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SAIA | DriveCam ... By Lytx

othertrucker2001 said:
You do have valid points in your post, no doubt. But we are talking about corporate america here. Can't have anything but the best and everyone knows a college degree outweighs trick driving skills. I am truly surprised that trick driving doesn't require some type of degree from something other than a TD school.
My mind is brought back to a job I had many years ago. My dispatcher told me he had ordered 24 new International trucks. One was to be mine. When they came in, they had no 5th wheels. I asked why and he said he didn't see the need for the extra wheel as we had tire accounts all over the US. They promoted him to the safety department.
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That story is hilarious. Sounds about as silly as the time my terminal manager at Con-Way tried telling me I shouldn't back the tractor under my trailer at an angle because it would make the trailer dog-track. Thankfully that idiot didn't last too long.

You definitely can't make up crap this stupid.
 
othertrucker2001 said:
You do have valid points in your post, no doubt. But we are talking about corporate america here. Can't have anything but the best and everyone knows a college degree outweighs trick driving skills. I am truly surprised that trick driving doesn't require some type of degree from something other than a TD school.
My mind is brought back to a job I had many years ago. My dispatcher told me he had ordered 24 new International trucks. One was to be mine. When they came in, they had no 5th wheels. I asked why and he said he didn't see the need for the extra wheel as we had tire accounts all over the US. They promoted him to the safety department.
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He also bragged about his 7 years of experience in the transportation industry. I asked where an what he did before this job. He said he was was a waiter in the dining car on a train. My response was, "Why aren't you a brain surgeon after seven years of college?
 
PistonRing83 said:
I had expectations of us catching up to OD very quickly, but Saia has now set themselves apart from OD with their quest for micromanagment in the name of safety. OD didn't get to be as big as it did by treating their drivers as liabilities and hen-pecking them with a continuous stream of coaching. Quite the opposite: they achieved the reputation of being the most driver friendly LTL carriers in the country by not treating their drivers like schoolchildren that need to be babysat.

The huge difference between these cultures is the fact that in order to become a safety manager at Old Dominion, you are required to possess a CDL and have driving experience. What a concept! They actually expect the people training the employees to have experience in the area of what they are training! That's more than likely a completely foreign concept to anyone who started their driving career in the last 15 years.

I've met 3 of the safety managers here at Saia and I would lump them in the same category as the safety managers from the Con-Way days. Just another college educated desk jockey that thinks they are going to re-invent the wheel with the next big safety campaign.
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Can't speak for all safety guys but ours has experience behind the wheel. Our OM does everything dock related from switching trailers to driving forklifts and stripping trailers. Our regional VP still has his CDL. I guess things are different in the South. Maybe it's a southern thing after all SAIA was born in the South. Old Dominion is only a few major lawsuits away from implementing DriveCam IMO. I would bet no later than 2020 and probably much sooner. You can run but you can't hide unless you buy your own rig and even then big government over reach will probably get you. My bet is every major LTL company will have them by 2020. I will be retired and bailing hay in East Texas raising a few head of cattle watching it happen and I promise not to say I told you so.
 
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Smart 1 said:
I have no need to bait you my friend, the drivecam company won't spend the amount of money it cost to totally restructure there product. What I know doesn't effect the cam whatsoever, within a matter of 2 minutes at any given time, whether in motion or not, i can shut down, delete, reset & power up cam after any event, proven to work, so much so, i been selling for $125.00 for kit and instructions.
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Awesome

Please pm me the details
 
www.abcnews.go.com/US/cops-truck-driver-facebook-time-fatal-crash/story?id=20772843 Excuse the commercial. Don't let this be you. Put your phone down and do your job or you could be facing a murder charge. And you guys wonder why DriveCam is needed. The phone records would have got him if the DriveCam system didn't. So don't blame DriveCam. It won't save this companies liabilities but hopefully it will bring to light the problems cell phone usage are causing in our industry.
 
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runawaytrain said:
www.abcnews.go.com/US/cops-truck-driver-facebook-time-fatal-crash/story?id=20772843 Excuse the commercial. Don't let this be you. Put your phone down and do your job or you could be facing a murder charge. And you guys wonder why DriveCam is needed. The phone records would have got him if the DriveCam system didn't. So don't blame DriveCam. It won't save this companies liabilities but hopefully it will bring to light the problems cell phone usage are causing in our industry.
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd0KQv57Rq0
 
Smart 1 said:
No fear fellow drivers
I actually hold the key to manipulating the drivecam, I never had an event, even though i actually did, several times. The great thing is, theres no modifying or disabling the equipment and it still functions just as it is intended to do. I know there will be those in disbelief, but I have nothing to prove since i never get caught, no way the company can catch me, unless it's red handed. The company has field tested, sent off for inspection as well as replaced, and still can't figure out how i never get caught.
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Smart 1 said:
No fear fellow drivers
I actually hold the key to manipulating the drivecam, I never had an event, even though i actually did, several times. The great thing is, theres no modifying or disabling the equipment and it still functions just as it is intended to do. I know there will be those in disbelief, but I have nothing to prove since i never get caught, no way the company can catch me, unless it's red handed. The company has field tested, sent off for inspection as well as replaced, and still can't figure out how i never get caught.
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Help
 
PistonRing83 said:
I had expectations of us catching up to OD very quickly, but Saia has now set themselves apart from OD with their quest for micromanagment in the name of safety. OD didn't get to be as big as it did by treating their drivers as liabilities and hen-pecking them with a continuous stream of coaching. Quite the opposite: they achieved the reputation of being the most driver friendly LTL carriers in the country by not treating their drivers like schoolchildren that need to be babysat.

