Visited an old friend today, got around to talking shop & he told me that his company has cameras fitted to the lorries now, one facing out the windscreen & the other pointing at the driver, this is to enable them to make sure the drivers aren’t texting, on the phone or smoking in the cab, as well as making sure nobody is skivving off of course.
Now I can see the point of a camera looking out of the windscreen, but in the cab? It’s on 24/7 so as well as them being able to watch you pick your nose & scratch your nuts all day, they can also hear everything you say (hope that has an auto sensor) & when you’re parked up for the night they can watch you undress, they have a lady driver too (although she’s built like a Bulgarian shot putter & the last time she wore a vest top it looked like she had two of ZZ Top in a headlock) now this can’t be right, the camera, not the hairy armpits even if a case could be made for you to be on screen while you’re working there should be no way you can be monitored when you’re off duty, it looks like that’s the end of an old pastime, the nocturnal eyesight reducing massage is now a thing of the past on that firm
So not only do I need a tin of baked beans to add into the Swarfega (tried Tufenega with the polychips but that was just too rough) I now need to cover up the camera and mic
■■■■ that!!! I sing to myself, shout to other road users to myself, talk to myself, pick my noes, re arranging my nuts . I would hate it if everyone back in the office was having a laugh at my expense.
Been common on busses for a while, but, as you said, shouldn’t be happenin’ in a sleeper cab wagon.
On busses, they claimed it was for our protection and to use as evidence if anything ever happened.
Which, in all honesty, it was, as long as the bus driver was the 1 in the wrong, otherwise “that 1 is a dummy mate”
newmercman:
Visited an old friend today, got around to talking shop & he told me that his company has cameras fitted to the lorries now, one facing out the windscreen & the other pointing at the driver, this is to enable them to make sure the drivers aren’t texting, on the phone or smoking in the cab, as well as making sure nobody is skivving off of course.
Now I can see the point of a camera looking out of the windscreen, but in the cab? It’s on 24/7 so as well as them being able to watch you pick your nose & scratch your nuts all day, they can also hear everything you say (hope that has an auto sensor) & when you’re parked up for the night they can watch you undress, they have a lady driver too (although she’s built like a Bulgarian shot putter & the last time she wore a vest top it looked like she had two of ZZ Top in a headlock) now this can’t be right, the camera, not the hairy armpits even if a case could be made for you to be on screen while you’re working there should be no way you can be monitored when you’re off duty, it looks like that’s the end of an old pastime, the nocturnal eyesight reducing massage is now a thing of the past on that firm
not too sure of the legality of that i hope its illegal somehow
newmercman:
Visited an old friend today, got around to talking shop & he told me that his company has cameras fitted to the lorries now, one facing out the windscreen & the other pointing at the driver, this is to enable them to make sure the drivers aren’t texting, on the phone or smoking in the cab, as well as making sure nobody is skivving off of course.
Now I can see the point of a camera looking out of the windscreen, but in the cab? It’s on 24/7 so as well as them being able to watch you pick your nose & scratch your nuts all day, they can also hear everything you say (hope that has an auto sensor) & when you’re parked up for the night they can watch you undress, they have a lady driver too (although she’s built like a Bulgarian shot putter & the last time she wore a vest top it looked like she had two of ZZ Top in a headlock) now this can’t be right, the camera, not the hairy armpits even if a case could be made for you to be on screen while you’re working there should be no way you can be monitored when you’re off duty, it looks like that’s the end of an old pastime, the nocturnal eyesight reducing massage is now a thing of the past on that firm
you mite find out that the on all the time, but only record a few minutes the for insurance company and there switch off when key is out the amount of video date for it to be on for 24 hours could be up to 15 gig
If it were me, I would make all the rude noises I could, all the rude gestures I could make at the camera itself and would disgust the watchers as much as I possibly could. It would become my mission in life to give the person who decided to fit it as huge an ulcer as possible.
