Working in the transportation industry requires long hours behind the wheel. If you’ve spent any time on the road, you’ll know that near accidents are common and plentiful.
What many people don’t understand is that driving a HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicle) or a lorry (British term), any mistake can be exponentially disastrous. Heavy trucks cannot maneuver as quickly because they are often carrying several tons of goods.
With less nimbleness, truck drivers have to be proactive and think several steps ahead.
Having a dash cam can be beneficial to an HGV driver as it can be an unbiased road perspective that can be used for law enforcements, insurance claims or even your company. No more baseless accusations as you know have video footage proof of your surrounding vehicle.
Keep reading so you know what features the best dash cam for truckers need to be.
Dash Cam Benefits
Accidents
The most useful benefit a dash cam has for a trucker is that it is able to record the road, and thus, record any accidents.
Dash cams have several features that make capturing footage easier and safer so you can remain confident with the device. Loop Recording, is standard on all modern cameras that will allow video recording to continue even if your SD card is full. It will overwrite the latest footage in order to make space for the new footage. Keep in mind that those who operate lorries or HGVs will often be driving for long periods of time. Having a large SD card, 128GB or larger, will ensure that you capture multiple days of driving.
When a truck experiences a crash of some sort, a dash cam’s G-Sensor will measure sudden acceleration or deceleration and if detected, will record and save footage of an accident. If triggered, the G-Sensor will put the recent footage into a separate folder, inaccessible to Loop Recording, or being overwritten.
Parked Car
Truckers are often by their vehicle most of the time, but there are times where you cannot be present. Whether it be a bathroom or food break, or even if you are sleeping overnight at a hotel, you’ll want to rest easy that your truck load is secure.
Parking Mode is a must-have feature if you feel your vehicle may be vulnerable to vandalism or theft. You are in part responsible for the hundred of thousands of dollars that your vehicle carries.
Parking mode will trigger a dash cam recording, or continuously record any time you are away from the vehicle. The dash cam will detect vibrations, shocks to the vehicle or even motion outside. Night time and parked vehicles go hand-in-hand so ensuring that a parked car has proper night vision is crucial. Dash cams that have a lower aperture or infrared lights can help improve video quality.
GPS
Dash cams that include GPS attach metrics such as routes, speed and timestamps to the video footage. This would be useful for those who own a fleet of HGVs or for the individual driver. Being able to retrace one’s steps can be very useful when measuring performance. GPS data will also alert you on if your truck is following the speed limits. The best dash cams will usually include both WiFi and built in GPS in their features.
Dash Cam Considerations for HGV
Number of Cameras
Normal consumer vehicles like sedans or passenger vans have an easier time deciding how many dash cams they want for their car. HGV and trucks don’t and have to think methodically.
Larger vehicles have a lot more areas to cover due to their size and it’s up to you to determine which angle is the most important. Obviously, 1-Channel dash cams are an option. These are easy to mount and will face forward. Most of the incidents occur in front as cars are either suddenly braking or cutting you off to switch lanes. The front is where you as a truck driver have the most control.
2-CH or otherwise known as dual dash cams have an additional camera available. Most folks have this setup in a front and rear arrangement with the rear facing backwards. For lorries and other larger vehicles, you can place this on the top center of your vehicle in the rear. That being said, you can place the additional camera anywhere else.
3-CH or multi-camera setups are ones that have 3 or more total cameras. With cameras facing the front and the rear, you could place the additional cameras on the sides, which could capture what happens when you make sharp turns. There’s a smaller use case for a cabin facing camera, but that is always available if you feel the need to record inside your vehicle.
The number of cameras will determine the best dash cam for truckers or those who Heavy Goods Vehicles.
Weather Proofing
Any cameras that sit outside of your vehicle need to be waterproof and weather proof. You want to be looking for IP69 rated cameras. Since dash cams are made for consumer vehicles, many of those cars don’t have the need to mount on the outside. As an example, the rear camera could be mounted in the rear window.
Trucks don’t have rear windows, so external mounting is necessary. The best dash cams for truckers have some sort of waterproof aspect to them.
Wired or Wireless
Cable management can be tough because your vehicle could be longer than typical cables can reach. I would say the standard length is about 20 feet or 6 meters. Also note that proper cable management will have the wire hidden behind panels and hug the truck wall which may necessitate a longer length. Be sure to check the cable length!
Alternatively if a wired solution isn’t viable, you may want to explore wireless dash cam options. These wireless options are entirely wireless as they need to be hooked into an additional power source, but they output video signal wirelessly into your main dash cam. An example of a power source would be wires that power the rear brake lights.