The huge difference between these cultures is the fact that in order to become a safety manager at Old Dominion, you are required to possess a CDL and have driving experience. What a concept! They actually expect the people training the employees to have experience in the area of what they are training! That's more than likely a completely foreign concept to anyone who started their driving career in the last 15 years.

I've met 3 of the safety managers here at Saia and I would lump them in the same category as the safety managers from the Con-Way days. Just another college educated desk jockey that thinks they are going to re-invent the wheel with the next big safety campaign.
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You're ahead of Old Dominion actually. You are paid overtime, and if I'm correct, you're going to receive company paid insurance at ten years of service.
 
Dick Dastardly said:
You're ahead of Old Dominion actually. You are paid overtime, and if I'm correct, you're going to receive company paid insurance at ten years of service.
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Those are about the only ways we are ahead of them, and the only reason we got OT after 45 to begin with was because of the union push that happened a few years ago.

OD expanded by leaps and bounds over the last 10-15 years, but they did it by focusing on the right things. The Congdons are very down to earth, common sense people and the driver friendly culture they have at OD has rewarded them with one of the lowest turnover rates in the LTL industry.

Saia on the other hand seems to have lost focus of what's important, and is more concerned with micromanaging their drivers and imposing ridiculous rules on them. Company morale is in the toilet.

It feels like they must have hired some of the corporate idiots away from the other LTL's and they are bringing their bad ideas with them. Fed-Ex and Con-Way come to mind. If managment doesn't do something to turn morale around, there's no chance this place will ever be as great as OD.
 
PistonRing83 said:
Those are about the only ways we are ahead of them, and the only reason we got OT after 45 to begin with was because of the union push that happened a few years ago.

OD expanded by leaps and bounds over the last 10-15 years, but they did it by focusing on the right things. The Congdons are very down to earth, common sense people and the driver friendly culture they have at OD has rewarded them with one of the lowest turnover rates in the LTL industry.

Saia on the other hand seems to have lost focus of what's important, and is more concerned with micromanaging their drivers and imposing ridiculous rules on them. Company morale is in the toilet.

It feels like they must have hired some of the corporate idiots away from the other LTL's and they are bringing their bad ideas with them. Fed-Ex and Con-Way come to mind. If managment doesn't do something to turn morale around, there's no chance this place will ever be as great as OD.
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As much as it pains me to say much of what you say is true. Morale is very low because of these cameras. What surprises me is the inconsistency in the sensitivity of these cameras. The retrofitted units aren't near as bad as the Freightliners. Hopefully they can dial back the Freightliners or I'm afraid the morale will start to tank.
 
PistonRing83 said:
Those are about the only ways we are ahead of them, and the only reason we got OT after 45 to begin with was because of the union push that happened a few years ago.

OD expanded by leaps and bounds over the last 10-15 years, but they did it by focusing on the right things. The Congdons are very down to earth, common sense people and the driver friendly culture they have at OD has rewarded them with one of the lowest turnover rates in the LTL industry.

Saia on the other hand seems to have lost focus of what's important, and is more concerned with micromanaging their drivers and imposing ridiculous rules on them. Company morale is in the toilet.

It feels like they must have hired some of the corporate idiots away from the other LTL's and they are bringing their bad ideas with them. Fed-Ex and Con-Way come to mind. If managment doesn't do something to turn morale around, there's no chance this place will ever be as great as OD.
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These cameras actually don't bother me because I have adapted to them very well. But as a whole it is becoming a problem. One of the biggest problems is drivers voices can't be heard. Upper level guys seem to be oblivious of how they are affecting morale. Turnover is starting to take place. They send out these post cards but that is not enough. They need to establish an open line of communication to let drivers become involved in some decision making regarding these cameras. They need spend more time in educating guys and reassuring them that these cameras aren't out to get them. They need to establish some guidelines in regards to how they are used in discipline. Are the coaching sessions in fact just a write up that will be used against them in the end ? These are questions many are just afraid to ask. Many guys just think that one day a manager will walk up and say that you have had to many coaching sessions and your fired. It doesn't work that way and they need to help drivers understand that. They need to spend more time in educating drivers or turnover will start to hurt the bottom line. Seasoned professional linehaul drivers are not easily replaced.
 
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runawaytrain said:
These cameras actually don't bother me because I have adapted to them very well. But as a whole it is becoming a problem. One of the biggest problems is drivers voices can't be heard. Upper level guys seem to be oblivious of how they are affecting morale. Turnover is starting to take place. They send out these post cards but that is not enough. They need to establish an open line of communication to let drivers become involved in some decision making regarding these cameras. They need spend more time in educating guys and reassuring them that these cameras aren't out to get them. They need to establish some guidelines in regards to how they are used in discipline. Are the coaching sessions in fact just a write up that will be used against them in the end ? These are questions many are just afraid to ask. Many guys just think that one day a manager will walk up and say that you have had to many coaching sessions and your fired. It doesn't work that way and they need to help drivers understand that. They need to spend more time in educating drivers or turnover will start to hurt the bottom line. Seasoned professional linehaul drivers are not easily replaced.
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I've adjusted to it as well, and have figured out that about 90% of camera events can be prevented by continuously turning off the lane departure system. That's easy for me because I did that anyway before the cameras even came around.

They still don't even have a majority of the trucks fitted with cameras yet, and just look at the ::shit:: storm it's already causing. It's going to get very bad here in the next couple months, I think. The sad thing is, they could reverse the Bluetooth/CB policy and put a stop to a majority of the bad blood right then and there, but unfortunately it seems that any kind of common sense is lost on managment at this point. I think they will run the ship aground before ever admitting that they could have possibly been wrong about any of this.
 
Having poor morale and high turnover in a well established company is one thing, but having those problems in a company that is not fully established and trying like hell to grow exponentially is a HUGE problem. OD understood that, Saia doesn't seem to.
 
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