SUPRISE there's a Cab Camera

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
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So today I was driving a van, little 3.5 so no tacho or anything (im agency) and having a relaxed chilled out easy time really enjoying my day when I see a camera on the driver over the passenger side above the window. How I missed it all morning I don’t know. But what a day ruiner that was seeing this obnoxious thing there watching and recording me…

I really effin hate this kind of thing and just needed to vent!

Nobody told me there was a camera on the driver, I never consented to this, I signed nothing to say I agreed to be recorded so I’m thinking 3 options here, if this job comes up again I decline the company. Or, I accept the job but tape over the camera or I accept the job and live with it…

I’m thinking tape over over it and if anyone says anything say well I didnt consent to being recorded. I’m thinking I wouldn’t be surprised if I taped over it and it just never gets mentioned.

Any thoughts?

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This has been done to death mate on here many times …put a search in.
You asked for thoughts…ok

Can I just be the first to say…

‘Why are you bothered if you are doing nothing wrong’’

‘Cameras are all over the place so what’s the problem’’

They are there purely for insurance purposes and for YOUR benefit’'.

‘‘They aint there to catch you out’’.
:sunglasses:

(I dont agree with any of that btw, I just thought I would jump in before the brainwashed and the servile repeated all this corporate b/s again, after being told it alll by their firms.)
:joy:

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Just take a wooly hat to work and hang it over it
As you say your only agency wouldn’t worry about it.
But am afraid cameras are here to stay and will soon become as standard in trucks vans etc.no doubt cars as well in the future

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Put something over the camera and if they say anything point out that videoing staff without notifying them first is a breach of GDPR.

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5

You probably had a naff induction to the company by al man’s cover it, but bet that when they realise that, you be disciplined or as an agency be banned from the company, or perhaps they’ll be kind and give you the choice, accept it and the work or not. That’s your choice. If you’re so,offended by it, you don’t have to go back.
Incan cameras are now getting like tachos and dash cams, , they used to be hated, then they started to defend against speeding and bad driving. As long as they don’t intrude during rest, then you have a very simple choice - stay or leave.

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When employed by the Agency did their paperwork include anything about in-cab cameras? Anything about client company data collection?
If it is a professional Agency I expect it did.

I will have a small bet that when you signed up, you accepted data collection in line with client company protocols.

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I’ve seen cab curtains strategically positioned to cover the camera

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I agree with Robroy, if you’re not doing anything wrong then don’t worry. Feel happy that that company spent their money on surveillance equipment rather than a raise in wages. Plus someone has to review the videos so there you are, you’re keeping that person in a job. Everyone wins. :+1: :wink:

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We’ve got them in the cab where I work. They annoy me but I forget about it. they did sack someone for covering it with tape. He did it three times and after the warnings they got rid. Union would probably have got him off though if he used one.
I wonder if they would let us have camera on the office so we can watch them? I’m sure they would say it’s an invasion of privacy

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With the tendency for the driver to be blamed for anything and everything, there are loads of examples where the camera supports the driver.
The subtle difference from the office camera, is they rarely commit criminal offences in what they do/don’t do

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Aye, when was the fatality caused by an office worker looking at a phone screen?

Having in cab cameras is a minor upset for some, but far too many make a huge song and dance about it all.

There are not armies of staff watching every move you make, and trying to find a reason to sack all the drivers.
They will hopefully make idiots think twice before doing summat dumb, and catch those who don’t think at all.

They are a tool. Like all tools they can be misused, but most are only looked at after an incident.
No matter how good looking some drivers think they are, no one really is that bothered most of the time.

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Even the governments own ‘Surveillance Camera Commissioner’s Office’ says:

“If you’ve done nothing wrong…”: 5 Reasons Why This is No Defence for Surveillance

Then goes on to make points such as:

Of the many arguments deployed in the defence of surveillance technology there is one that doesn’t just miss the point: it misses all of them. Beguilingly simple, the expression “if you’ve done nothing wrong you’ve nothing to worry about” is, of course, not the answer to legitimate public concern over surveillance; it’s not even an answer. There are many reasons why - the absence of logical merit, ethical legitimacy and legal validity being but three. Yet the argument still seems to find support in repetition.

Done nothing wrong? What exactly do we mean by ‘wrong’?

Presumption of Guilt. Let’s begin with the need for rebuttal. The argument requires you to prove you’ve done nothing wrong. This reverses our constitutional safeguard of the presumption of innocence until the State has proven guilt to the relevant standard and instead passes the burden of proof to the individual. Moreover, it puts the individual in the notoriously difficult position of having to prove a negative (e.g. “I’m not dishonest”).

When we look at this specifically in relation to drivers there is so much ambiguity in the definition of ‘wrong’. Do you always have both hands on the steering wheel at 10 to 2?

Did you glance somewhere you shouldn’t have?

Did you change the radio station?

Did you look up at your tacho?

