Deaf people won the privilege to operate heavy duty commercial vehicles for a living more than a decade ago. But one of the nation’s largest truck transportation outfits recently lost a civil lawsuit to the tune of $36 million after refusing to hire a deaf CDL holder based on its safety policy.
“The hearing standard is the kind of institutionalized discrimination based on stereotyped assumptions, rather than on data or facts, that the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) has fought to change for many years. The NAD is thrilled that these safe and skilled deaf and hard of hearing drivers can now pursue the career of their choice,” NAD President Christopher Wagner reportedly said in 2012.
But in 2016, Werner Enterprises rejected an application from Victor Robinson, who completed a Roadmaster CDL course owned by the trucking company. Robinson did not necessarily have the over-the-road experience Werner typically seeks of new hires. By that same token, Werner does reportedly have a training program that involves communication between inexperienced drivers and supervisors.
“Werner’s decision was based on its inability to identify any accommodation that would enable Robinson to safely engage in two-way communications with his trainer while engaged in over the road training and Werner’s legitimate safety concerns about the potentially catastrophic results of distracted driving by a new and inexperienced commercial driver,” according to a Werner statement. “The company operates with the mantra that nothing we do is worth getting hurt or hurting others, whether that be its professional drivers, customers or the motoring public at large.”
For his part, Robinson already earned a physical disability exemption from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to drive truck professionally. After a jury in the Federal District Court for Nebraska heard arguments and evidence on both sides, they disagreed with Werner’s position. Robinson was awarded $75,000 in compensatory damages and a stunning $36 million in punitive damages.
Because Robinson could not communicate via a headset or Bluetooth, mentors would essentially need to unlawfully text him while he was operating a rig weighing upwards of 80,000 pounds. This begs the $36 million question: Is Werner’s policy a “Catch-22? In other words, you can’t drive deaf unless you get trained. But you can’t get trained because you’re deaf.
Werner is a great company and have been around for years. It’s hard to imagine that a leading trucking company thought that since it was their company they could go above the law based off of what they think is safe. As a thirty year veteran driver you don’t to hear to drive anything that move’s. As long as your paying attention. I’m all for my fellow he/she/them truck drivers.