SWIFT In Cab Cameras

your saying you wouldn't mind at all getting random calls from someone saying "i agree with what you said on the phone just now" as the swift cams also record audio

I see no issue. Are you in a state where prostitution is illegal? Lied to a cop during a routine stop? Did the cop lie? Cameras don't lie.

Sounds like the best idea since the experiment with cops & cams (police resistance and assault magically dropped the second cams kicked on).

Sounds like you're engaging in illegal activities and are worried.

no i am not worried at all, i am 100% safe and 100% on time since being with swift. I just do not want them to just look in any time they want. There is no part of a driver cam that works for the driver, as any ambulance chaser can find something to shift blame to you.

OK. The government is out to get you too. Lol

See other thread. Re-read this one. And uhh.. Was that you? 24yr old?

Okay, guys while you are doing all this logical thinking, think about what you are going to do when you go to Crete and three months later you discover they are going to put cameras in their trucks. There are things that come and go in this industry all the time, I don't always like them, but you have to be able to roll with some of this stuff or else you will be constantly looking for a carrier who doesn't do what the last one was doing that bothered you, and these big players often follow suit with what someone else is doing. I can assure you if the investment they put into these cameras proves to be not helpful to the means for which they desire they will be the first ones to go ripping them out of the trucks.

Think about the APU. At one point carriers thought they were the "bees knees", every truck was going to have one and it was going to save the company lots of money and wear and tear on their diesel engines. They soon discovered those things were a PITA and most folks started getting rid of them. There are always a bunch of management decisions made in this business that are made without the least bit of understanding about how the driver is going to take to it, and if those decisions turn out to be bad ones then management will adjust. But bailing at the first thing that bothers you will only hurt you. Some of this stuff you've got to ride out the storm and then see where it is going to go before you make a hasty decision.

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

Sorry won't be in my truck, not that i have anything to hide but it tells me that the company does not trust me so therefore i have no need to work for that company.

I did not agree with any of the reasons you have given until I read this. I understand why you feel like that. That being said, it has nothing whatsoever to do with watching drivers it's a liability issue for the insurance companies.

Put in the cameras, lower insurance rates for carriers. If it helps stop fraudulent claims or helps clear drivers I'm all for it.

Swift is self insured...

i honestly wonder if it will make it into all the trucks. If they lose too high of a percentage of drivers especially safe long term drivers it will cost the company money. A driver with multiple years of service that is 100% safe and on time is needed by swift more than that driver needs swift. Sure they can fill the seat but they are not replacing that level of quality and proven track record.

Even with my 6 months in there are planers at swift that know they can send me a tight load and i will get it there on time, in fact i just finished a load like that and got both stops done early.

Do not get me wrong swift taught me to drive and started me in this career but at the same time i cannot work for a company that rather treat drivers as a group that need constant monitoring vs one that treats them as valued members of a team. I;m not working for a fast food joint where they have to monitor their employees because they steal constantly, i am trusted with millions of dollars worth of freight every day.

This is taken from the company site that is doing the Swift cams "Additionally, all DriveCam VERs have manual buttons that can be used by the driver to activate the VER in case of an event. Some installations also have remote manual switches that are used to activate a VER remotely." the driver can record if he wants to, say a cop is being a jerk, but at the same time Swift has the option to record any time they want. The big problem i have with that is if the truck is on the cam is on, that is NO different then telling an office worker we are going to setup some cams in your house so that can have the option to see what you are doing. As afterall the truck is my home 27+ days a month.

Its each persons choice, personally i will make the choise not to drive for them, that is where i draw the line. Some people are ok with it, i do not mind knowing that swift knows where their truck and freight is all the time, but knowing where it is and watching me are different.

I have nothing to hide, but at the same time i do not want to have to wonder if someone at the home office is watching me take one hand off the wheel to open a bottle of gatorade. I especially do not want them to have the ability to record audio inside my truck, record the conversations i have with my DM all you want but i should not have to subject myself to having personal phone calls recorded via a dashcam.

In short: That is apples to oranges: Do you own that truck? Are you supposed to take that hand off that wheel? What if someone going slower veers into your lane, and you murder them? At least SWIFT will know beyond a doubt who to jail for such an irresponsible action.

Phone conversation? Take it off their property then. If you're driving: You shouldn't be on the phone anyway. That's a major distraction that hurts many people. Talking to someone that has experienced over 6 car accidents (in the vehicle at fault) because of that toy.

If you're sleeping, or not driving: Maybe you can just cut power to it. If you're unable to: Take it to your home (where you legally have privacy). Maybe step outside, if it bugs you so much (beyond me.. I'm not an anthrophobic).

My $0.02. And yea: It is your choice. Oh, and one more thing: It's funny that you think so highly of yourself. This country runs on fast food. Those cameras aren't to observe employee theft. It's to catch criminal break-ins and robbery.

I've had 1 gun in my face, 2 co-workers shot to death at another store, and another co-worker had a gun in her face after I left (mid 2012).. That last one had no cameras. A little over $15k in the safe stolen (1 days profits). Cameras are in the store now though.

