How disabled can you be? Any specific rules on pain meds?

I have very carefully looked at these comments. I agree with most of them. I would add this. @seagreg you are right about that last comment. Let's not forget what the CDC did some time ago in regard to the long term use of these schedule 2 painkillers. They are not recommended for long term use now. I would recommend, however, to any driver who is taking them long term to follow what the FMCSA has issued with their rulemaking. Only one of the substances on that banned list is allowed to be in a driver's system period. That is the opioids and with a valid physician's prescription AS WELL as a medical examiner saying it is OK. That valid Rx along with it CLEARLY noted on the medical will keep you out of trouble and really all you have to do is fax a copy or have faxed a copy of your medical to the MRO. As too other class meds, ONLY the substances that are part of that 7 panel dip at the lab are tested.

 

Touch the floor with both hands? Half of these drivers can't even see their feet without a mirror. My last 2yr card was after checking to see if I was still breathing and had a pulse. No tests, nothing.

 

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulation 391.43 does not address or prohibit the sharing of medical information by Medical Examiners.

 

Just got mine yesterday! Had to do the squats!

 

My buddy beat Cancer and went from the recovery bed right back into the truck . He was healthy for his age before the cancer but now hes on meds and still in pain , tough sob . With the bad back and cane I would consider something else .

 

some companies will ask for your medical records.
Never share your medical records with any company..

 

While it is true a driver has the absolute right to medical privacy. The carrier can and in most cases will withdraw a job offer if a reasonable request is denied. If a driver is already employed and a carrier asks for these records they can remove you from safety-sensitive jobs till such requests are complied with. Thankfully most carriers won't get into this kind of detail. However, a carrier safety dept has one job and that is to cover that carriers backside. I would change that last comment to express the thought NEVER give your carrier a reason to want to ask!

 

I foresee a lot of guys falling on their backend lol

 

The job I am doing we load our own trailer doing pick ups all over. One person tosses cases into the reefer through a small door, the other guy picks them up and stacks and wraps them.

The reefer is full of injury potential, slipping and falling on ice or just throwing your back out due to repeating bending. Load locks or pallet jacks can hurt you also. Well that happened to my partner. He was out for 3 months before returning due to a back injury.

When he got back after recovering he got paired up with me. He is very fast working inside the trailer, I'll say that. He's fast. But in my opinion he's too fast. He's going to hurt himself again. He complains I am too slow. But I've been doing it longer and no body problems so far.

My body tells me when I'm moving it too fast or pushing it too far. People just need to learn to listen to their bodies better because it will talk to you.

 

If I am going to endure 48000 pounds of crap in a reefer like I have done in the past, make sure the boxes are big and heavy. Way better to move 550 boxes in a short time than say stacking and restacking 48 pallets double stacked dogfood into 110 pain paid pallets yea high by layer and count per layer. That takes a few hours.

Box here, box there, another yonder and a fourth hither any time there was a ow pre-CDL, a little of Mr Beam was on the catwalk to drink that owie away. Back to work. this box over there this box over here more or less. Never drink faster than you can move boxes.

The worst loads are those in which you have docked, check in wait, finally get cleared to move it and 24 hours later the freshly clean, dressed and fed shift dock worker shows up for another shift after a night at home and sees you still plugging away.

When it gets to a point that you cannot drive anywhere after that kind of lumping more or less you finally understand what hiring onto no touch companies can do for you. My last physical unload of almost 49000 was in december of 2001, I told my dispatcher don't load me anytime soon, I'll let you know when I am ready in approx 24 hours. And used that time to sleep off the pain and hydrate it away. I was not sure if the back was going to get worked out that day and it was the major push towards deciding to go home and visit a team of doctors to start off with a xray survey of the spine. Took about 14 shots of my body overall. The surgeon says omg what do you do for a living?

Drive and unload or load trucks by hand up to 25 ton.

Silence. He says at that time that I am going to have a lot of trouble with that spine later on.

Fast forward to 2012, he was correct when a special three xray survey that does a count of how many radioactive material managed to get past the spine as opposed to what is expected for the spine to absorb. And that was where the evidence of Osteopenia was shown officially in the T section. Losing bone mass in that area.

One day that's going to snap on a cough. Or a bad bump or moving one more box from the floor to the pallet on the dock 70 feet behind the trailer dock. That would be a day I have to make sure never happens with dispatch by saying no if I find msyelf under a load that requires hand unload. They can fire me and probably will but I have touched my very last hand unload-load in my life time regarding tractor trailer freight to and from floors etc.

When I have bad days like today (You wont see me too much today) that spine gets to take a few drinks. And it's too early for that.