Rottweiler22:
The firm I work for has them fitted in the trucks at their base depot, but they are spreading to more peripheral depots. My depot, or my vehicle don’t have them (yet), but after finding-out about them earlier this week, I promised myself that if I get into a vehicle, and it has one, I will put it in writing that they didn’t mention it at interview, and I will be resigning.
A driver trainer said the other day that all new vehicles they buy will be fitted with driver-facing cameras. These ones are activated by G-force, and send a 20-second clip of the footage prior to a G-force-initiated incident, such as harsh braking, taking a roundabout too quickly, etc, to two authorised managers, and two only, supposedly… They watch all of the clips when they have time, or when they have to review a serious incident. If you’re found to be on the phone, smoking, etc, then you’re in trouble. They also record sound too, so they can hear your conversations.
They are manually switched-off at night, but they will automatically switch-on again when the vehicle moves, or if it receives sudden g-force. So if you’re polishing the trumpet in the services on a night-out, and someone bangs into your truck, activating the camera, Tom and ■■■■ will be having a right laugh the next morning when they come to review the footage! Bang out of order if you ask me.
They may have been completely lying, but they say that they cannot watch a live feed, footage is only available in retrospect. For all we know, they could, but there might be walkouts if people knew, so they keep it quiet, and say they are “only available in retrospect”.
Somebody has already mentioned it, but in the future I can imagine all of the big companies installing them, and as technology improves, managers will be able to watch their drivers on a live feed, just like normal CCTV. As they become cheaper and more accessible, even the smallest hauliers could see sense in using them. Lower insurance costs, and dead easy to blame or acquit the driver of causing an accident. Maybe less accidents because drivers daren’t use their phones, or have a ■■■. Bosses will just shrug, and say it’s “part of the job”. Good luck in getting people to do the job, I can see serious problems, unless people just bend-over and accept them.
If they mentioned at my interview or induction that my cab would be fitted with a driver-facing camera, I would have refused the job, but they didn’t, no word was said. I might sabotage it first, and see if, and how long it takes for Tom and ■■■■ give me a bollocking. I can say that my last truck didn’t have one in, and they didn’t give a toss, but my new one does, so suddenly they do?
The thing is that it’s very difficult to argue against them. If you mention privacy, the company will just say that people in much less risky professions have cameras pointed at them all day, so why not drivers, who could cause some serious damage if not paying attention? I hate the things on principle, but I can see it being the way things go.
I love that very specific scenario! You may be knocking one of as someone bumps into cab!
