Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/339482
22 | Overdrive | July 2014 How truck-based cameras are capturing evidence that affects safety and privacy on the road BY TODD DILLS Video witnesses Most truck cameras are road-facing, installed by fleets or owner-operators. Some fleets install dual technology, adding a lens trained on the driver. I ndependent Brad Willis paid for a forward-facing video camera system in his Freightliner Co- lumbia. He runs it continuously so it will record safety events, but he's more interested in the $150 system for other reasons. Willis wanted to stave off theft incidents – "antennas stolen off of my truck in broad daylight," for instance – and capture other vehicles' behavior. "I have been backed into by other truck drivers," he says. Perhaps due to the camera's visibility in the windshield, "nothing has been touched [by thieves] on my truck since installing it." Fleets have similar interests in truck cameras, but Prime Inc. Safety Director Steve Field says they amount to just 1 percent of the potential benefits of systems that not only record the road ahead but the driver inside as well. The other benefits, Field says, lie in the expanded ability to coach drivers "and prevent accidents. If we all stay fo- cused on that, a driver who's being hon- Video_Cameras.indd 22 6/26/14 9:53 PM