Manager's Role In Helping Drivers With Safety Technologies

Hi y'all! How would you describe your experience with managers when it comes to use of safety technologies?

This is the third time you've asked this question. Are you writing a book?

And again...safety technologies equals nanny state, reducing skills in the trades so that the labor group can be paid less, and is a generally immoral practice.

That about sums it up.

Let's also not forget that most of the safety technologies in use today are being forced on trucking companies by the insurance companies. I've had some excellent safety managers but most have had their hands tied with a lot of the technology involved.

1. No safety manager should be a saefty manager without first having been a CDL A driver for at least 10 years, not just a desk jockey. Not just a CDL holder who never drove.

2. That safety manager then wouldn't need to post on forums because he would know exactly how irritating the technology is.

3. That safety manager experienced in driving would then understand that thebonly good technology is outward facing cameras. And maybe the mirrorless cameras for driver use.

4.in case u didnt notice.. texhnology is not popular. It alows us down and gets in our way.

I have to say after joining a company with inward facing camera's 10 month's ago it's a good thing. When I was with Schneider I would grab my phone if I got lost and check email, texts.

For someone with a hair trigger temper and bad habits I need that watching to keep me in check. I went away to help out for a week at another location and the last 2 days I had rental tractors with no camera's and grabbed my phone to call the lead about location while driving.

I was doing good improving until I came back from a week vacation. My drive smart score was 413 in a 11 day span. lol.

My manager said you need to get this in check now and get that score down before it's automatically flagged for review by safety.

I'm sure a lot would say I should not be a trucker. I'm just giving you an extreme case on how it can be helpful.

Kearsey mentioned the mirrorless camera setup so just a side note on that. I don't have them yet but my company is in the process of adding those. My shop told me it's a four day process! They're not removing our mirrors luckily but saw a few trucks on the highways recently with cameras that didn't have the mirrors, I would not like that setup. Technology can fail so I don't know why they'd take the mirrors off as a backup system. When they were installed on my friend's truck, they used the wiring or whatever for the mirrors' heaters to power the cameras, so he had to go back to get them to do something else so he still had the heat feature. Haven't verified myself but heard Canada doesn't recognize the camera-only system so something to keep in mind if you cross the border.

I have to say after joining a company with inward facing camera's 10 month's ago it's a good thing. When I was with Schneider I would grab my phone if I got lost and check email, texts.

For someone with a hair trigger temper and bad habits I need that watching to keep me in check. I went away to help out for a week at another location and the last 2 days I had rental tractors with no camera's and grabbed my phone to call the lead about location while driving.

I was doing good improving until I came back from a week vacation. My drive smart score was 413 in a 11 day span. lol.

My manager said you need to get this in check now and get that score down before it's automatically flagged for review by safety.

I'm sure a lot would say I should not be a trucker. I'm just giving you an extreme case on how it can be helpful.

I'm not meaning to single you out by any means, and kudos to you for being honest.

This is a prime example though of why driver facing cameras do more harm than good. Their use allows carriers to use drivers that otherwise don't have the skills and qualities required to be a professional driver. The carriers do this because over time, a less skilled labor pool will ultimately cost less and reduce labor costs across the entire range of drivers.

We often carry the narrative that the insurance companies mandate their use, but its another statement that is true and not true. If enough drivers refuse to stay with companies that use the cams, eventually the insurance companies will loose to their competitors that don't force it.

I work for a 300 plus truck company that has no cameras of any sort and allows us to completely shut off any of the nanny state equipment or run it at its least invasive level. Somehow they are very profitable despite paying their drivers at the higher end of the scale and maintain a very good safety snapshot, as well as obviously are able to go without an insurance company mandate on cameras.

"We hire only experienced professional drivers and expect them to make appropriate choices" is what it was told when I was hired. Its very true. All my equipment is strictly hands free and voice activated. I generally do not even accept calls except for during favorable conditions on open roads. It just not comfortable to me. And as most gen x, I hate texting anyway.

Teaching and training aids are great for beginning drivers, but they hinder us as we progress. Like most items, they become weaponized against the driver in the never-ending quest to lower labor costs by mega corporations.