How Is Covid 19 Affecting Your Job?

LTL side have placed many drivers on furlough or given lay offs.

 

U.S. unemployment rate passes 20% with 4.4 million weekly jobless claims, 26.5 million total claims for benefits, insurance. Fortune.3 days ago

The rate is probably higher because the states aren't able to process all the claims when they are made.

 

My guess is the 'real rate' is about 30%- that's 1 in 3 people!!

 

FL has processed 8% of their claims, and they pay the least of any state....$275 per week.

 

Ive been in a position to recertify as soon the hearing aids and glasses are taken care of. Covid came along and a week later all of my doctors (4 total) closed and went home. So that is all on hold for months. Particularly the hearing aids. I am running 20.00 boosters from walmart but they are not DOT hearing aids for audiogram qualification. Not enough DB boost anyway. Even though I meet two of the three required hearing freqs naturally at 40db. The 2000 hertz at 40db is a problem.

State testing for CMV and Licensing for Same iS CLOSED, its been extended until almost june.

Courts are the same situation. Nothing moves forward until they reopen.

We are open more or less against all the other nanny locked down states but we are still in the fight with Covid. Until that clears up probably by Fall, I cannot make any progress towards Medicines with McKesson. That will just have to wait.

I am not in a hurry. Trucking for me has lost it's allure and glamour. If I was to finish the quals and get on the road it will only be for about 6 to 9 months and I would be finished with it as would Social Security using their 9 month return to work program availble to those that can do it.

I have been using this time at home to be off medicines and also to build a history of not using anything so that when DOT exams come later this year I prove that I am not a pain patient anymore. The heart is perfect with just a murmor and one defect in another valve. Not a problem with trucking. Everything else is pretty much in order as long that one joint holds up. If it breaks we drop a new one in and get going. Easy.

The Clearinghouse will be easy enough I have never had a hot positive and I endure testing many times a year.

 

My only customer during this shutdown has been delivering to the needs of the electrical grid. Last couple of weeks I have seen pickups that are normally shipped by LTL companies being available to me. I figured the LTL companies had slowed down or something. Your post confirms my thoughts.

 

Business as usual for us. We deal with food plants. No one has caught it yet.

One customer I visit once a month and was there 3 days ago. Has 4 locations. One of them is closed for cleaning. 2 employees got it.

 

The steel and aluminum plants still seem to be functioning but my company has lost a lot of its other normal customers.

So now they are expanding out farther. Just this week I made a 1500 mile delivery to Golden Colorado. I had never even driven further than 600 miles until now.

It also means I'm getting a lot less home time.

 

Delivered to a Gerdau steel mill friday and had to answer a questioner and have my temperature taken for the first time.