we work in a world filled with devices
that can monitor us locate us and tell
us what to do and that raises the
question who watches you work and how
does work change when you know someone's
watching you do it there's one industry
that's asking that question more than
ever
trucking self-driving semi trucks
program followed routes from GPS systems
while the driver rests over time
automation will dramatically change work
for the 3.5 million truck drivers in
America but until then truckers are
going to be monitored and managed by
computers like never before and if you
want to know what happens when people
start to reject that kind of monitoring
here's what that looks like it's like
we're gonna ankle bracelet where you're
being tracked every move you make we are
against this law because this is ruining
our truckers life I want the government
to get out of the way I give you the
opportunity to be a success
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this is the Department of Transportation
during a week of trucker organized
demonstrations in October 2017 they're
here protesting these things called
electronic logging devices or al these
what these are are
they're protesting these things Kali
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these are computers that go inside a car
hook up to the cars engine and monitor
location driving status how fast a car
is going and basically report that
information back to an employer they
also manage a drivers workday based on a
strict schedule designed by the Federal
Motor Carrier Safety Administration to
limit driver fatigue truckers can drive
for a maximum of 11 hours per day but
they have to take a 30-minute break
somewhere in between they can work an
additional three non driving hours but
have to take a 10 hour break before they
can start driving again as of December
2017 these devices are mandatory in all
trucks across the country oftentimes
when we talk about automation and
trucking in another workplace context
there's a big concern about massive like
a massive spike in unemployment but
oftentimes the way this gets discussed
is that it's like human human human
robot and you see a big spike in
unemployment and what I think is is more
realistic if that like the curve is more
gradual right so you do see robots
starting to get integrated into the work
but in not in this sudden way that
invites this kind of interesting
question which is like well what happens
along the curve and the answer is that
you're going to see more integration
between machine machines carrying out
some part of the job and humans carrying
out some part of the job truckers across
the u.s. have been preparing for the
first big step on that curve working
alongside ALDS this is the LD Ryan
talking about the Ald mandate
transitioning everyone into the eld Eve
now but the one-size-fits-all schedule
that this device imposes is not new the
strict breakdown of driving non driving
and sleeping time has been used in one
form or another since 1938 the longer
drivers go without a break the higher
the rate of fatigue related accidents so
the system was designed to limit a
truckers driving time to fit natural
sleep patterns so this is kind of
analog technology that the digital one
is supposed to replace but circumventing
those rules was quite common with paper
log books since they could be changed by
hand like if you sat down and looked at
this for five minutes you would figure
out how to falsify it if you needed to
right it's like pretty imprecise so ill
these aren't necessarily creating any
new rules but they're making the
existing ones a lot harder to break for
truckers paid by the mile that
translates into an intense pressure to
drive as much as they possibly can
within the eleven hour time limit they
can't pause without actively losing
money soon as you turn that key on in
the truck you're they're watching you if
you're tired you can't stop and take a
nap if you need to stop and you hit our
aggro construction a snowstorm your
hours are ticking many of the truckers
who protested in DC have near-perfect
safety records after driving millions of
miles over their careers and they're
doubtful that a device that tells them
how to structure their days will make
them any safer a 2014 report by the
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration found that drivers who
use DL DS had an eleven point seven
percent reduction in total crash rate
and a 5.1 percent reduction in
preventable crash rate but since only a
limited group of drivers were using a L
DS when the study was conducted it's
hard to know how representative those
safety numbers are a 2016 report by a
committee of the National Academies of
Sciences engineering and medicine stated
that there simply isn't enough data on
fatigue related crash rates more broadly
and argued that further research is
needed before changing the law that sets
drive time limits
we're not computers we don't have an off
button the thing this does do is it
forces you to get up and go if you're
tired it forces you to get up and go if
you don't feel good you do not have the
choice with this machine to drive like
we used to and it's not about running 24
hours a day it's about making a
common-sense decision on how you feel
how the road conditions are whether or
not you want to run through rush hour
etc etc etc one of the core complaints
about e l DS is that they don't
understand a trucker's body or the
context a trucker could be totally alert
and just 20 minutes away from home but
legally required to stop for 10 hours if
they ran out of
having time but ironically there's now a
growing market of technologies designed
to more accurately diagnose fatigue and
they are much more intrusive than TLDs
a company called smart cat makes hats
that measure brainwaves and gives you a
fatigue rating another called seeing
machines uses computer vision to watch a
drivers eyelids and in 2020 Mercedes
plans to release a vest that can detect
a driver heart attack and stop the truck
plenty of industries watch their
employees quite closely but trucking is
unique because a truck is both a
workplace and a home trucks are such
personal spaces because of the length of
time drivers are in them like some
drivers drive with their family as they
drive with their dogs right like they
have a bed there they eat their meals
there it is a different sort of
workplace than you know a convenience
store that you go to and then you go
home right like it is your home for for
a period of time and so privacy
invasions in that context I think are
felt in a more acute way than they might
be in some other industries it's hard to
see intrusive technologies slowing down
in trucking services like Amazon Prime
have made us accustomed to getting
deliveries incredibly fast and there's
an increasing consumer demand for
packaged location tracking all of that
requires truckers to work incredibly
fast while being monitored very closely
right that funny
I Drive around all I want in this pickup
as soon as I get up in that rig now I'm
some of these doggone prisoner in the
box I'm not a responsible individual
I serve this country who gives
on this trucker that's all I just
charter
dalek attention because of course
surveillance has been part of the
workplace since the inception of work
but at the same time it's a change
that's occurred in very large scale form
because of the capabilities of the new
technologies there's a scene from the
1936 movie modern times where Charlie
Chaplin's character takes a bathroom
break from his assembly line job but it
doesn't take long for a video monitor to
appear on screen within the
transportation industry improvements in
technology have turned parodies like
this it's a reality often times it is a
source of tremendous stress and it's one
of those stressors that doesn't just go
away people don't just get used to the
fact that they are being observed 24/7
we get really excited about technology
holding the promise for solving social
and economic problems and it it's like
it almost universally doesn't write or
it just like moves the problem a little
bit and the reason for that is because
like when you have a problem with deeper
roots than then technology the
technology ends up being like a band-aid
when you get out and meet actual
truckers they don't want to have to
drive excessive hours or put anyone in
danger on the road but they do want
people to understand that they get their
jobs done in different ways and the
surveillance technology doesn't always
account for that we are actually
fighting for the safety of everybody
that's on the highways everybody that's
on the road we're not fighting just to
run outlaw style oh how long's gone were
the American truckers and we're here to
provide everybody and keep
safe I think the issue here is that
there's a technical solution being
brought to bear on a problem that is not
technical like the problem here is that
drivers are overworked and they're not
paid for all their work right they're
severely underpaid trying to solve that
with a technical solution feels to me
incomplete so it's like putting the onus
for that problem on the people who are
most affected by it right have the least
power to change anyway
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