30 years ago, I knew some long-haul truck drivers.They all loved their jobs. On the road for days at a time, nobody looking over their shoulders.(maybe just a call to their dispatcher once a day.)
They loved the independence and freedom of their jobs.They called themselves the cowboys of the 20th century. They chatted a lot on their CB radios, and had a real esprit de corps with their buddies.
But today, with cell phones, bar-code checks and GPS monitors tracking every move–how have things changed?
(mods–I put this in GQ because I want serious answers about the technical changes. If the thread drifts towards IMHO, move it)
IANATD but my wife’s family owns a trucking company. They have not installed any technological devices in the trucks yet because they don’t see a pressing need. The drivers all have cell phones so they can be reached.
I was hired to implement a web based system last year to track trucks for a major retailer with 2000+ stores. That system tracks every transaction and stop along the way and compiles it into a database for all time.
There is software that allows real-time GPS for all trucks to be pulled up on a map in a web browser. I haven’t seen anyone that wanted that yet. They can just call their drivers if they want to know what is going on.
I say that the cell phone is by far the biggest impact on truck drivers. The other stuff is cool but of limited use and impact to drivers. Most companies don’t have a desire to micromanage their trucks in the ways that technology now allows. My wife’s company has had trucks go missing for two days or more in the past. The driver usually got into some kind of trouble or went to see a girlfriend. The system would be useful then but not really on a day-to-day basis. Those types of systems also require time on the management end to monitor them and most simply don’t want to or understands the benefit.
I am not a trucker, but how about satellite radio? There are huge areas of the US where radio reception is non existant or limited to a few AM channels.
Is Qualcomm still the popular thing for dispatcher-to-truck communications?
A few years back, I worked for the largest US food wholesaler, and we had lots of trucks on the road.
They were retrofitting a computer unit into the over-the-road trucks which recorded info onto a floppy disk. When the drivers got back to the terminal, they took that floppy disk from the truck cab and plugged it into a PC in the driver’s room. It had all kinds of information on the truck & engine performance, which was forwarded to the maintenance crew. Based on this, the garage would sometimes pull a truck out of service to do repairs, before any driver had ever noticed a problem. The company expected to save a lot of money just on maintenance costs, to say nothing about avoiding breakdowns of trucks carrying perishable groceries thru a North Dakota winter.
This floppy disk also contained info that would automatically produce much of the needed paperwork for the drivers ICC Log Book. That was the benefit for the driver from using this.
This unit did record a lot of information that could have been used to Big Brother the drivers. One Supervisor did this; the records showed that everytime he drove a certain route, a particular driver stopped for an hour in one small town, leaving the truck idling. Checking up showed that he happened to have a mistress there, whom he would visit when driving that route. When the Supervisor tried to reprimand the driver for this, it caused a major stink, system-wide. Drivers all across the company, and their union, objected very strongly. And the driver concerned pointed out that: it was during his lunch hour, he was still meeting his delivery schedule, so it was none of their business.
Eventually, company management had to step in and state that this was not authorized, and reassure the drivers that the equipment would not be used to monitor their performance. I think the union asked for specific language on this in the next contract. Otherwise the company would have faced drivers refusing to use the units. Besides, the good Supervisors knew which drivers were performing up to spec without such tactics.