LOGISTICS MONITOR
Let me open with a disclaimer: I am not a Luddite. Yes, I am not against the invasion of technology in the transport vertical, particularly in trucks. Yet, there is a lurking fear that the long-expressed angst of long-haul truck drivers about installing various monitoring gadgets to improve operational efficiency is not without merit.
A decade ago, when I began long-distance truck trips to understand truck drivers’ living and working conditions, they would boast of their cleverness in deceiving their maliks by masking the Global Positioning System (GPS) with a silver foil; so that they remain “untraceable”. Their line of argument was always: “Why does everyone want to know where I am minute by minute? Did we not mutually agree that the delivery would happen on the scheduled day?” They raised the “invasion of privacy” concerns in their driver-speak. Not that they are unaware of the advantages of GPS that ensure their safety from highway hooligans.
Like others, I was under the impression that such annoyance over the seamless monitoring of long-haul truck drivers using technology was an Indian narrative and firmly believed that drivers outside India nurse no such grudge. Such faulty notions went for a six to use the cricketing parlance.
It is a global phenomenon: nowhere do long-haul truck drivers cherish electronic surveillance. I keep hearing voices against such gadgetry tooling in the name of operational efficiency and or safety angle.
Recently, I stumbled upon this passage in the New York Times (1):
“Today, long haul truckers are some of the most closely monitored workers in the world. Cameras and sensors dot their trucks, watching the road, the brakes, and even the driver’s eye movements. Once, when his truck’s cabin heater broke, Mr. Knope (driver) was forced to sleep in freezing temperatures for several days while traveling across northern Ohio and New York because an automated system made sure his engine was turned off at night. The company told him there was no way to override the system,” writes Robin Kaiser-Schatzelin, a journalist about American economic life and culture.
Well, that is not the end of it. What Kaiser-Schatzelin writes subsequently hits at one’s solar plexus.
“Just imagine finishing 10 hours at a desk job, only to return to your apartment to find the heat didn’t work. That’d be quite frustrating. Then imagine your apartment was your office, and most nights, dinner was a microwaveable burrito or a bag of fast food. And then imagine your desk job require you regularly press a little pedal, you could not stand up, you had essentially no face-to-face contact with co-workers, and if a bathroom didn’t easily present itself, you were forced to use a plastic jug – all while a computer or person at a desk hundreds of miles away monitored your every move.”
Listen to Nancy Lyman from Australia: “Having a driver-cam recording what a driver does would be the same as installing cameras in all the Swift executives’ homes… A truck is our home, so they should treat it like one.” (2)
Some more technology-bashing:
“FedEx has been doing this for a while now, from what I’m told by their tractor trailer drivers. “Supposedly,” the cameras are only triggered by an erratic motion or “g force” event, whereas they want to know if the driver is on his phone, falling asleep, etc. The cameras are monitored by a 3rd party company, which then calls the driver’s company and explains that there may have been a safety violation. If that ever becomes part of my daily driving experience, I’ll be gone in a week or less. There is no place for big brother to watch me 24/7. You hired me to do a job. If you don’t trust me with your equipment, then find someone else, comments a trucker on the youtube vlogger Trucker Josh, who decries the camera inside the cabin as a bad business decision.” (3)
The tech brigade that discovered transportation as the new El Dorado expectedly goes gaga over their achievement. Supply chain visibility enhances overall operational efficiency is not disputed. The question is, why not monitor the 3PL army that is gaining currency post-Covid.
Recently there was a news report that a spouse killed her better half for checking her mobile phone, citing “invasion of privacy”.
Experience is the best teacher. How about implanting a sensor in all logistics and supply chain-related workforce to monitor them seamlessly? Folks, are you ready?
Technology is needed. Please don’t overdo it. Why? So long as long-haul truck drivers get a decent compensation from their owners with a safety net, such seamless monitoring will widen instead of riding the gap between drivers and fleet owners.
(Main/Featured picture by Pixabay has been used for illustrative purposes only)
[Also read by the same author: Cargo theft is nothing new! Silk Roads had their share too – THE NEWS PORTER]
Ref:
(1) “Why Truckers Are Rebelling,” The New York Times, March 20, 2022
(2) https://www.123loadboard.com/blog/tracking-truckers-safety-privacy/
(3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3BLcK5MOY0
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