‘Data Driven’ explores use of Big Brother in trucking

Speaking in opposition to a proposal that would require electronic IDs on commercial motor vehicles, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association said it was another example of the government trying to play “Big Brother.”

“OOIDA does not support the erosion of privacy, nor the destruction of identity through surveillance and control,” the Association wrote in comments filed in November. “To ask for more surveillance and control in the name of safety on our highways is to venture into what George Orwell would call ‘doublespeak.’ The term ‘Big Brother’ has come to signify government control of and intrusion into truckers’ individual lives.”

OOIDA is not alone when it comes to concerns over intrusion into the lives of truck drivers.

 “Data Driven,” a new book authored by Karen Levy, examines how digital surveillance is affecting our nation’s truck drivers.

Levy, an assistant professor in the Department of Information Science at Cornell University, recently spoke with Land Line Media’s Scott Thompson about the book and the increased use of workplace surveillance in trucking.

The inspiration for the book was sparked by the trucking industry’s mandated transition from paper logs to electronic logging devices to track a driver’s hours of service. Levy also said that the technological intrusions into the lives of truckers could serve as an indication to what’s coming for the general public.

“A lot of different workplaces are being surveilled in ways they weren’t 10 or 20 years ago,” Levy told Land Line. “The degree of technology that we have that enables people to sense what other people are doing – camera systems, biometrics, keystroke trackers that track what you are typing. Lots of professions are being subjected to this sort of stuff now, but truckers are really an interesting case of it and they are kind of a canary in the coal mine for what a lot of folks should be expecting.”

No more independence

Ironically, Levy said many truck drivers told her that they entered the profession because they liked the idea of being on their own and not having anyone looking over their shoulder while they do their job. Now, many truckers live in a world where they are required to use driver-facing cameras, ELDs and equipment that decides how fast they can go and when the brakes are applied.

“They wanted to do their work safely and professionally, but they wanted to do it in ways where they weren’t being treated like a child or like a criminal – not trusted to know their own body or know their own limitations,” Levy said. “One of the reasons this technology is so interesting to me is that it just flies in the face of this professional identity and culture in trucking that has been built for decades. So it’s been interesting to understand the technology legally … but also culturally – what it means to truckers to be joined in the cab by this technology that is tracking some pretty intimate information about their body and their behavior in ways that are so counter to what the culture of the industry has looked like for such a long time.”

Has safety improved?

The argument for the need of ELDs outweighing the privacy concerns could be made if the data showed a demonstrable improvement in highway safety, Levy said. However, the stats don’t indicate that ELDs are doing anything to decrease crashes. Full enforcement of the electronic logging device mandate began in 2018.Since 2017, fatality crashes have risen by 14.5%.

“There isn’t even that demonstrated safety benefit from ELDs,” Levy said. “There have been rigorous studies showing that truck crashes have gone up since the ELD mandate and that speeding has gone up. People have to compensate for the rigidity of the technological enforcement by looking for other ways to make up time. And that is all going on in the absence of regulations for things like detention time, which are the real drivers of fatigue in the industry.”

She added that one of the problems with the increased use of technology is that it often takes a Band-Aid approach rather than addressing the real problems.

“The professed reason for using this technology is safety, but if you look at where the real safety problems are in the industry … those aren’t the things that are being regulated,” Levy said. “We’re regulating down. We’re not regulating the folks who really have the power to make some systemic changes in the industry. We’re not changing how drivers are paid. We’re not really dealing with anything involving the root causes of fatigue in the industry.”

FMCSA’s reliance on technology doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon. In recent months, the agency has made proposals to mandate speed limiters and electronic IDs and is considering the idea of requiring older trucks to use ELDs. LL