might go western, running northeast.....

Check out Westerns safety score. That’ll tell all.

 

Western Express is horrible from what I hear. That is a terrible pay scheme too. $800 for 5 loads and then they start paying you per mile? Criminal in my opinion. Call my company, Britton Transport. If you have a good record they will likely take you. Phone number is 1-800-437-5306. Best wishes!

 

If you can avoid it, stay the hell away from western. Nothing good ever happens by going with them.

 

5 loads for $800.

5 loads for $3000 with your own truck

 

If the narcotics are for a specific short term OWie visit at the ER like a bad fall, hit or something medically healable and you are NOT being prescribed any more, then that should NOT be a problem PROVIDED you have been away from the stuff long enough to clear it out of your system.

As of Jan 1 this year Opiates, in other words Pain Medications, Narcotics is part of Testing. And is not tolerated in trucking.

What you never want is to illegally source narcotics outside of a doctor giving you specifically a script for a specific short period of time to fix something quick. Diversions, theft, sales or other taking from relatives or borrowing from someone across the street are all felony now.

Some medicines are class A (aka Schedule One) such as Pot. If you are in a medical or rec pot state that has to stop. You can truck or you can NOT truck and stay home on pot. But not both. I don't think you are at that level. Class 1 medicines, many of which are given in a hospital ER or trauma setting for very specific acute reasons automatically DQ the CDL driver for that period of time anyway.

Trucking has seriously tightened up on drugs in particular. So, if a doctor can write a note to your future employer saying you were given... hydrocodone for only 7 days a month ago for your ER visit for a suspected contusion (Impact trauma or suspected break etc) which is about all you will get under additional rules at the CDC levels that regulate what ER's can do and cannot do with which medicine and for how long.

Another thing. That doctor should certify to your employer with a note saying that you are not on pain meds anymore and there is no reason to suspect or continue use of same.

And they can check it using the state's Pharmacy board in near real time which tracks every single pill of that type dispensed to every single person in the Nation, in all 50 states. It does not matter if you got only 10 pills 10 years ago one time for a 3 day period. It's on there.

There is a higher national database where a percentage of abusers who are out of pain management programs entirely are entered as suspected abusers, doctor shopping, diversion, sales in particular and other problems that become apparent in a variety of ways. Those are the people who have lost the ability to get any pain medicine from anyone anywhere in the USA with a script. They will however be giving SOME subsitute only temporarily if they really did break a leg or something and then only for like 3 days or less. ER's and Trauma are not that heartless. But they have gotten seriously cold hearted when you show up thinking you are going to get a batch of pills.

Regular doctors everywhere, walk in clinics that are like "ER lite" and similar situations like dentists will not prescribe pain medicine anymore. They simply refuse it. The dentist might provided you just had a serious surgery and will have temporary pain for a week or two. But that surgeon will be looked at by the DEA when they find you have been supplied some good stuff.

I am a medically disabled trucker partly through truama of getting hit or falls combined with arthritis and other degenerative problems. It's a laundry list. And by state law I go to just one doctor who prescribes everything to a certain point and not one pill more each month and test me against it plus a random count at any time you have to go down and they count against your pending refill date in order to continue under state laws in our state. They have really cracked down seriously in the last 2 years to fight people coming from TN, LA, (Louisiana, Texas etc) just prior to that.

In addition to that, you must not be taking anything that is shipped to you postal or parcel mail billed as a subsitute for pain medicine via a doctor. In my state certain herbs or powders used to be legal for this kind of complete and total bypass of the doctor until it became specifically illegal recently.

Here is a pdf guidline given to doctors as a example.
https://www.arkmed.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ED_Opiod_Guidelines.pdf

It's pretty current as of a few months ago.

As far as running west. It's a complete change of trucking than the North East. In the NE you can go anywhere to anywhere in 10 minutes. Out west, there are places that have signs that says check fuel no services next 80 miles.

They mean NO services for 80 miles nothing. So it's a different kind of thinking that goes into what you are fixing to do with a truck during winter storms etc. You want to be self reliant more than ever. Own food, fluids, spare parts (Such as airlines, glad hands, valves, clamps etc and the tools and knowledge how to use it when necessary on your own. Chains in particular as we are still in chain season, there is a new winter storm developing as I write this still once you get out of the mid west.

The people are somewhat better out west, there is a certain amount of can do, helping out and so on. But in parts of the west, it's pretty bad. Because of the illegal immigration and so on. You might run into US Customs often within 100 miles of the border now. Keeping in mind that your normal consitutional rights do not apply to you in the border zones (As of 9-11) you will be sniffed (Drug dog at the 5th wheel) and so on. If you are doing nothing wrong, you have no worries.

Some other things in the west are different than the NE. Produce for instance. You can have pests, bugs and what have you ride with your load into the west or out of the west into the USA which will be inspected randomly and potentially be sent back to the shipper if they find one bug of a banned kind on your rig or in your food load. AZ usually inspected my rig for that purpose on a regular purpose. Even one spotted bug type is enough to be ordered to turn back east and drive back to shipper. No California for this one.

This post has gotten big. The magic word in your OP post is Narcotics not long ago. Just a little bit of educating for you and a bit of reading. If by some miracle there was a 6 million dollars in parts etc installed into my body and I can pass a medical Long form DOT I would have to wait about a year before I can attempt to pass a drug test of any kind with trucking, particularly hair. But since it's pernament it's not a problem on my end. I have other considerations to take care of, such as keeping the medicines locked in a safe and so on.

Running west can be pretty fulfilling. You might load at Yakima (Washington state) some Onions going to Boston Market in Chelsea downtown and it's not a problem for you once loaded. 5 to 6 days to get it there. Or Ellensburg Apples going to Atlanta GA or something. Or Yuma AZ Lemons going to Hunts Point in NYC which is NOT exactly a common load but anything is possible.

I started in the NE myself. I rather not run it these days. But it does not hold any problem for me excepting that the truck needs to have a transponder to pay tolls. That 12.50 for the GWB are long gone. Call it 106 dollars NB upper level only for big trucks. Before 9-11 you had a choice.

You'll like the west. By the time you get there you will either love it or hate it. Especially if your mind turns out to be rather... unable to accept certain problems presented by the western area of the USA. My spouse found western Nevada's emptiness with every little village (Not even that big...) featuring a slot machine or a legal whorehouse a real problem. But it was dealt with like everything else in trucking.

Some days I miss the east. Those are good days when everything is doing well and not too badly. But I don't miss it that much excepting the sea.

 

Holy crap , detox anyone?

 

No hair tests and they will take your current physical as well. They only do urine test. You get 1 day home for every week out though they are flexible about that. I stay out 25 days and go home 5-6 days. I am in the flatbed division but they do have dry van/reefer as well. It is a smallish company at about 115 trucks last I heard but they have the miles. As far as I know they hire from anywhere in the USA but may need to stay out a bit longer in certain areas. Best wishes! Give them a call. I'm positive it is better than Western Express.

 

If it was a pain killer provided IV then find out specifically the half life of that drug, wait that much time and then some and then go. You should be fine. Most of the time impatient IV at a hospital are so strict as to have a acute need there isnt going to be a ongoing problem then once they think you are well enough and cut you loose.

I remember the last one decades ago, they put a computer lock on it and a button to my bed, three times a day max. So I saved it till night and 1,2,3 and had a good nights rest so as not to be woke up every hour for vitals in those days. It was simple morphine. Two days after surgery they found I was fine but needed to be home 6 weeks anyway, I was back to work in three.