Driver-facing cameras – this it appears is a big issue, with the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) releasing a large report on the topic in April.
Driver-facing cameras generally use the same video and storage components as road-facing cameras but are turned inward to view the interior of the cab, with an emphasis on capturing truck driver activities and behaviors.
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From the survey, current users of DFCs rated on average approval of DFCs at 2.24 on a scale of 1 to 10 – very low. The bottom line is driver’s don’t like DFCs.
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The primary objective of DFCs is to capture behaviors that might create safety risks, as well as to corroborate that risky behaviors are not occurring – thus exonerating the driver when safety critical events or crashes occur. DFCs are almost always integrated with RFCs; only in limited instances such as driver fatigue research have DFC-only cameras been installed and used.
The report says that it is important to note that several DFC systems continuously monitor the driver and cab but only capture and distribute to carriers video events that are noteworthy from a safety standpoint. Based on this policy, these systems can be considered event-based from a carrier perspective.
A small percentage of DFCs provide a live-streaming functionality, whereby a person outside of the truck can log in to a computer and see the truck driver in real-time. Based on truck driver survey comments, truck drivers appear to believe that live-streaming capabilities are more common than they are, based on anecdotal DFC vendor information. This for many is surely associated with concerns about being spied on while working.
ATRI finds that amazingly there are more than three dozen providers of in-cab camera systems in North America. As such, there are a wide variety of subscription models, recording formats and camera policies currently in use. The Berg Insight market research report estimated that 2.9 million active video telematics systems were in use in North America in 2021, with numbers projected to exceed 3,960,000 by 2023.
As to benefits, ATRI cited research of two carrier’s trialing DFCs which found that safety critical events dropped from the baseline phase to intervention phase by 37.0 percent for Carrier A and by 52.2 percent for Carrier B. 13 The research suggests that the primary safety benefit of in-cab cameras is the driver intervention and corrective training based on video footage.
Another vendor-sponsored study found that in-cab cameras, when combined with corrective truck driver training, could reduce truck- and bus-involved fatalities by 801 annually; and prevent 25,007 truck and bus injury crashes annually.
“While additional research on the safety impacts of different in-cab camera systems and policies is still needed, these findings indicate that in-cab cameras have a strong potential to reduce roadway incidents when deployed effectively,” the report notes.
But many drivers are worried about DFCs. For example, on an ATRI driver survey, several truck drivers stipulated that, with enough footage, a plaintiff attorney will always find some minor driver issue or behavior to fault; they fear that DFCs provide plaintiffs with more material that can be presented negatively to a jury even if there is no substantial evidence of driver negligence or error.
From the survey, current users of DFCs rated on average approval of DFCs at 2.24 on a scale of 1 to 10 – very low. Non-users score it even lower, at 0.96 on the same scale. Ratings for areas like privacy and safety benefits were similarly low. The bottom line is driver’s don’t like DFCs.
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In terms of the impact on accident-related litigation, ATRI says that the legal the benefit of DFC footage in litigation is that, in many cases, it can provide clear evidence of whether or not the driver was negligent – failing to behave with the level of care of a reasonable person under the circumstances. Legal expert respondents estimated that DFC footage helps exonerate commercial truck drivers in 49 percent of cases and substantiates truck driver negligence in 39 percent of cases.
The report concludes with a series of recommendations in such areas as dealing with driver acceptance of DFCs, legal matters, and more. It also notes carriers and fleets that choose not to deploy DFCs need to take several actions to protect themselves against liability claims for accidents that might have been avoidable through DFC-driven training.
The full long report is available here: Issues and Opportunities with Driver-Facing Cameras
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