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There was an interesting post about inward facing cameras on Facebook. The poster was concerned about the camera, and was considering leaving her company. The next day she posted again. Apparently she had spoken with someone within her company. She got educated about how her company operates the camera and decided to stay.

I have an inward facing camera. At first, I rebelled. I gave serious consideration to leaving the company over it. Like the poster, I contacted the company management before quitting. As it says in the Faber College motto, KNOWLEDGE IS GOOD. My decision making is not as fast as it once was. It has become more deliberate. I tend to gather more information.

Get informed. There are different systems. They are capable of different things. Don't believe what you read on social media. Mine views the driver from the waist up. It does have view inside the sleeper. It can not be live viewed. Even the third parties can not do that. The camera is triggered by either an event of by the driver pressing a button. An event can be a collsion, a hard stop or pretty much anything that disturbs the camera. Mine has been triggered by a truck driving in front of me while I was parked in a truck stop. It is most often triggered when I have trouble hooking a trailer. The one actual accident that I had, did ot trigger the camera. A car slid throug a red light and hit the back of my trailer. I did not react to trigger the camera myself. It would have shown me going through the green light. Fortunately the other driver admitted going through the light and there were several witnesses.

The camera reveals the truth. We were shown a video of a driver who rolled a truck. Immediately before the crash the driver looked at his phone for a moment. The truck moved to the right as he did this. Unfortunately the road had a narrow shoulder and the truck rolled. Another video showed one of our drivers who was side swiped by a 4 wheeler. The outside camera clearly shows the car crossing the center line. It shows our driver reacting properly. The collsion cause a fuel tank leak and it was an expensive clean up. The car's insurance company had to pay for that.

Driving professionally usually negates safety technology. Safety technology teaches us. We learn that when you reach for something the truck tends to move in the direction that you are reaching. It sets off the lane departure warning system and that irritating noise. Don't reach for stuff. When we follow to close or drive aggresively, out collsion mitigation system is more apt to engage. Increase your following distance and it reduces interactions with your CMS. Same thing with the camera. Avoid doing things that trigger it. The technology makes for a safer driver, because it increases awareness of bad habits. Once you learn how safety technology works, it can make you a better, and safer driver. It can make you a safer driver because you strive to keep the technology inactive. Then it becomes the safety net that it is intended to be.

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Jeff Clark

Jeff Clark of Kewaunee, WI has been driving a truck for 24 years. He has been an owner operator for 11 years.

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