Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Camera in the Truck

I drive an 18 wheeler over the road. A few months ago my company installed two cameras in my truck. One aims forward, and shows what is happening on the road ahead.
The other aims into the cab, and is on me. 24 hours a day. Complete with audio.

I do not like the camera in the truck. I have been here 4 years, no wrecks, no tickets. Just had a big argument with a nerd in the Safety Dept., told him I wish I worked for a company that did not have cameras in the truck.

Is that legal under your state's workplace rules? Is it legal in the states you are passing through with your truck? Why are you still working for that company?

How well is that camera located with regards to use as a hat or coat hook?

I get the one looking forward, but being recorded 24/7 would drive me nuts.

No way I could deal with that. How's a guy supposed to pick his nose for cryin out loud?

Yeah, one pointing backwards at me would be enough to drive me to look for other work. Especially with your driving record, hopefully that wouldn't be difficult.

Be interesting to see how that affects future hires.

How are they supposed to pee in a bottle and pitch it out the window?

Everything is CYA for Companies anymore. The Insurance Co's are auditing for safety records, safety procedures and the cameras are used to get the trucking co's off the hook if there are accidents. The drivers are GPS tracked as well. I sure would not want a camera on me 24/7. Dash cams are bad enough but inside is BS.

I wanted my one dash can when I drove to cover my tail but they were to expensive back then.

The camera watching me all the time would be a deal breaker. There are to many trucking companies out there to put up with that crap.

Insurance lobby is way out of control.

I had 3 on the bus, none were pointed out.

Got no problem them knowing what I am doing when in the drivers seat, but I lived in the cab of a truck for up to two months at a time. They don't need to watch me change my underwear.

Well, it really bothers me.
I have to work here until April, when I will take an 8 month leave of absence, to build a log cabin.
So, while I am off work I am going to dig around for another job. I really like working here, so I am not sure what I will do.
I am 64, am only going to drive for 2 more years.

There are a quarter million job openings nationwide in trucking, with my good record I could easily get another job.

There are jobs delivering new tractors for Freightliner and such. I looked hard at one where you fly to Texas and pick up between one and four tractors then deliver and fly back. Every night is a hotel on a company card and you got to keep all your air miles. Some of those runs paid really nice and you never drive a beater. Runs were all over US and Canada.

I decided to stay retired but I wished I had found that company years ago.

We demand the same on all of the vehicles that transport us around. They also have key systems in each that ties the driver to all of the vehicle data, hours driven, location, speed, red light stops, unauthorized roads, etc. Works great and keeps us safe.

Do you get to watch the drive change underwear Ed?

We have them in our parts delivery vehicles. If you accelerate, brake, turn to fast or hit a bump to fast they automatically take a 8 second before and after snapshot of the event and email it to the safety department. They review it and decide if it a punishable event. They suck and I dont drive our rigs if I dont have to. I can see insurance requiring them in all commercial vehicles eventually.

OK, that one made me laugh. Eyeball, you're officially alright by me for 2015, unless and until you make a post I disagree with.

Sycamore

Our cameras do like you said, 7mm. If the computer senses a "critical event" such as hard braking, hitting a big bump, having a crash etc, it sends a video back 10 seconds, and foreward 10 seconds, to headquarters.

So, supposedly when you are sitting there parked, like I am now, nothing is being sent back to hq. Just to be safe there is a piece of duct tape on the camera right now.

Does every truck have a camera in it?

If not, and given your clean driving record there is a good chance that you are being used as the benchmark, that is to say that the company's ins wanted the cameras in trucks to observe driving habits, so your company "cherry picked" it's good drivers. The company I drive for part time did this. I threw a huge bitch about the voice recording as it is illegal under Pa law to audio record without written consent.

Sucks but you can do anything for 2 more years...