Starting with Roehl in February

Only good thing about reefer freight is it's steadier during downturns in the economy (winter time too), and longer trips than dry freight. Everything else, NEGATIVE!!

 

Ok, for the better. Godspeed Recovery, Rose!!

 

In general, a cold should not keep you from passing your physical. They are looking for conditions that would disqualify you from driving; seizures, blackouts, etc. - or conditions that would keep you from doing the job; inability to get under the trailer, inability to carry 50-75 pounds, inability to handle the controls in the truck (missing limbs, etc.)... That sort of thing. Unfortunately - as with most things involving Federal regulation in the lives of ordinary people - it has become vastly overcomplicated. They now want to know how well you sleep, what your blood pressure is, and whether your blood sugar is low or high.

They tell you that they do this for your own good, while they tell the public that they do it for theirs, but they don't do it for surgeons, lawyers, legislators, judges, or nursery school teachers. If they decide that you are sick, then you have to accept the course-of-treatment of their choosing, usually at your expense (and to their financial gain), or they disqualify you from earning a living in the manner that you invested so much time into.

It's a personal peeve of mine, that they involve themselves in health decisions that would be none of their business, if you were a surgeon or nursery school teacher, and then make health recommendations into mandatory directives, on pain of uncompensated unemployment. If they really cared about people with sleep apnea, and it's effect on people's ability to safely drive or do their jobs, then everyone would be required to get tested for it, and accept treatment, in order to be allowed to drive and work - and it would be a qualifying disability for Social Security benefits. (And screening/treatment would be fully paid for by whoever requires that it happen!) Deep down, both carriers and regulators know it's usually a scam, so they limit the scope to a small group that can't really effectively fight it - commercial drivers - and limit their interest in the issue to requiring you to do something about it.

Get well before your physical. Not because it really matters in terms of your actual ability to drive, but because you don't want to give some underqualified chiropractor or overzealous nurse practitioner any excuse to force long-term, debilitating, chronic, and/or expensive unnecessary treatment down your throat for a chronic condition that they are (perhaps intentionally?) wrong about you having.

 

Eh, I think they're just putting it off because with a cold, your blood pressure goes up. Why pay for a physical that has a better chance of being failed??

 

Y

You can check your own blood pressure for free at most chain pharmacies. I believe that Rite-Aid has an agreement with a kiosk-machine manufacturer - that's an easy way to screen yourself, to determine whether this is going to be an issue on your DoT physical.

Interestingly, if you're close enough to it being a real issue that a cold turns it into one, then you might want to know that... as long as it doesn't keep you from working at the job where you get the health insurance that you rely upon to help you manage it... :-I

 

There should be no option to "force" you to take medication of any kind. That's a better case for "it's my body" than right-to-choose versus right-to-life. If they don't force congressmen and surgeons to take blood pressure medicine, in order to work at their jobs, then they shouldn't be able to force truck drivers... :-I I want the right to make that choice, back - even if it means that I still choose to take the medication. It shouldn't be up to anyone else but me, and others should not be allowed to know about my blood pressure, much less exert influence in decisions about how I choose to treat it.

My employer and my government are not my mommy, and even my mommy doesn't get to demand this kind of information, or enforce this kind of influence on my health decisions.