It is appalling to think that employers mistrust their drivers to that extent. Why are they employing people if they do not trust them?
i would think the camera would turn off when the ignition is turned off but if it didnt i would be asking a soliceter if this was legal (the camera facing the driver when he has finished work) there could be a privacy intrusion there which could land a firm in hot water. the firm i drive for has cameras fitted to our trucks but they only face outwards and are very sensitive and can be set off going over a pot hole but they have saved the firm from a fraudulant insurance claim so the hassle is worth it
bobthedog:
If it were me, I would make all the rude noises I could, all the rude gestures I could make at the camera itself and would disgust the watchers as much as I possibly could. It would become my mission in life to give the person who decided to fit it as huge an ulcer as possible.
It is appalling to think that employers mistrust their drivers to that extent. Why are they employing people if they do not trust them?
I too would welcome the challenge that this represents, I think you could have a lot of fun winding them up in the office, driving up the road wearing a Borat swimsuit, pouring coke into an empty beer can & drinking it going up the road, pretending to inject drugs, closing one eye & nodding your head like you’re asleep etc etc (this also works very well with passengers ), but I think that it’s a total [zb]ing liberty, if I didn’t tell them to poke it as soon as they put the camera in, I’d be adopting the touching the toes whilst spreading the cheeks manouvere on the hour, every hour:shock:
If this is the future we need to stop it before it becomes the law, this country is becoming a [zb]ing joke, we’re being treated worse than the criminals in jail
Suppose you could just take a picture of an empty driver’s seat from the camera’s point of view, print the picture off and then hang it in front of the camera. The people in the office would soon start worrying seeing the truck moving on the satellite tracking but no one driving it.
There is no way I would ever work for a company with cameras inside the truck pointing at me. I have no problems with trackers or cameras pointing out the vehicle but having some one watching your every move on and off duty like said in an earlier post there are no cameras inside prison cells that is not allowed so does human rights only apply to criminals and not genuine hard working men. I don’t think many companies will implement this though not if they want to keep there drivers and I am sure that most employers trust there employees enough not to have to watch there every move.
you will more then likely find that the camera will only record under certain circumstances, like sharp braking, eratic cornering ect, its very unlikely that someone will sit there viewing 24 hrs of footage of you scratching your nuts… they will view the incidents to see if you have done anything wrong,
and if your on break well just draw a curtain over it or something similar, these type cameras have been in use in my wagon for some time and although i did,nt like them at the time i now feel it as turned me into a safer driver… which surely is better for all…
They fitted some of our wagons with cameras when we looked into it they are not allowed to film the driver without permission as in breaches ure privercy so they had to have one faceing forward and the others pointing down the side of the wagons but not into the cab!
newmercman:
Visited an old friend today, got around to talking shop & he told me that his company has cameras fitted to the lorries now, one facing out the windscreen & the other pointing at the driver, this is to enable them to make sure the drivers aren’t texting, on the phone or smoking in the cab, as well as making sure nobody is skivving off of course.
Now I can see the point of a camera looking out of the windscreen, but in the cab? It’s on 24/7 so as well as them being able to watch you pick your nose & scratch your nuts all day, they can also hear everything you say (hope that has an auto sensor) & when you’re parked up for the night they can watch you undress, they have a lady driver too (although she’s built like a Bulgarian shot putter & the last time she wore a vest top it looked like she had two of ZZ Top in a headlock) now this can’t be right, the camera, not the hairy armpits even if a case could be made for you to be on screen while you’re working there should be no way you can be monitored when you’re off duty, it looks like that’s the end of an old pastime, the nocturnal eyesight reducing massage is now a thing of the past on that firm
Some insurance companies are specifying that you have a camera facing the road when you renew. If i had a choice I wouldn’t mind this, but I would also have one fitted to the o/s of the cab towards the rear, but still facing forward.
from what I understand the camera in my truck and others at the same company were a requirment set out by the insurance company. and i think others will be doing the same over time with this claim claim society, but as said i would also like to have this cameras maybe fitted elsewhere on the truck…
even if a case could be made for you to be on screen while you’re working there should be no way you can be monitored when you’re off duty, it looks like that’s the end of an old pastime, the nocturnal eyesight reducing massage is now a thing of the past on that firm 
), but I think that it’s a total [zb]ing liberty, if I didn’t tell them to poke it as soon as they put the camera in, I’d be adopting the touching the toes whilst spreading the cheeks manouvere on the hour, every hour:shock: