Garages and dashcams
 

I'm sure that many of you will be aware that a lot of garages do not like dashcams. For example, my local MOT station always asks me to turn it off.
For the past few weeks I have been meaning to check my dashcam as I've not actually noticed its tell-tale bleep but to be honest, one gets so used to it, it's easy to forget. Anyway, when I got home tonight I suddenly remembered to check it. Unplugged with the plug sitting on top. I have the last footage. Unplugged and left that way by Ford main dealer when the gearbox was serviced six weeks ago.

Our mot stations state quite clearly 'no photography and without speaking when I arrive, they gesture at mine to make sure they're off. It as a garage is too, private property, you must seek permission to photograph and video anyway.

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Quite right too. You are taking a car onto a private property and to film the occupants would be a case of true invasion of privacy.

If you wish to video on the premises, this should be requested when booking the car in and the proprietor can agree or you can take your business elsewhere.

I’m another fan of dash cams being turned off when not needed,as in not on the road. If you don’t trust the garage then don’t use them. A dash cam can video the interior layout of equipment in the workshop as well as toolbox locations. Also, if a tech is talking to another tech it’s a private conversation, not intended to be secretly video’d without permission.

I am very well aware of the legal standpoint. My point is that a customer should be advised to A: turn off dashcams or B: Be advised if a dashcam has been turned off.

Or disconnect it yourself before taking it in and therefore reconnecting it yourself before you drive away ;) Not all dashcams are obviously visible

Correct but with the best will in the world it is easy to overlook these things when you have been running a dashcam for a lot of years. I always turn it off myself at mot time or other instances. My whole point is that if a garage turns it off then the customer should be advised of such action or asked if a dashcam is in use when booked in and advised to disable it.

I’ve no objection to garages turning off my dash cam but if they do they should at least have the courtesy of switching it back on.
Having said that when my Jaguar XF was in for service and MOT it was road tested twice, on one occasion the driver pulled up st the side of the road for approx 10 minutes.
I now disconnect mine as it being a Nextbase it simply unclips from the mag mount so does not intrude to the service personnel.

Mine too is a nextbase but on a stealthmount and clearly visible. I have no objection at all to it being turned off but as already stated, the customer should be advised. We are not talking about a change of seat position or radio station here. It is an important item of equipment.
My post was simply to raise awareness of the issue and that is, it's very easy to forget about ones dashcam to the extent that it's left on when going into a garage and you could be driving around without it oblivious to the fact. Life gets busy and sometimes stressful, priorities can put your dashcam way down the list until some numpty crashes into you and you discover the plug hanging out. There must be plenty of members that are on the ball 100% of the time, never overlook or forget anything. For them, this thread is redundant.

My Mot station couldn't give a flying fig about dashcams.

You could stand there with a full film crew and it wouldn't phase him LOL