Karis (@lilmoonhead), a UPS driver in South Carolina, joked but also made no bones about the whispering going on in her workplace. In a viral TikTok, she slammed rumors that UPS was installing monitors in the back of its delivery trucks, while her union did nothing about it.
“Better start counting your days,” she warns the company, before cutting to the raw indignity of the situation. “I have nothing to hide, except my white booty, and I spend all day peeing in my cup.”
UPS driver exposes camera rumors
Peeing in a cup is no exaggeration. It represents industry shorthand for a workforce that transcends the constraints of routing, bathroom use and basic dignity. Now the company may add cameras to the equation, Kalis said.
“I’ll be damned if these rumors are correct,” she said. “The league has failed us.”
The rumors are not unfounded. UPS has been quietly installing Lytx DriveCam systems on its package trucks since at least 2020, initially at centers in Oklahoma and Texas. The devices have dual sensors – one facing the road and one facing the driver – and can record video and audio from inside the truck. They can even transmit live footage to management.
What about a truck driver agreement?
The 2023 UPS-Teamsters national master agreement, billed as a historic victory, stipulates that vehicles may not be equipped with built-in cameras. During the negotiations, Teamsters president Sean O’Brien claimed that UPS could not use data from any type of technology to constrain drivers. But UPS apparently circumvented this ban through linguistic/legal means by classifying the inward-facing components as “sensors” rather than cameras.
As The New Republic reported last summer, surveillance equipment extends far beyond cameras. A driver in Long Island, New York, told the magazine that a sip of water can trigger a distracted driving alert. Another driver outside Orlando, Florida, recalled being summoned to the supervisor’s office at a delivery address the day before and missing for up to two minutes, his boss pinpointing his movements to the second.
Peanut Gallery responds to UPS truck camera rumors
“wait [they] Can you afford a camera but not an air conditioner? ” one person joked.
Many pointed to a lack of union support. “The current unions are really failing, I’m a truck driver and they are totally useless,” one user wrote.
Responding to the statement that unions don’t work, another said they need to look at the big picture. “Free medical care and six figures? Just because every blade of grass isn’t green doesn’t mean the entire lawn [doesn’t look] [expletive] Very good,” they commented.
Eyes on the road, eyes on you
Until recently, the camera issue had been simmering since the 2023 contract fight, when “Salaries go up, cameras go off!” became a rallying cry. But now drivers like Karis say their workers are putting them in a difficult position. One woman claims that UPS may be installing tiny cameras in “vents” and recording them without the driver’s knowledge. “They’re looking for us,” she warned.
For the average truck driver, the gap between promise and delivery keeps widening — one “sensor” at a time.
AllHipHop reached out to Karis via TikTok private messages and comments. It also sends emails to UPS and Teamsters Local 509, covering most of South Carolina. We will update this story if either party responds.
@lilmoonhead13 #fyp #trendin #follow ♬ Original Sound – Karis Alexandra
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