ezydriver:
I’ve just started a new job in which I’m also cab hopping, and where a few motors have inward facing cameras (we probably work for the same firm 
). I’ve had the pleasure of driving two such vehicles, and the psychological feeling it evoked was awful. However, I noticed the first camera had been cleverly turned around so as to record the A-pillar, and the second one was obscured by the tax-disc/operator’s disc holder, which I didn’t bend into position. I expect many drivers will remove trim and snip wires, so a lot of them probably won’t work. I don’t carry a tin of Vaseline around with me, but I hear some drivers do, as well as black marker pens. This camera malarkey is definitely the final nail in the coffin for me, mainly because of the implications. You’d only have to yawn and that’d be used as evidence you were too tired to be driving. Not only that, but I quite like to sip coffee and eat the occasional sandwich - something the encroaching Orwellian dystopia strongly disapproves of.
Another poster mentioned blocking the camera, but using his own. That might be worth considering, because you could control how it’s used, which lessens any negative psychological impact. But yeah, the job’s definitely going down the pan now.
We probably do, the ones at ours are on the near-side pillar, facing the driver’s seat. Supposedly they only record 20-second clips, and a high g-force incident will cause the camera to save the 20 seconds prior to it. It then takes around 6 hours to get to the compliance team’s computer screens, but a major incident can be pushed through to access in as little as an hour. The trucks at my depot don’t have them, but all of the other depots do, and it’s only a matter of time before my depot does.
What gets me, is that the footage a camera captures can be very subjective, and completely dependant on the opinion of the person who views it. It they really want to get you, they can do, it’s not a conspiracy theory, they can. If you have a bump, the compliance team can review the footage, and comment what they like; “He looked a bit unsure of himself”, “he looked like he hesitated about something”, “He wasn’t using his mirrors enough”, “he was sipping his coffee”, “he had a very loose grip on the wheel”, “he was slouched in his seat”, “he had his sunglasses on when it was a bit dark”, “he was eyeing up those birds”, “he had his radio on very loud”, the list goes on… It seems to me that it’s ridiculously easy for the management to blame an incident on a driver, unless he drives like he did on his test. It’s a horrible way to work.
I completely appreciate that some footage reviewers really won’t give a toss, but it’s food for thought. Pretty much anything can be bent and twisted into being seen as poor driving style. Some will just install them for the cheaper insurance, and probably never bother with them after the novelty runs out, but the firm I work for supposedly has a “compliance team”, who will get in touch with you regarding anything caught on camera. 1984-esque!
The same for living in fear, and daring not do something, in case the camera catches you. It’s working in fear. The firm, Corcra, who install the cameras advertise that they “positively effect driver behaviour”. To me, it just sounds dehumanising, like a dog wearing a shock collar. Again, it’s a horrible way to work.
As for putting your own camera in, I would happily put my own in, and in the unlikely event of an incident, I would happily supply it to the authorities, should they ask for it. By authorities, I mean the police, or possibly the insurers. It’s one’s own footage, what nobody else can see. I’d rather have that, than “Keith from compliance” sat watching my working day. Like Robroy says, the driver holds all the cards, not some are-wipe compliance manager.
On the topic of new technology, the ability to watch live footage has been going around for a while, and I can only presume that companies with cameras only use the non-live footage option because it’s cheaper. Someone mentioned earlier about their friend being able to watch his drivers on his phone, and as that form of technology becomes cheaper and more accessible, there will be much, much more to come. Live CCTV footage of drivers, on the manager’s screen. What a horrible thought!
) I don’t.
