My company state that we have to wear a seat belt at all times, even when reversing. We have a Smart Drive camera in the cab, forward & backwards facing. The Highway Code state that If the driver is reversing, he/she does not need to wear a seat belt.
I was just wondering, if for example I got a warning for not wearing a seat belt whilst reversing would I have a good case against it?
I ask because one lad at work has just got his final warning, triggered on this occasion for not wearing a seat belt whilst pulling away from a drop. He was going forwards not reversing but it would have been a final warning either way.
The company may have a policy saying this BUT it is down to the driver to decide what is best on the grounds of safety
If the company want to then try and put their policy above safety say to them that you will comply if they put that in writing on company headed paper and signed by a director - they will back down at that point because they know they would be leaving themselves wide open to the corporate laws if something goes wrong
The Smart Drive cameras are there for our benefit i.e you come up against a Cash for Crash driver but it would be very easy to set one off and end up getting a warning.
espresso:
How on earth can you hang out of the door with your hand on the wheelarch with your seatbely on ■■
You don’t, you hang on to the door otherwise it swings round and belts you in the chops , and i always reverse with the door open and window shut unless its peeing down…camera must be loose, needs a bit of strategically placed gaffer tape to keep it steady…
NotBad4AYoungLad:
So does this camera actually record everything you do?
No, they only record “events”. Hitting a car would be an event, and they are very sensitive so driving over a pothole if often an “event” but reversing shouldn’t be unless you reverse onto a bay a bit heavily. However, management can only access footage by downloading the SD card and they are unlikely to do this unless you have been involved in a reportable accident.
NotBad4AYoungLad:
If the camera only records events ie bumps then surely it would not be recording prior to impact?? Or am i missing something here
I think you are. The camera records continuously (to its internal memory), but the recorded video is only saved to the memory card if there is a “bump” or the driver presses the button on the dash. In the event of such an event the preceding few seconds of video is saved, along with the following few seconds. If there is no “bump” (or button press) the recorded video never gets any further than the camera’s internal memory and is immediately overwrittten.
NotBad4AYoungLad:
Right i got it Im still not sure i like the big brother idea though
It’s no big deal TBH. The cameras my lot have fitted (Roadhawk) only face forwards, looking straight out the windscreen, so they don’t record anything the driver might be doing behind the wheel. There is no way anyone can view what you (or the vehicle) have been up to during your shift, other than the few seconds immediately before and after a bump or button press. In a typical day, our cameras only activate perhaps 6 or 7 times (they beep when the bump is detected, and again when recording ceases a few seconds later, so you always know about it).
how new are the cameras? the first week or so they would be monitored to see how good they are. every event will probably have been looked at.
im pretty sure they will have got fed up looking at you driving round the yard at 10MPH though and having 15 recorded events per shifts with only one going off when you hit a bump while slowing and the rest being hitting a bump when you are not braking at all
tip. if they are located at the top of the windscreen, sun blinds. bottom, a rag on the dashboard! use any justifiable method to block that things view of you even though they probably dont record visually inside the cab although ours do record sound. why they want to hear all their drivers swearing at BMW drivers beats me though. i dont see the point in recording sound in the cab after a triggered event as it stops recording long before any exchanges would be made if it was a genuine event and not bump in the road related
I’m astonished to find that a company somewhere believes that they will actually benefit from this sort of ‘do as your told or else’ surveillance in the long run.
The chances of being hit for an insurance job are very small indeed but once you begin to scrutinise a drivers behaviour you can pick fault in it to your hearts content. In other words what you don’t know doesn’t hurt you.
Sooner or later footage from these cameras of someone picking their nose or peeing into a bottle will end up on youtube.
NotBad4AYoungLad:
So does this camera actually record everything you do?
No, they only record “events”. Hitting a car would be an event, and they are very sensitive so driving over a pothole if often an “event” but reversing shouldn’t be unless you reverse onto a bay a bit heavily. However, management can only access footage by downloading the SD card and they are unlikely to do this unless you have been involved in a reportable accident.
I used to work for the same company as “Dakota” all recorded events last 30 seconds duration consisting of 10 seconds previous, 10 seconds during and 10 seconds after the event, when you return to the depot at the end of shift you enter your own personal pin number in the computer system, the whole depot is surrounded by “metallic bunting” which is a wi-fi field so all the recorded events delivery times and locations etc are uploaded to wi-fi and automatically sent to head office, where they employ a special team of people to review ALL recorded footage anything untoward is then emailed to the depot manager, where you will be brought into the office for a “coaching session” review of the event as they call it.
The camera contains a small gyroscope, which detects harsh braking, harsh acceleration, harsh cornering and heavy pothole or other types of impact. If you are caught drinking beverages or eating fruit etc at the wheel, it is instant dismissal they do not take prisoners there.
, and i always reverse with the door open and window shut unless its peeing down…camera must be loose, needs a bit of strategically placed gaffer tape to keep it steady… 
Im still not sure i like the big brother idea though
