the camera to see if they were using the phone illegally. Who knows?

But what I'm waiting to hear is how someone is going to get convicted of a wrongdoing by these cameras if they weren't doing anything wrong? I'm waiting to hear about how they'll be used to create an injustice.

Also, everyone keeps saying it's an invasion of your privacy that a company would have you on camera while you're working. Clearly it is not and most companies in most industries have been doing this for decades.

I don't think being on camera alone is what's bugging you guys. I mean, how could it be? You're on various cameras 100 times a day and you're carrying a government listening & tracking device in your pocket or by your side 24/7. What's freaking you guys out is that it's going to be a few feet from you pointed directly at your face all the time. If you couldn't see it or it wasn't so blatantly in your face it probably wouldn't be nearly such a big deal. But the audacity to put a camera right in your face is what's uncomfortable. That's all I can figure.

Brett, as usual you hit the nail on the head with "I don't think that being on the camera alone is what's bugging you guys."

For me it's not. I truly believe this to be a trojan horse of more to come down the road. And for me this in truck's isn't where it ends. I see this happening in several areas of our lives that is another topic on another forum. I will not bring my political beliefs here. =)

Brett you made a thread in here last year sometime on how profits for companies are up over the last 20 years but driver profits are nearly the same as 20 years ago. And this camera thing is somewhat on the same track as companies doing more/drivers getting less thing. That may be the same issue as others I don't know.

My guess is that if every driver who made a mistake, that was a fireable offense, got fired tomorrow, it might possibly shut down so much freight it would affect the economy tremendously.

I know a guy, who the day I met him, was awarded his 10 year "accident free" ring.

Three days into me riding with him, he is sitting on the edge of the passenger seat (seatbelt removed,) and blocking my passengers side mirror.

I asked him politely to sit back in the seat and keep his seat belt on, so I could use the blind side mirror. He apologized, and then got right back on the subject he had been talking about for over an hour.

He seemed to have a somewhat short attention span.

A couple days later when I asked him the 4th time to please put on his seat belt, and sit back so I could use my blind side mirror, I was mad. I told him if I had to ask him a 5th time, I would ask to get off his truck. Sure enough, the very next day he did it again, and I got on the phone, and planned my escape.

It was explained to me, that he was "high strung," (their words not mine.)

My guess is that had this 30 year veteran had a dash cam installed, not only would he have never been awarded the 10 year "accident free" ring, he also would have never been allowed to "train" anyone.

The question is, how many of these drivers can the American economy withstand if they are removed from the highways? After all, death is acceptable at the current levels, in order to get the freight moved on a daily basis. It would be great to make the highways safer than they have ever been, however we are a consumer driven society.

Once this thing has run it's course, and the cameras start coming back out of the tractors due to the domino effect, are all those drivers who lost their job going to be reinstated with a clean slate, or will they have been expendable assets?

Hopefully everyone will simply quit making mistakes and losing their jobs, once they observe the consequences of human error, and give the dash cam the respect that it demands.

If the company also said-'oh and btw, installing these cameras is going to save us 100 gazillion dollars every year, so we are going to share that with the drivers in the form of increased CPM' I think the concerns the drivers have might vanish pretty quickly. Not gonna happen-but it would be nice.

Tie it to my e-log so its disabled when im off duty or in sleeper birth and im fine with it. Otherwise its no different than telling me you are going to put a camera in my living room pointed at my recliner. Monitor me while im working...no problem but there are 10hrs a day that Im not.

The very first trainer I ever rode with has a camera in his truck, and he doesn't like it at all. We talk frequently and have stayed in touch, so I am getting some feedback from him on this subject.

He tells me that he now has 7 points against his safety score with his current company, and all 7 of them came from camera incidents alone. No tickets, inspections, non preventable or preventable accidents on his part.

He also told me that the red light on his camera comes on frequently during his 10 hour break, and even if he covers it with something, he is still being audio recorded. He says he can unplug it though if he stays on top of it and remembers to do so when he is not driving.

I asked him if he felt discriminated against, because he was one of a small percentage of drivers in his company who has a dash cam. He stated that he did, especially so since his performance review would be affected by the camera, and other drivers in his company didn't have to consider a dash cam in the cab of their truck and their performance review wound not be affected at all.

He has talked about leaving his company, but so far he hasn't left yet. I know he drove safely when I was on his truck, but I have no idea how he actually drives solo. Part of me thinks there is more to the story than he is telling me, because he's kinda sneaky in some ways. He has told me some things, and then months later contradicted himself, because he forgot what he told me months earlier.

I've never had to deal with a dash cam myself, but my guess is that it is going to be just like being a referee in pro ball. Sometimes the camera will prove you made the right call, and sometimes it will prove you made the wrong call.

If the worst happens, hopefully it will be the other guy who goes to prison and the professional driver will be exonerated. After all, how many 4 wheelers do you pass a day, who are either texting, surfing the internet, putting on makeup, watching a movie, or eating a meal?

Since I've been on the highway, as a passenger, at eye level? Often. I see more truckers with a cell in hand than I do with hands free. Kind of scary.

Is this a lifestyle or job? I spend most my life doing this job and I did not sign up to be on candid camera all my life. I already made up my mind about swift. I even wrote my DM a nice long letter on the QC telling them in short what I have said here. Funny, I have had 3 people from various offices call me wanting to talk. There is nothing to talk about, they have about 6 months to change my mind. I dont subscribe to this fascist BS and never will. BTW called the 800 number on the video. They received so many calls from truckers that it broke the corporate phone system. My only solice is that QC's have been around since the 80's and I still see lots of trucks without them, hopefully this tech will be slow to catch on.

All you cheerleaders for this move reminds me of freshmen frat boys bending over at a hazing party screeming, "thank you sir can I have another."

I dont subscribe to this fascist BS and never will

.....says the guy who has had a background check done, drug tests, employment checks, credit checks, driving background checks, driving tests, written tests, DOT physicals, and (if you have or want a Hazmat endorsement) fingerprinting and a Federal background check, agrees to random drug screens and can be pulled over and have his truck searched without provocation.

I had to take a breath before continuing. You also carry a camera, microphone, GPS chip, accelerometer, and gyroscope in your pocket for the government to monitor and every building and intersection you enter puts you on yet another camera. You also have computers throughout the truck tracking your location, driving speed, braking force, engine RPMs, and idle time and reporting it in real time to your company, their insurance company, and a third party monitoring company.

But you're right - you ain't fallin for no fascist BS. You're large and in charge! You're a true rebel and this world isn't going to get away with monitoring you, d*mnit! You're a true inspiration to us all. You've really bucked the system and proven that nobody pushes you around.

I'm sorry. I know you think you're a rebel with a cause and you're taking a stand but you've jumped through every hoop that the rest of us have jumped through and you'll continue to if you want to drive a big rig for a living. If you think quitting a company because they're going to use a dash cam is going to help you in any way I'd love to know what that way is in your mind.