Did you reach for a swig of your drink?

Did you heaven forbid vape in the cab?

Were you showing signs of being 100% alert and focused?

Did you palm it as you went round the corner?

Are you really sure you did nothing wrong?

Because if you want to litigate anyones driving on an in cab cam I bet an insurance company lawyer could find a reason to proportion at least some blame on the driver in virtually any incident.

This is not good and as drivers we should stand together to oppose this.

Fundamentally I think there is a huge difference between monitoring someone’s work and monitoring how they work.

A dashcam, tacho’s, side and rear cams monitor the work we do, e.g driving of the vehicle. This is fine. An in cab cam monitors ‘how’ we do that work, this may seem like a subtle difference but it’s not, it’s a huge difference.

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It does not surprise me in the least that you of all people have swallowed the proverbial ‘official line’ hook line and sinker.:joy:…and then go on to preach it.:roll_eyes:

I’m assuming we are of a similar age (ish) and experience in the job, but the difference is I personally take it as an insult to my professionalism that someone feels the need to check up on me, especially when the criteria for these abortions is based on the lowest common denominator of driver type…the inept and the incompetent.

Nobody thinks for a second,.especially me, that some knob in an office is glued to that camera watching your every move, 25/7 the fact that they CAN is enough for me.
Also as a tramper privacy is not a lot to ask for.

If that to you constitutes ‘making a song and dance’ :roll_eyes:…well yeah I’m sat here singing Bon Jovi’s ‘Living on a prayer’ full volume whilst doing the hokey kokey.

I suppose in your case we all know that you have proven beyond doubt you will accept any god dam thing even to your own detriment, you proved that during covid, where as I have a bit of pride and am totally against being snooped on…I make no apology for that.

In my view they are another tool to find a reason to blame the driver, for every one case of it ‘getting a driver off’ there are 100 cases of catching drivers doing a triviality to sack or reprimand.
Boogie has it all summed up better than I ever could, so it appears at least there are still a few non gullible drivers left.

But hey !..just you keep believing what you are told mate…buisness as usual.
It all kinda resembles the ‘Useful Idiot’ concept …doing ‘their’ work for ‘them’ used in politics.

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I don’t have that particular chip sitting on my shoulder.

I recognise that there are bad drivers out there.
And that because of the idiots we all have to pay a price. In an ideal world only the muppets would have cameras in their cabs…but if we knew who the muppets were…they would not have a licence anyway. The real world is not like that.

Oh well, I think someone in the security services Can be monitoring my every movement, and checking up on my bank account, and…etc etc

So no chip on my shoulder, and no paranoia.

I don’t believe those who tell me that the cameras are there only to trip up competent drivers.

Ah…Of course… those who cannot be named… the anonymous ones who are out to get us…the enemy…

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I’ll name them. Middle management, thats who. You know the ones; those with non jobs who flourish under this sort of regime. The ones who are smart enough to realise that they’re actually totally expendable so therefore pollute bulletin boards with crap usually ending with “disciplinary action will be taken” in a pathetic attempt to justify their non jobs.

If the Covid farce taught us anything it should be the lesson that middle management are totally superfluous and are only there so that senior management can blame their own ■■■■ ups on someone else.

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Not even gonna break that down to challenge and reply.
It speaks for it’s self, and says more about him than I ever could…
A classic Franglais post, it’s all there, :joy:

We had the regurgitation of official narrative and the usual confirmation of servility in the first post.

This one the wordplay, the confusion pretence when answering a point, only in order to make his own point…although he knows exactly what I meant.

The ‘I know better than you lot’ stance.

The usual pomposity.

Oh yeah and ‘The piece de resistance’ of shear irony…

Franglais explaining to us what …‘The Real World’ is like.:joy::joy:

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aircraft have black (orange) boxes. Record every movement of the controls, and the pilot’s conversation.
Must be annoying to feel that closely monitored. Ah but the black boxes aren’t examined unless there is a close call or accident.
And that’s how it should be for in cab cameras. Record the video, enough memory to store say 2 weeks driving. Secure locked box to deter tampering.
And it’s only accessed IF the driver has an incident or a serious allegation is made against them, like “guv, I swear he was on his phone”

I’d definitely go out on a limb and insist, management can’t use bloody AI to constantly monitor the video to look for infringements. I don’t want that evil tech to have any more access to my life than unavoidable.

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I agree, and that last line of your post personifies exactly what I was saying.
At least in that idea then the concept of ‘Only there to clarify insurance situations and protect the driver’ would be actually genuine,.and not an excuse used to mask the true agenda.

Because apparently if you have the gall to protest at being monitored, a bit of self pride, an aversion to your privacy being compromised, and feel uncomfortable about unnecessary surveillance for the sake of it, …you have a chip on your shoulder and suffer from paranoia.:flushed: :joy:)

Still singing and dancing btw :joy:

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