Legions Of Sick Truckers On The Road

[OhioChick]

Source: AP

Study Details Risky Behavior Among Commercial Drivers In U.S.

POSTED: 6:41 am EDT July 21, 2008
UPDATED: 6:56 am EDT July 21, 2008

WASHINGTON -- More than a half-million tractor-trailer and bus drivers who have commercial licenses also have medical conditions that qualify them for full federal disability payments.

That's just one startling fact in a new safety study obtained by The Associated Press.

Every year, hundreds of deaths and injuries are blamed on commercial truck and bus drivers who suffer medical emergencies while driving vehicles sometimes weighing over 40 tons.

An AP review of federal records finds that truckers violating federal medical rules have been caught in every state.

The federal agency that oversees truck drivers admits it hasn't completed any of eight recommendations safety regulators have proposed since 2001. One would set minimum standards to determine who is medically fit to drive commercially. Another would prohibit "doctor shopping" to find a physician who might overlook a risky health condition.

A Florida bus driver who will figure prominently in a congressional hearing this week suffers from lung disease and uses three daily inhalers to control breathing. He told congressional investigators he "occasionally blacks out and forgets things." His commercial license expires in 2010.

Read more: http://www.newsnet5.com/automotive/16940006/detail.html

[babylonsister]

1. Boy, doesn't that just make you feel so much safer on the road.

:scared:

[Truth4Justice]

31. Car drivers are much more likely to cause accidents: Worn tires and brakes, drunken drivers, and...

lets not forget that car drivers are not required to take any physical at all, just an eye test.

[Bozita]

2. This just happened. Trucker is 71yo. Was this due to a medical condition? - video

ALERT: South I-75 Closed At Square Lake

Last Update: 12:28 pm

(WXYZ) Southbound I-75 is closed at Square Lake Rd. in Troy because of a fatal accident.

WATCH ACTION NEWS REPORTS IN THE VIDEO PLAYER ON THE RIGHT

Police report that a 19 year old woman was killed when a semi slammed into the back of her car pushing it into another semi. A number of other cars were involved in the accident.

4 people have been taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

http://www.wxyz.com/news/story.aspx?content_id=6d4c7c2e-a2c7-4c4e-bde1-560bc79e34fa

[liberal N proud]

3. That is why when you are on the road...

You have to drive your vehicle and every other vehicle on the road. Cell phones and other distractions are too dangerous, driving is a full time activity.

[SharonAnn]

33. That's what killed my mother. Truck driver with diabetic spell, lost consciousness

and drifted right into her lane, hitting the left real quarter panel behind the wheel. Spun the car sideways in front of the truck (70 mph) and rolled. Killed her instantly when the car first slipped into the air and came down upside down on the drivers side of the roof. Rolled for quite a ways after that and then went through the median, across the other lanes of traffic and hit a guard rail head on.

Thank God no one else was killed.

There wasn't anything she could've done about it.

When you battle with an 18 wheeler, you lose.

[DavidDvorkin]

4. The market will take care of it

Regulation bad, unrestricted free enterprise good. Or so I've been hearing for years.

[walldude]

5. Commercial truck and bus drivers have to take a yearly

medical exam. I have seen some drivers pass that shouldn't have. But the fact is that with the economy and the cost of fuel the country needs all the drivers it can get. The question here should be what are you willing to pay in increases in any product that is transferred on the ground. Truckers don't make crap. Most of them pretty much live in the sleepers in their trucks.

They work long lonely hours for little pay and the costs of their fuel has skyrocketed. We talk about 4 dollar a gallon gas but truckers are paying 5 for diesel already. You want safe roads? You want healthy truckers? How much are you willing to pay for it? Are you willing to pay enough of an increase in trucked items(and concert, show and theater tickets) to pay a truck driver a living wage? Perhaps enticing new drivers to the road? Or is this going to be a bitch fest where people piss all over the evil truck drivers, instead of an honest conversation where people are actually willing to make sacrifices to get safer roads.

Oh and btw, as a general rule truckers are the safest, best drivers on the road.

[Indenturedebtor]

6. Truckers make a tidy sum of money

I dunno if you're looking at what people make in general but I've taken credit apps from truckers who make 80-120 grand a year, and they don't have any education or professional experience worth looking at.

