Obese, you may not have a job soon.

Hmmm....many people are over weight but also healthy. If this be the case, then drivers....go make a case that we can't have over weight cops (or any other tax paid people) in our country because of a health hazard.
It doesn't matter if they sit behind a desk...we as tax payers, pay them to sit behind a desk and they will use too much medical insurance because of their weight. Their insurance will go up and they will ask for more pay.......oh lord, imma stop now before I get started.

 

I think when this is finally drafted and becomes the rule, there will be guidelines that are loose on the BMI that will still allow alot of the overweight truckers to continue in their job. It is possible they will be put on annual reviews on the physical like those that are like the blood pressure restrictions.

I do believe that the extremely large obese drivers may become a problem that this will address.

The comparison to an overweight police officer doing his job and the overweight truck driver is not quite the same. The truck driver could be a loaded 80,000 lbs truck with hazmat that can have extremely disastrous side effects. The police officer is very limited to the damage he can do.

 

I'm 5'8 and weigh 217 and drive my 4-wheeler just fine. I have heard companies being like that but aren't 25% of truckers overweight? If its more than we are waking up to a new evolution of truck drivers.

Hunter

 

I understand this but are we as the people in this country going to continue to let the government run all over us? Its time to start speaking up. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.
I see that you are in emergency services, Road Medic. You know as well as I do that over weight fire fighters and paramedics can be in just as good shape or better than a skinny person. I have seen a 130 lb man run out of air before a 300 lb man did during training when I was on the local FD. Sure a 300 lb cop can have just as much issues as a 300 lb truck driver....inmate wants to put up a fight with a jailer. Lets say we are dealing with what we call a "lifer" inmate, they know the ins and outs of how a jail/prison/cop works. They watch you for days, they manage to over take you and take your weapon because you ARE over weight. Guess who gets to bury that over weight officer....that's right....us good old American tax payers. So here again, whats good for the goose is good for the gander. There isn't a thing wrong with over weight people that isn't wrong with skinny people.

We as American citizens are letting the government take too much of our FREEDOM. What are they gonna do....make these drivers NOT have a choice between earning a living and living off of the government? Some drivers know nothing else. Some of the "old timers" don't have the education to do anything else. You can hardly find a "plant" or "mill" job these days without a high school diploma...what are they going to do?

Have ya'll really looked at a BMI/weight chart and seen what the doctors are now saying is obese? If you are what you consider to be over weight then chances are the charts say you are obese. You can't judge people on their weight nor can you judge their health on weight. Saying a 300 lb man is more at the risk of having a heart attack or something is like telling a 22 year old that they can't have a heart attack.

 

I typed all of this once and hit the wrong key or whatever.


It is the reason I mentioned the guidelines that I did.

I have indeed seen over weight truckers throw tarps and chains. I have also seen some that I really do not know how they get into their trucks and so forth.

There are many things that make the trucker lifestyle not favorable to good health. Many of the drivers may be overweight, smoke and not active. These things are not good when they look at safety issues. A Heart Attack is one issue they are concerned about. I can see the safety side, but that does not mean I support the program.

I am one of the ones that under BMI that is considered over weight. I will go no further. However, there are many that are considered to be obese.

Now, considering the above, do you really believe that they will suddenly say "All overweight truckers will no longer be allowed to drive commercially?" If so, who drives?

I expect there will be a long time on this issue.

 

Don't take me the wrong way Roadmedic....sorry if I came across wrong but dang it, the government perturbs me to no extent. They want to regulate EVERYTHING.....what happened to a country being FREE anymore?

Honestly, I really can't see this regulation to come into being. There are too much issues that would surround it. They can't put a definite on this law, without having a definite definition there would be too many court cases where over weight people could prove that they are indeed as healthy as an ox.

 

There is no problem here. I am glad to see the interest in the issue.

I as well believe there will be a long process here. Will it become law, I don't think it will be a blanket program. It might start with the really obese being yearly certified.

 

I'd be curious if there could be a pulminary test or something similar added to the physical. I'm with medic and have to admit I wonder how some of these guys get into their cabs.