unloading of freight. How common is it to have to unload your truck?

Vicodin will cause you to fail the drug test.
Sometimes you might have to load or unload, very much depending.

 

Just how bad is your back ? Could you handle pulling fifth wheel handles and cranking bad dolly legs ?
If you can handle 3" hoses 20 feet long I'd suggest tanker .

 

Completely depends on where you get a job. Some jobs you unload more than drive, others you never touch anything. I've never unloaded a truck at my current employer.

 

OTR driving, the Vicodin will most likely make you an unqualified to drive, prescription or not. Carriers will not take the responsibility to let you drive whether your doctor says it's okay or not. Often a local driving job where you don't go more than 100 miles may let you, but that's up to them and your doctor. So yes you'll fail the DOT Physical Drug Test for a carrier.

That said, if your back is that bad, any company that puts you through their own doctor or a "skills test" will quickly find your back issue and disqualify you. You may be disqualified at the doctor's since you're required to disclose that information, and if the doctor feels it's bad enough without the Vicodin, they may fail you on it....before you even do the "skills test".

Now, to carriers that let you bring your own doctor's note, or even let you drive with a bad back that isn't debilitating, they may have contracts with companies for lumpers , or reimburse you, or advance you money for them. Don't drive without that knowledge. Local companies tend to have you unloading, so bear that in mind.

Good Luck

 

Vicodin will not cause you to fail the DOT mandated drug test. DOT tests for a different class of drugs, namely street drugs. Do a little research before uttering platitudes.

 

Actually he's correct. If the driver didn't have a prescription for the drug from the doctor (which he does), he would be failed. Here's why:

--emphasis added

It is one of the drugs the DOT test is for, and absent a doctor's prescription, he'll fail it.

Good Luck

 

You need to do some research before you make statements that are simply grossly uninformed while belittling someone who knows what they are talking about. I recommend you read the FMCSA before you attempt to impress anyone with your rumor and myth based knowledge. Vicodin, synthetic codeine, is a barbituate and, as such, is banned regardless if one has a prescription. What the urinalysis tests for is also in the Green Book. It's available online, wannabe.
Frank

To the original poster,
Driving a truck on our country's neglected highways can be at times violently uncomfortable. There is a stretch of I-20 westbound through Jackson, MS that will blur your eyesight with a curve that has a car pulled over with a shattered radiator every time I've gone through. I cannot imagine what it would be like with any kind of back pain problems. If you can get treatment to alleviate the back problem before you come back out it would be a good thing. I was hired to drive and I never load or unload. If I'm dispatched on a driver load/unload I always decline with, "This driver never loads/unloads." and have never had a problem from my company.
Frank

 

Adding emphasis doesn't make the statements correct. Vicodin is hydrocodone. Hydrocodone is a semi-synthetic opioid. Semi-synthetic opioids do not have the same metabolites as opium, morphine, codeine, or heroin.

The main metabolite of Vicodin/hydrocodone is hydromorphone. As stated in the following excerpt from SAMSHA/NIDA the opiate testing by the DOT is strictly limited to opiate metabolites. The opiate metabolites are codeine, morphine, and 6-acetyl-morphine.

It is a common misconception that Vicodin/hydrocodone and oxycodone are part of the DOT drug testing program. Indeed, some quarters feel that SAMSHA/NIDA should be changed to reflect current drug abuse patterns. Clearly prescription painkillers are one of the most abused classes of drugs. However, at this point in time they are not part of standard SAMSHA/NIDA 5 Panel drug testing protocol.

Urine Testing
Opiates are one of the "SAMHSA-5". The five drugs tested for in the standard NIDA approved drug test.

The standard tests are a one step rapid qualitative immunoassay for the detection of opiate and opiate metabolites in urine. The cutoff concentration for this test is 2000 ng/ml, as recommended by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the U.S. National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA). Prior to December 1, 1998 the cutoff level was 300 ng/ml but was raised in order to reduce the possibility of false positives from poppy seeds. The cutoff for GC-MS, which detects morphine or codeine, is 150 ng/ml. The US Military uses a cutoff level of 3000 ng/ml in order to try to avoid false positives.

Heroin breaks down into codeine and morphine. Codeine breaks down into morphine. The opiate drug tests look for codeine, morphine, and 6-acetyl-morphine. The presence of 6-acetyl-morphine is relatively conclusive of recent heroin use, but is only detectable for a few hours after use. The presence of codeine can be the result of either heroin or codeine use. The presence of morphine can be the result of the use of heroin, codeine, or morphine. Relative levels of codeine and morphine can help determine their origin.

With the new higher cutoff levels (2,000 ng/ml), Heroin use will generally only produce a positive test result for a day after single use (somewhat longer with chronic use).