Tennessee ripping off drivers over Medical Cards....

Discussion in 'Trucking Industry Regulations' started by raytyrell, Sep 12, 2013.

  1. raytyrell

    raytyrell Bobtail Member

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    My wife and I drive team and our medical cards were due to expire on August 1st. We got our physicals on July 16th and our company's safety dept. faxed and e-mailed both to the only office in Tennessee that can accept the cards and that is in Nashville. You can not just hand carry them in in this state. We thought everything was fine until we got home on August 10th and got our mail only to find out that both of our licenses had been suspended on August 2nd. We had been driving all over the US with invalid licenses and are just lucky we never got stopped anywhere. According to the office in Nashville they never received the medical cards. (that was 2 faxes and 2 e-mails, kind of hard to believe they didn't get even 1) Renewing our CDL's was easy enough, just go in pay money and they are reissued. BUT we had HazNat endorsements and that has to be started all over again from scratch. New background checks at $87.50 each and new hazmat tests. Plus we had just bought a house in February and have to have 2 proofs of domicile and it can't be copies or something printed off the internet.

    Ok we are paperless on all our bills so we don't have to worry about mail theft. The state has mailed us letters notifying us that our licenses were suspended and they mailed our new CDL's to our address, do you think we live here? They mailed us proof that we passed the background checks, do you think we live here? We will get the proof but the whole thing is stupid and according to our local office (where everyone has worked for years and are by no means incompetent) Nashville is losing medical cards all the time and there are horror stories about drivers stranded all over the country because of it.

    Oh forgot we had our licenses (just the CDL part renewed on August 15th) and we had to produce our medical cards to do that. I watched as our local office faxed our information to Nashville but 2 days ago we found out that they had lost my wife's medical card again. HOW?

    According to one of the agents at our local office Tennessee is raking in 10's of thousands of dollars over this. Gee our Governor is Bill Haslem. Sound familiar? His family owns Pilot and Flying J Truck stops. They got the trucking companies with their fraud on the rebate programs and now he is following in his families footsteps and ripping off the truck drivers in this state. This won't stop until one of the big trucking organizations gets involved or OOIDA but so far they have been quiet on this issue.

    :biggrin_25510:
     
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  3. bigjoel

    bigjoel Road Train Member

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    I knew this medical card tied to CDL requirement was going to be trouble.
     
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  4. Chinatown

    Chinatown Road Train Member

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    Are you sure Governor Haslam knows about this snafu concerning the medical cards? Have you contacted OOIDA?
     
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  5. 123456

    123456 Road Train Member

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    Contact your state Inspector General.

    They can perform miracles.
     
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  6. CondoCruiser

    CondoCruiser The Legend

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    If you had any of these done you had to self certify then. Otherwise it's Jan 30, 2014.

    http://www.tn.gov/safety/driverlicense/cdlalt_faqs.shtml
    Do you fall in any of them categories? Where did you move from? It sounds like it needed done in February.

    How do they mail your CDL to your home when you have to retake the written test and eye exam? Then your license is renewed in person right then and there. They never mailed me a CDL.

    Never ever ever trust your company to take care of your personal business. They faxed it twice probably because it kept failing. The same with paying tickets. Never take their word. Pay them yourself or get proof from the state.
     
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  7. snowwy

    snowwy Road Train Member

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    what condo said. NEVER trust someone to do YOUR job. everyone keeps letting the company do the job. but it's not THEIR repsonsibility to make sure UUUU keep your license current.

    there have been numberous posts on the forum about your very dillema. they ALL let the company fax the paperwork in. they ALL have ended up with suspended licenses. and not all of them live in tennessee.

    don't know where you live. but someone somewhere should have a fax. like kinkos, post office, library. and they usually send back a confirmation page that the fax went through. so you'd have a copy.

    all my faxing is done on the internet. i get email whenever fax goes through or doesn't.

    it's the states responsibilty to set things up. but i would think ALL state offices would be tied in.

    tennessee is probably not the only state raking in the dough becuase drivers let their companies fax there paperwork to the dmv.
     
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  8. snowwy

    snowwy Road Train Member

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    another idea would also be to send a certified letter. with signature required. you get a card back as proof someone signed and received the letter.
     
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  9. raytyrell

    raytyrell Bobtail Member

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    I e-mailed his office and about a week later they sent my e-mail to the MedCert dept. So it was like a dog chasing his tail
     
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  10. raytyrell

    raytyrell Bobtail Member

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    Our medical cards expired, we didn't need to renew our licenses. There were 2 faxes and 2 e-mails because there are 2 of us. The faxes and e-mails went thru but Nashville denies getting them. Our safety dept. sent them both ways to make sure they were received. Tennessee will not let you hand carry them in, they have to be faxed or e-mailed to Nashville. Hell when we got our licenses reinstated the local license office in Greeneville faxed them in and they still lost my wife's for a 2nd time after they mailed her a new license. I didn't trust my company do anything but I do not carry a fax machine or scanner around in my truck and we didn't get back home until August 10th., they suspended them on the 2nd.
     
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  11. bigjoel

    bigjoel Road Train Member

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    Somebody needs to file a lawsuit against the Tn DMV. Your CDL is your license to make a living. By them screwing up the med card recert, they are preventing you from earning a living.

    They should be made to pay damages to all the CDL holders who have had their license revoked, because of the Tn DMV's incompetence.
     
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