SWIFT In Cab Cameras

Attila, are you really under the impression that in 2015 as an American Trucker you have any sort of privacy whatsoever? Do you really think you spend much time off camera? Every building you enter, every major intersection you're at, every parking lot of every customer you go into you're on camera.

Your truck is loaded with gadgets that identifies you and monitors every aspect of your job and life that it possibly can and reports that information to the Feds and to your company.

And let me guess....you walk around with a cell phone in your pocket fully equipped with GPS, accelerometer, photo camera, video camera, and microphone, correct? You don't supposed any government agencies or whomever may be monitoring you already?

We're all being monitored 24/7/365. You're kidding yourself if you hope otherwise. There's no going back. Privacy is a relic of earlier centuries I'm afraid.

Not only that, but you're driving someone else's truck and getting paid to do so. Just like if you were working in a warehouse, in an office, or on a construction site they have every right to have a camera on you.

Finally, if they really wanted to monitor you with cameras and microphones they could hide them in the trucks and you'd never know they were there.

If you want privacy you're going to have to look far beyond our solar system because we're monitoring that too.

Going to have to disagree with atilla on this one. (Although I totally understand why he feels like he does)

I personally could care less if you get 20 seconds of video during a hard breaking incident or accident.

You can even watch hours and hours of me driving, if you want to give me a huge raise. (If you can afford to pay all the expenses of just ONE person to watch video footage of me you can get me that $1 a mile).

We, I mean they are watching you though.

;":#&$7!;:@7284-@,7*?!+"!(agent 1122334455 using invisible script to report noticeable incident with brett AGAIN this thread);":#&$7;:@7284-@,7*?!+"!

I am fully aware of the amount of survalence out there. Just not going to tolerate it in my face 14 hours a day. The only major reason I love this job is the seclusion and isolation. Take that away and this is one of the worst jobs I have ever worked in America over the past 25 years. Which includes mining, oil fields, farming, and construction. No reason at all for me to take trucking seriously now. Its just another temp steeping stone until the farming season kicks back in, construction picks up, or I decide to write code again in a office. If im going to be under constant watch, trucking makes zero sense as a viable career. This is me, i am sure many don't feel this way, don't have the option or don't care.

You guys forget I was in software for over a decade. Once you reach a certain score both on your saftey record and your sucidal risk assessment, that camera will be rolling 24/7. So if you are having a bad month or year (problems at home) you are now going to be forced to tell your company everything regarding your personal life or risk losing your job. Now I know that said companies have been brow beating the American public into believing that companies are family. No they are not my family, they are coworkers and employers. They have no right to know what is going in in my life that does not involve work, period. They already have at will laws and that is more than adequate to address risky drivers.

Right now SWIFT has a saftey rule that states, if the truck travels more than 67mph for over 2 minutes on a dispatch your saftey score will drop. I find my self watching the speedometer for more than I'm comfortable with while going down grades. That one rule diverts my eyes from the road more than I would like. How is the camera going to divert my attention now?

Last thing, I really am finding it difficult to understand how you veterans are taking this so cavalier. Of all the people in trucking it would seem to me you guys would be the most outraged.

If im going to be under constant watch, trucking makes zero sense as a viable career.

Well I don't know how you could have thought it would be any other way in trucking. You've had an employment check, criminal background check, credit check, driving record check, DOT physical, drug test, fingerprints taken (if you have a Hazmat endorsement), electronic logs , several written exams for the state, a driving test for the state, GPS monitoring of your position, RFID chips read at the scale houses, computers monitoring your engine, Qualcomm tracking and storing every word you say, and you have to consent to random drug tests and having your vehicle searched at random without provocation.

You also carry a cell phone in your pocket with every possible way of monitoring you imaginable.

All of that was fine, but now this camera is just too much for you to bare?

The old timers aren't that concerned about it because we gave up on having any illusion of privacy years ago. If you're gonna drive truck you're going to be monitored by 100 different entities around the clock.

By the way, has anyone ever told you that trucks often get followed inconspicuously by unmarked cars working for the carrier's insurance company? You bet. They'll follow you at a distance, video tape your driving, and report back about what they find. I've even seen companies give their drivers reports with photographs of them driving just to let them know they're being watched.

So there's a chance you've already been followed a time or two without knowing it. That's probably gonna make your day.

Last thing, I really am finding it difficult to understand how you veterans are taking this so cavalier. Of all the people in trucking it would seem to me you guys would be the most outraged.

Atilla, that one thought should be enough to give you pause and maybe consider your reaction as over the top.

If im going to be under constant watch, trucking makes zero sense as a viable career. This is me, i am sure many don't feel this way, don't have the option or don't care.

This is where you lose me. You are already being watched and monitored in almost every way imaginable.

Atilla, I chose this job as a second career. One that I didn't even really have to do. I could be at home taking it easy. Trucking, for me, is one of the last most independent, unfettered careers that is available to the independent type of folks who enjoy life that way. You could put fourteen cameras in that truck with me and I would still feel the same way. I'm free from all the inner office politics, cubicle chatter, and other folks who can bu such a PITA at times. I get to call my own shots, work when I want to, and plan my own schedule of how I want to run my loads (all within the parameters of the law and satisfying the customers needs of course). All the monitoring of my duties doesn't concern me because I know that I can still do it my way and as long as I'm kicking some tail and exceeding the results of the other drivers on my board I am treated like the King. If they enjoy watching me conduct myself like a King, then let the cameras roll.

What you are seeing as cavalier in us is not that at all. It is just the reality of this job.

I already know all that Brett. What you are not getting is those are outside cameras looking in. Not inside cameras looking in. I drive well and fully aware that the odds of me being recorded outside my truck are high, and they get higher around more people (cities, yards, customers ect.) I have no problem with that. I do have a problem with micro managing in a "life style," job, that requires me to work 4 weeks strait while under surveillance. If thats the case why bother with trucking? Normal jobs only require 8 hours of micro management and surveillance a day 5 days a week. You know trucking is not a normal job.

One of my software jobs was in the development of facial recognition software and other electronic security systems for airports. I had top security clearance to all airports west of the Mississippi and worked closely with the FFA. All this after 9-11. I was always being monitored. I never once was forced to strap a camera to my head facing me while I worked.

So what your saying Old School is that you guys gave up a long time ago?

The only thing I'm giving up on is trying to help you get past this over reaction to something that you've blown out of proportion.

I too drive for SWIFT. About all I can say to all this hoopla is "WOW". I'm not even sure if this will even have live feed capabilities. If it does, monitoring it would be the absolute most boring job on the planet. Go ahead and stick your camera in my truck as long as my pay is in the bank come Tuesday, what the hell do I care. It is after all thier truck. People need to get over themselves.