Walmart here I come!

Hey guys, i got my accident record from my employer and i missed one non preventable the last three years that i didn't put on my app. so it makes two within three years but one falls off in June. Do you think they will overlook that since it's a non preventable or just out of luck till June? No at fault accidents what so ever though. 1 million mile safe driver award i received back in August last year. That will be a bummer over something that wasn't even my fault. What do you guy's think? Should i bring that up right at the beginning of my phone interview as to not waste everyone's time?Thanks!

 

You would be back at your home DC by Christmas Eve and would be off on Christmas Day. Pros of the job would be wages about 50% higher than you currently make, the cons would be you are away from home 4 nights a week. Since you have not worked away from home at any time since your kids were born, you may want to think and pray deeply about this.

Yes, the trucks have power inverters. I have seen quite a few drivers who have microwaves in their truck

The high blood pressure and Type II diabetes are not a problem if kept under control. Expect to only receive a one year medical certification. The sleep apnea is a different story. Once diagnosed with OSA (Obstructive sleep apnea), in order to remain medically certified, you are required by law to use the CPAP for a minimum of 4 hours per day, 70% of the time (5 out of every 7 days). The reason I bring this up is because you mentioned you were diagnosed with OSA, yet you stated you "have been on and off it". If you go to Walmart's medical examiner to be certified and cannot show proof of compliance by providing them data from your CPAP machine, you WILL NOT be certified and that will be the end of the road for you. Now, let me give you the good news. If you are in compliance and have been using the CPAP machine 70% or more of the time, it will not prevent you from being medically certified for at least one year and Walmart will be fine with this. I know, because I am in the same boat. In fact, Walmart has a program that encourages current or possible sufferers of OSA to be tested and treated. Walmart pays 100% of the cost for sleep studies and all needed equipment to treat OSA effectively.

I was a bit resistant to using the CPAP in the beginning. Once I became more comfortable with it by using the proper CPAP mask AND ADJUSTED MY DIET to eating better food, I found the CPAP therapy to be very effective. It takes time for the treatment to be effective. It is best to review the data from the CPAP machine to look at your AHI results. If you are not getting good results, then the mask you are using and the pressure the CPAP is running at must be adjusted. Myself, I have a CPAP machine that auto-adjusts the pressure because I have found that I, like most people, do not sleep exactly the same way every day, due to stress, the weather, what I ate that day, etc, so the pressure on the CPAP adjusts for this.

As a CDL holder, if I wish to remain medically certified to drive, I have no choice but to comply with the usage requirements of the CPAP machine until such date that I have been shown to now longer have OSA to the degree that CPAP therapy is needed. The FMCSA has been reviewing what changes they plan to make in the future regarding sleep apnea. The below link is along the lines of what future regulations will be based on.

http://www.sleepapnea.org/asaa-blog/fmcsa-mrbmcsa-joint-committee-recommendations.html

 

You can meet the minimum qualifications if you have no more than one non-preventable accident in the previous 3 years. See the below link for all the details on what the minimum qualifications are presently.

http://careers.walmart.com/career-areas/transportation-logistics-group/drivers

 

@ Cory... The trucks are equipped with inverters. You are a bigger guy for sure and you will be subjected to the sleep apnea test more than likely. WalMart is a great driving job, but what makes you want to work for WalMart? There will be lots of adjustment for you and the family, lots of sitting in the truck with driving, may not be super healthy for you at this point. It sounds like you have it fairly ok now.... I wish you lots of luck and hope the best with whichever path you chose Cory.

 

Thanks Tom. Using the c-pap isnt a issue. Im probable 85-90 percent usage. I just have to have the memory card downloaded to show results. I was more concerned about being automatically disqualified having to use a c-pap and or type 2 diabetes. Ive been on a one year medical card for 10 years so thats not a problem. How have you coped with being away from family. I dont see it as a big thing, except when holidays come around and you wish you were home but cant be. Seems everytime i was overnight somewhere, something happens at the house that my wife calls me on. She's more than capable of taking care of most things as well as the kids. I love to be kept busy during the day..makes it go faster. On your start days that may begin say 1000 hours, are you asked to work your 14 from that point which would require working and driving at night or do you start and then shut down early in the evening to begin working and driving during the daytime? hope that makes sence. Where do you tend to stay on your overnights? Wal-mart parking, truck stops etc?