As you add more cameras to your setup, think about all of the wires that will be routed to your dash cam if you choose a wired system.
Rove R2- 4K Dash Cam
Pros
- Single Channel Solution
- 4k Resolution at 24FPS
- Built-in WiFi and GPS
Cons
- Lacks additional angles
The Rove R2 is a single channel 4K dash cam that is an extremely popular choice. And for good reason, too. The Rove R2 packs so many features into the dash cam that if you are looking for a single channel system, this is it. I mentioned this only has a front facing camera. The majority of accidents occur in this manner, but you will have to sacrifice other angles.
The R2 films in 4K resolution at 24 FPS, though you can opt for 1080p with a higher frame rate. In terms of the video quality, we highly recommend this setup. It has a lens that has an aperture of F/1.8 which is superb in terms of night vision, perfect for those long drives at night.
In terms of ease of use, it does have built-in GPS and WiFi, accessible through your smartphone. You can review, download or share footage easily. GPS data is also useful if you ever need to recall a route or a location at a specific time.
The Rove comes with a 2.4″ LCD screen. As far as the overall form factor, this is a fairly small setup so it won’t get in your way. It includes all the other standard features like loop recording, G-sensor and parking mode. We highly recommend this dash cam if you are looking for an easy to set up, one channel solution.
CHORTAU Dual Dash Cam
Pros
- Inexpensive
- Waterproof rear camera
- Small form factor
Cons
- Wire length may not be sufficient
Moving onto 2CH or 2-channel dash cams, we have the CHORTAU Dual Dash Cam. This setup is an exceptionally less expensive solution to even the previous single channel camera, but don’t let that fool you. This is a 1080p Full HD camera system with it being front and rear.
The CHORTAU offers a waterproof rear camera that can be mounted on the exterior of your vehicle. This is perfect for vehicles that don’t have a rear window but want rear coverage.
With the rear covered, you’ll also be glad to know that both the front and rear cameras are built with infrared sensors, to help with clear night vision. Additionally, the front lens has a wide angle lens of 170 degrees, to ensure coverage across a truck’s entire point of view.
The rear camera does have a cord that is needed to power the camera, but CHORTAU offers a solution if you car’s total length is over 21 feet, email them! They would be happy to work with you to include an extension cord to reach your ideal destination.
While this dash cam doesn’t include features like WiFi or built-in GPS, it does provide a solid 1080p camera at an unbelievable price with a weatherproofed rear camera.
Fookoo 1080P Wireless Backup Camera System
Pros
- Four 1080p Full HD Cameras
- Waterproof Cameras – IP69 rated
- Large 7″ HD Screen
Cons
- Doesn’t include G-Sensor
For those who are looking for the ultimate setup, you’ll want to take a look at the Fookoo Full HD 1080p Camera System. This is a quad channel, yes, 4-CH solution for your HGV needs. This isn’t your typical dash cam, it’s more geared towards being a backup camera system, but it has similar features, so why not use it for multiple purposes?
It has a DVR feature, which signifies that it does recording and not only that, it also does loop recording, ensuring that the SD card never runs out of space.
In this system, this includes 4 cameras that are all 1080p and are IP69-rated (waterproof). They all include infrared lights to help illuminate low light situations. One great feature about these 4 cameras is that they all wirelessly communicate back to the main unit. So no need to deal with routing cables across your entire truck, but do keep in mind these cameras need to be hooked up to power.
You can imagine mounting these cameras all over your truck so all sides are fully covered by a camera.
As this was primarily designed as a backup camera system, you’ll see that it also has parking assistance which draws lines on the large 7″ HD Screen. If you are looking for the best dash cam for truckers, the Fookoo is tailored made for you.
VAVA Dual Dash Cam
Pros
- Front and Cabin Facing Cameras
- Internal Battery for Parking Mode
- Infrared Sensors
Cons
- No rear camera
This last option is for those who want to have the ability to record inside the cabin. The VAVA Dual Dash Cam is a front and cabin facing dash cam that comes as one device. It shoots in 2K/1080P at 30 FPS.
Like other options, this does come with WiFi and GPS and all accessible through the VAVA smartphone app, which is very easy to navigate.
The cabin camera does have infrared which gives great night vision no matter the circumstance. Video quality for both front and cabin sensors is superb as they use Sony Sensors.
One neat feature is that the VAVA has a built-in internal battery, which will power on the device when the vehicle is off and you are away. The VAVA dash cam will continually monitor the surrounding area with its parking mode and will ensure any accidents are recorded.