Between Two and Five
A five-camera rig at a midnight truck stop drew the line between reasonable fleet safety and total cab surveillance.
A few months ago, I was considering quitting. I had recently transferred to a new location within my company and things weren’t going well. I’ll spare you the complaining, but I had another company in mind. I had already interviewed with them, and had an offer on the table.
Nearing the end of my shift, I pulled into a large truck stop for the evening. I walked inside, grabbed some food, and took a shower. When I came back out, I noticed a rig parked on the other end of the lot, belonging to the very same carrier I had just applied to. I decided to head over and see if I could find the driver. I wanted to get the real story from a fellow delivery driver – if he liked it, and if he would recommend it.
The truck stop was huge; it took me five minutes just to cross the parking lot. As I got closer, I could see the driver was still behind the wheel. He rolled down his window as I stepped up to introduce myself. But before I could get a word out, I noticed the monstrosity of a camera system installed in his cab. I’d never seen anything like it. Four cameras, all pointing in different directions, were enclosed in a single unit. Forward facing, driver facing, left, and right, covering every single angle. As if that wasn’t enough, there was an additional camera on the dash, directly in front of the driver, watching his every move.
Paul introduced himself, said he had been working there for a few years. He didn’t have many negative things to say. He liked his job and the hours weren’t too bad. But I couldn’t get that camera setup out of my head. How much is too much? Five cameras? My company runs two, and that’s two too many. I couldn’t imagine ever coming to terms with five.
Ultimately I decided against working for them, and that camera system was a major factor. The modern-day truck driver is subject to constant monitoring. A watchful eye installed two feet from our faces is simply a reality of the job. So where do we draw the line? I knew for me at least, it was somewhere between two and five.