Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Driver facing cameras: We don't have them, but even rumors about us getting them causes drivers to look for other jobs.
Most generally, "safety scores" generated by the on-board ELD that penalizes for things like speeding (mostly problematic on not always correctly mapped rural roads), harsh braking, following too closely (This one can be a pain in major cities.), etc. The company recently tightened up the guidelines without notice, applied them retroactively (much to the chagrin of operations), and cost a bunch of drivers their quarterly safety bonuses.
Thirdly, collision avoidance/lane departure tech on company trucks. Apparently these have a false trigger rate somewhere above zero. Of course, most of the drivers I hear from wish we'd go back to manual transmissions (I guess the ones who don't care/like the automatics aren't as vocal about it, but our drivers are also a fairly old bunch for the most part.).
Finally, I don't think drivers are seriously opposed to ELDs as a concept, but many of them have trouble working with the (rather bug prone, in my experience) tablets.
I wouldn't dismiss their concerns so quickly. The collision-avoidance "feature" on my Mitsubishi Mirage (just a beeping/flashing warning, not a newfangled one that brakes automatically) had something like one false positive per hour on the six-hour drive that I took earlier today (taking a non-Interstate scenic route, so maybe less relevant for truckers).
Honestly, I suspect that the drivers are right, and if it were up to me we'd buy manual transmissions and as little of that stuff as can be ordered. The non-safety electronics on these trucks are frequently unreliable trash, so why would the safety systems be any better? I say this as one of our brand new trucks with 30K miles on it randomly went into derate or something and had a sudden and complete loss of power going 65 miles an hour down the road this afternoon and is now dead on the side of the road waiting for a tow.
On a more broad perspective (including auto safety), I do find it discouraging that all this expensive technology has accomplished precisely nothing in terms of safety (at best, enabling keeping a worse class of driver on the road; I suppose one could argue that we'd have even more deaths without the new tech given the current state of drivers).
Speaking for myself, the only safety device I appreciate on newer cars is the backup cameras (They really do make parking a pickup truck easier.), and even that's compensating for the fact that cars are built like tanks these days with frequently poor outward visibility.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link