 

Well demi, my job is slowing down both in miles per week and total drops each week. Some weeks im working 3 days, others maybe 4 or 5. My pay is down about 800 a month and sometimes more. Months and months of this has made me start to look elsewhere. Wal-mart to me is the epitamy of professionalism. I wasn't aware of the slip seating issue until I found this forum , something I never expected from wal-mart, but it makes more financial sense not to have trucks sitting there while the driver is on days off. Other than having to share a truck, wal-mart is a terrific opportunity to make more money with hopefully less stress. Im confident with electronic logs as Ive used them for 6 years now and after reading 180 pages in several forums, believe I've picked up on some of the lingo as well. I like to be safe out on the road and that means finding a place to park overnight to prevent theft and for personal safety. Down around San Antonio at a few truck stops, I really dont notice many wal-mart trucks parking at them. About the only mental issue for me is giving up a king bed, some of the kids sports and a warm body next to me at night (wife) for the rest of my driving career.

 

Do they allow smoking in the trucks or do you guys who have to share have any problems with someone smoking in the truck before you have to use it. I dont smoke myself, and cant stand breathing it in. Ive used many rental trucks in my time that had the stench of cigarette smoke and asked to switch to another truck.

 

You will not have any issues getting medically certified as long as your condition stays controlled. I have health issues too, so I know how to stay on top of it. Be sure you download the data from the CPAP to print out a usage compliance report for at least the previous 30 days before going to Walmart for the skills test because if you pass you will be sent to the clinic that day. I have found that the more medical documentation you bring, the easier it will be for the medical examiner to sign off on your physical without any doubt in his/her mind.

Being away from home can take time for the family to adjust if they have not dealt with you being away before. The good thing is you will always be within a few hundred miles of your home DC. I never felt concerned about being able to get home if an emergency situation arose while on the road.

They would like you to do the 14 hours, but you can control how much you work that day by changing your ETA. This would make more sense once you are working here. Management will look at your productivity levels from pervious 6 week periods, not on a day to day basis. As for parking, I almost always would prefer to park at a Walmart store or a DC whenever possible. Since there are so many Walmart stores, it is easier to plan where to take my break. Of course, up in the Dallas area, there are restrictions for overnight parking at some stores due to local ordinances.

 

You are not allowed to smoke in trucks that are deemed non-smoking. Each driver that becomes permanently assigned to a truck can decide to smoke or not in that truck. When you first start out, if not permanently assigned a truck, you would have to respect the driver whose truck you are driving and not smoke in it if it was a non-smoking truck. Since you are a non-smoker, that would not be a big deal. I do not know the makeup of the drivers in New Braunfels in terms of how many smokes, but if if is similar to my DC in Sealy, it will be less than 5% of the drivers smoke. If necessary, buy an ozone generator. It will permanently eliminate smoke and other odors in less than an hour. I did that to one truck I drove that smelled like an ashtray! After an hour of ozone, no more smoke odor!

A side note. Each driver is required to fuel, vacuum, and run the truck through the wash bay when done with the truck they are using for the week/day. This way you should always have a nice clean truck when starting out. There are a few drivers that do not always comply with this rule, maybe because they were in a rush to go home, wash bay closed, etc, but generally the truck is still very clean overall.

 

Gotcha Cory, makes perfect sense then. It is nice to hear the kind words about "us".... there will be an adjustment period for your family, but the nature of Wal Mart will keep you busy and the bills paid. You will have plenty of time off and maybe a program for ya too eventually. I was where you are at one time, I know how it feels. Keep in mind, what I asked you may be asked in office... Good luck and keep us posted.