In short: That is apples to oranges: Do you own that truck? Are you supposed to take that hand off that wheel? What if someone going slower veers into your lane, and you murder them? At least SWIFT will know beyond a doubt who to jail for such an irresponsible action.

well from that we can tell you are not a current driver. If you think that you will go though your career and not talk on the phone while driving then you are SORELY mistaken. You will talk to your DM you will talk to shippers and receivers, and you will talk to friends and family.

A truck is not a fast food joint, there is no till to rob in the cab of the truck, also if you think you are going to drive for 8 hours at a time and not drink something then you are diluted, also you got to shift gears in ALL trucks even the autos need you to take control which requires a hand to do it.

My current truck is an auto last week i was in Canada and had a 4.5 mile long 13% grade, no way in the world was i gonna risk the truck desiding to change gears on that so you do it yourself.

So yes you have to take your hand off the wheel, you do have to drink something, you will do things that in the safety worlds "bubble" that are unsafe but that is the real world. There is also no way that a driver facing dash cam will ever help the driver, it can and will only be used to hurt them.

Where is my Tin-Foil Hat? I am dumbfounded by the amount of half-truths and ignorant comments made in this thread. I could spend an hour going over each and every comment and talking about them... but i simply don't have the time, the patience, the energy nor the desire to do so. Heck a few of the statements made even made me think to check that I am still on Trucking Truth and didn't accidentally click over to the dark side on another trucking related web site.

There is also no way that a driver facing dash cam will ever help the driver, it can and will only be used to hurt them.

Ekoh, please don't think I'm singling you out, it was just the most recent comment in a long line that I don't agree with let alone fully understand. This is just one example. How can anyone make such a blanket statement? It is impossible to prove and it just doesn't hold water. I can think of many instances where video can save your bacon. One such instance is if you get cut off and hit a car. The driver of the other vehicle claims you were distracted or fell asleep or something and would have avoided the accident if only you didn't do so, and claims to have witnesses to back up his claim. If video evidence shows that you were awake and not distracted, then guess what?.... the driver facing dash cam just helped the driver! Tada.

One more thing that I haven't seen mentioned in this thread yet. There are a bunch of comments about the video getting viewed whenever somebody wants to see it or wants to spy on the driver. Keep in mind that VIDEO footage takes up a lot of memory. Especially footage that is of any decent quality. If i understand correctly, most Qualcomms operate through a Cellular Data Connection. so if Swift was going to randomly pull data footage on demand over this cellular connection, that will be Terabytes of data every month. it would cost them a fortune just to pay for the data charges to transfer the files.... let alone the salary to have someone review them also? It just doesn't make sense. I know of at least one in cab system that has shortened their footage capture from 10 seconds before and after down to 7 seconds for this reason, to save the amount of data that has to be transferred when a record-able event takes place. 6 seconds doesn't sound like much, but it adds up quick, especially when you start to multiply it by the number of cameras on the truck.

Finally, not just any old schmo in the company is going to have access to view these files. I've worked in the IT department at some very large and not so large companies. Every one of those companies have many, many, many cameras set up throughout their offices, outside the building, in doorways, lobbies, break rooms, data rooms, hallways, etc. While there is no expectation of privacy in the office, at the same time nobody is allowed to look at any of the recordings without following company policy for getting access to the server and even then access is restricted to the time/day that is specifically requested to look at mainly for the privacy concerns that have been mentioned numerous times.

So if a camera in your dashboard is going to make you quit the industry, I feel bad for you because there are almost ZERO industries where you will not have a camera pointed at you throughout your work day. One will be better to just retire to a deserted island somewhere.... but then again, on second thought, there are some really powerful cameras in those spy satellites these days.

So if a camera in your dashboard is going to make you quit the industry, I feel bad for you because there are almost ZERO industries where you will not have a camera pointed at you throughout your work day

That is what is so irrational about arguing against these cameras. The dude is on camera literally almost every minute of the day but this particular camera is where he draws the line. He doesn't stop going in Convenient stores even though they're filming him on his own personal time, not his work time. He doesn't stop going to movies, malls, or grocery stores where he's on camera being analyzed continuously on his free time. He doesn't stop driving through busy intersections and customer parking lots where he's on live surveillance at all times. He has a cell phone by his side 24/7/365 and doesn't mind carrying around a photo camera, video camera, GPS sensor, and microphone that authorities can tap into at any time.

But this one particular camera which happens to be on him when he's driving down the highway in someone else's $150,000 worth of equipment being paid to carry someone else's $100,000 worth of freight? Unacceptable.

The other 1000 cameras filming his every last movement, including the one in his pocket? No problem. Cameras filming every other type of worker except him, like in fast food joints? No problem. But this one particular camera on him while he is working is just unacceptable.

Either you're completely irrational or you have something to hide. Because there's nothing logical and rational about drawing the line at this work camera when you're already voluntarily on hundreds of cameras every day of your life while carrying a 'Government Monitoring Tool' (phone) in your pocket at all times along the way.