Comments By Dan R.

Ugh, Jim J you seem to be walking straight towards terminal rat territory. No company out there wants a truck sitting - ever. That's why some dispatchers can be a bit resistant when it comes to home time-- but the idea that companies, be it Swift or anything, have a 'typical' operating procedure involving making good drivers sit on a load or without a load isn't true.

Now, as a caveat to that, if someone ISN'T a good driver, having them sit around not making money can be a good way to get them gone. If you're not in need of a reset, there isn't some extraordinary factor happening with dispatch, etc and you're sitting for days on a load or without a load at all, it's time to talk to your dispatcher and find out how you can improve. The top drivers aren't sitting like that, even if there isn't freight. They'll get paid to deadhead somewhere there is freight so they can keep moving and be kept happy. Just the last three days I've had over 700 miles of deadhead to get freight (first 350ish miles) and then to go home(second 350ish miles) because I do whatever I can to show that I'm a great asset that they want to keep rolling and keep happy.

On the flip side, during the few weeks I did training, I had a second seat that was quite the opposite. He started by informing dispatch he wanted every load to either start or stop in central California, that he'd only drive during the day, and that he'll be sure to let them know how late he'll be as they 'can never schedule appointments for convenient times.' While he was sitting for days on end, our dispatcher was slipping me layover pay and asking for updates on if the guy was talking about leaving.

I don't think people complaining about long waits generally fall into either of those categories, though. I think it's more they accept the long waits for appointments and don't know that, with a little bit of communication, things like that can be avoided. At a DC I ran into another driver from my company who was talking about how he was thinking about leaving because they kept giving him loads where he'd end up stuck at a truck stop for a day or two waiting for a delivery time, and when I asked him what dispatch said about getting a reschedule or T-call, he was dumbfounded having never even considered it. Your dispatcher is there to help you with things like that! Getting off a load, whether T-called or delivered, early is best for EVERYONE. The customer gets their product sooner than expected, your company is able to take more loads, you're turning more miles... the only folks not benefiting from it are truck stops, but with their prices I'm sure they'll be fine. :P

And to make you feel better, I thought the same thing the first time that happened when I was on the trainer truck. My trainer played it up, too. Got wide eyed, started cursing, and hopped out the passenger door as I hopped out the drivers door. Only instead of bolting away from the truck, he was bent over laughing watching me do it.

I'm not a fan of the whole crutch aspect as I think that's misplaced. I think it's simply value added, much like a drivers side hood mirror. Can people drive without them? Absolutely. Are they a great added tool to have? Absolutely! In both instances you have to use the side mirrors, not just to do it right, but really to do it at all. If you JUST use the drivers side hood mirror to check if the left lane is clear, you're going to have a bad time. If you JUST use a back-up camera, you don't stand a chance of getting into a space -- probably not even near one.

All that said, I don't want one $900 bad... lol

Yeah, that's a regen.

I've wondered the same thing. I'd also be willing to bet it would lead to less accidents rather than more with minimal training as the number of times I've seen drivers get up close and personal with fences, bollards, replace bumping the dock with slamming it, not to mention people needing to run out of the way to avoid getting run over. All the training would really need to be is to treat it like a third mirror.

My guess, though, for why it isn't a thing at this point is the cost. Adding things onto the truck is one thing, but for a camera you'd either need a power source or a battery, find a wireless signal that reaches about 55' without constant interference. I suppose it could be run through the power line or a fourth line, but that'd mean slow implementation.

Personally, I want all the information I can get when backing. If I could also send a drone up for a top-down view I'd do it.

I don't have nearly the experience to be confident that this is the standard, but what I experienced when I applied to places first, and the recent round I just put out testing the waters, was that the vast majority of companies will essentially consider you with them the moment they get your application so long as you didn't put anything obviously disqualifying in it. Once they do that, their recruiter talks with you a bit, then they start actually going through the application with a fine toothed comb, and that can take time -- usually a couple weeks, from what I saw, which is just enough time to get you to agree to go to school or orientation but before you actually get on the bus or in the car to start traveling.

I had several let-downs with that process where I was really excited about one particular company, even sometimes having tickets in hand and hotel registration info, only to be told that they didn't like a certain part of the application. Frankly that sucked, so if there's companies that are actually taking their time and checking things out before leading you on I consider that a very good thing.

That would obstruct the view of the face, Chris, which can tell a lot in the event the camera needs to actually be used. You know what a better solution is aside from actually driving responsibly(which I suspect is what ACTUALLY is behind a considerable amount of the objections... play Angry Birds on your own time)? Curtains. Most companies supply them pre-installed. If not, you can get ones designed for that purpose for about $200. Or you can get a sheet for $5 at goodwill and some velcro tape for another $5 at Walmart. $10 and the supposed 'problem' is solved.

I'll also note that while you're right about you not being in full control of the camera, there's someone else not in full control of the camera. Who? The company. Do you think you folks were the first one to raise these 'privacy' concerns and that it didn't come up at all in the design phase? The cameras aren't designed to be able to be just turned on to spy on you. They're designed to activate ONLY when triggered by critical events. While I'm sure this may come as a shocker to you, I don't care what you're doing in that sleeper, it isn't going to be causing a critical event. :P

Two things, Ray. First of all, this whole cry about liberty is entirely misplaced. You're on company property and talking about a camera facing into a publicly view-able area, not a camera mounted watching your bed. And while I've been known to need some emergency movement downunder, I am willing to bet you cash money that no matter how big of an emergency, your company will not be happy finding out about you doing so in their equipment -- camera or not.

Second, your alarmist attitude about how 'this is only the beginning' is quite a reach, and if you knew anything about this industry you'd probably say it's quite a while too late. We can be pulled over without cause, be searched without cause, are monitored by GPS, are unable to take routes of our choosing, are forbidden from going on the majority of roads in the country, have increased penalties for violating the law, have significantly higher standards for licensing, and are required to submit to the government accounting of every minute of every single day showing what we were doing, where we were doing it, and how long we were doing it for.

Why? Because we're pulling 80,000lbs, are as tall and long(or longer) than a house, and can literally kill numerous entire families with a single twitch of our hand. Every single one of those regulations, every single rule your company has, is at its root to avoid us using that 40 ton killing machine to its full and devastating potential. If other drivers have made bad choices resulting in me needing to be on camera while doing my job, all I have to say is I apologize for my singing but feel free to sing along.

I think you accidentally answered your own question when you made a comment about backing, saying "dont ask me to do what a 5 year vet is doing." Shifting is going to be ugly for some time, and probably will get ugly again for a little bit anytime you change trucks or they work on the transmission. Just remember that aside from avoiding rolling backwards into them, don't worry about the people behind you. When you panic you're putting yourself at a disadvantage by increasing your chances of making more mistakes. Just breathe, listen, react to what the truck is trying to tell you, and don't expect perfection until you are able to do 'what a 5 year vet is doing.'

It definitely depends on where you work. On top of that is where you're at in the country, how 'random' the test really is(if it's based on suspicion they may still call it random, but it's certainly not... and is more likely to be a hair test), things like that. Hair tests are also significantly more expensive for the employer to perform so if you're in a company that really goes out of their way to pinch pennies, you're probably less likely to get a hair test.