Data Driven, Karen Levy
Data Driven, Karen Levy
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Data Driven
Truckers, Technology, and the New Workplace Surveillance

Author: Karen Levy

Narrator: Randye Kaye

Unabridged: 7 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ascent Audio

Published: 12/06/2022


Synopsis

A behind-the-scenes look at how digital surveillance is affecting the trucking way of life.

Long-haul truckers are the backbone of the American economy, transporting goods under grueling conditions and immense economic pressure. Truckers have long valued the independence of their work, sharing a strong occupational identity rooted in a tradition of autonomy. Yet these workers increasingly find themselves under many watchful eyes. Data Driven examines how digital surveillance is upending life and work on the open road, and raises crucial questions about the role of data collection in broader systems of social control.

Karen Levy takes listeners inside a world few ever see, painting a bracing portrait of one of the last great American frontiers. Federal regulations now require truckers to buy and install digital monitors that capture data about their locations and behaviors. Intended to address the pervasive problem of trucker fatigue by regulating the number of hours driven each day, these devices support additional surveillance by trucking firms and other companies. Traveling from industry trade shows to law offices and truck-stop bars, Levy reveals how these invasive technologies are reconfiguring industry relationships and providing new tools for managerial and legal control—and how truckers are challenging and resisting them.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Selena on June 05, 2024

A book fit for a TO queen??!!! One of my majors in college was Logistics, and I was there during the height of the ELD mandate implementation, so I heard a LOT about this. Every company that would come in for a class visit would talk to us about it - sometimes about how they weren’t personally concer......more

Goodreads review by Abhishek on January 08, 2023

The author makes critical and important points about the state of trucking and it’s unfair structure towards drivers, but using the ELD vs newer technologies such as driver monitoring systems as the source of digital surveillance makes the entire narrative seem outdated in 2022/2023.......more

Goodreads review by Joe on August 15, 2024

A really interesting overview of some of the history of trucking, its regulations, current challenges and the attempts to fix them. While deep in its investigation, the book is sometimes shallow in its observations and conclusions. The introductory chapter basically is a summary of the entire book,......more

Goodreads review by Bianca on May 18, 2023

I found out about this book from an ad in the Atlantic. It was amazing - the grasping storytelling and simultaneously the well-researched facts will give you a great overview of truck drivers‘ life in the USA (imho more similar than I had expected to the situation in Europe). The author adapted her P......more

Goodreads review by Rob on August 11, 2023

Majorly enjoyed the first chapters as a lay reader. Understanding the economics of trucking and the unintended consequences of workplace surveillance was illuminating -- it's such an important part of our economy that it seems like it's in the realm of 'things every informed citizen should know.' It......more