How about we build some trains like a developed country?

[walldude]

7. Not sure what those drivers are hauling but I work in the concert

industry and drivers here make about 50K.. I've never seen a driver that makes the kind of money you are talking about and my indusrty pays pretty well..

[Indenturedebtor]

9. Both of them were hazmat haulers

But do you know how hard it is to make 50k plus nowadays with a degree?

Damn hard.

[Mopar151]

10. All you gotta do

Is haul hazardous cargo, work ridiculous hours, and work for somebody smart enough to know that you can't afford to have an idiot playin' with gasoline.

[Indenturedebtor]

14. Or you could hop in a time machine and go back to a time when you could make decent money

Doing something else with no degree ;)

Seriously.

[Mopar151]

8. If we only could

The trouble is, railroads in this country were the model for business scams and land grabs, haulin' freight was at least fifth on the list....

The state of our railbeds is a national disgrace, and won't likely change without a major paradigm shift - should we nationalize the rail system, and make it work like aviation?

[Xithras]

12. You're kidding, right? Or you aren't understanding how trucking works.

It's not uncommon for owner-operators to have that kind of "income", but they generally spend most of it paying for FUEL and paying off their $120,000+ truck costs. If that truck driver has $40k a year left after paying off his operating expenses, he's doing damned good. A huge number of them barely break even. A growing number of them can't even do that anymore.

If you're an owner-operator, you don't have a boss to pay the fuel bill or fix your truck. You do that yourself, and the money comes out of your own pocket.

The only "company" truckers that make that kind of money are the guys who haul high explosives and other high-hazard cargos. Good money if you can get it, but those jobs are rare and hard to land. The companies paying that money for those jobs get hundreds of applicants for each opening, and they reject anyone who doesn't have a completely spotless driving record, criminal history, and credit report.

Most truckers make crap wages, with some of the most lowly paid pocketing only a few cents for every mile they drive.

[Indenturedebtor]

13. Nowadays 40k is a lot of money. Read my other post there

The two guys I was talking about were hazmat drivers. I don't know what you do for a living but 40-50k is damn good money nowadays WITH a degree.

[Mopar151]

21. A semantic tangle

The thing is, you seem to be implying that education, knowledge, and a degree are synonymous - just ain't so! Ask those HAZ-MAT haulers (or my uncle, the petroleum hauler) about the number of professional licenses and credentials they have to maintain - by my reckoning, they are easily the equivalent of a BS.

[Indenturedebtor]

23. A Bachelors at bare minimum estimate is about 7,000 hours

So I doubt it. That's minimum without 40 page term papers etc. A BS requires a hell of a lot more work than a BA for that matter. Then you factor in the expense and debt, the extra work in highschool, community service, etc.

I'm not saying that truckers don't deserve to make a living or that they don't work hard or anything. But I don't think they fall into the "completely cheated and fucked" category.

[Mopar151]

30. Don't doubt it

Lookit - I'm a machinist and engineering tech who's worked with everybody from PHD's to the temps from the halfway house - EVERYBODY learns a little differently, from many sources - and too much reliance on any single source or approach can make someone nearly useless in the real world.:crazy: Not to mention the (Republicans?) ones who were determined never to be made to think again once they got the sheepskin.....:dunce:
Experience, hours and working conditions, and downside risk exposure all play into this , too :think:

[Indenturedebtor]

32. Perhaps there's someone on DU who has both?

Work experience doesn't at all factor - most have to work to get through school... and they have to work after ;)

You can spot a puke a mile away in college. They're the stupid ones who like to hit each other with wooden paddles. Seriously they are the dumb kids in college. Always.

[A HERETIC I AM]

19. Some Car-Haul drivers can make that much.

I was a Teamster Car Haul driver and the top guys on my board were grossing $100,000 easily. I admit that those are NOT the norm, by any stretch, but car haul is one freight class that a driver can make some good bucks. At least it was the case 4 years ago when I got out of it and went back to motor racing. I was non union on my last car haul gig and had no problem pulling in a grand a week take home.

[Indenturedebtor]

24. See they don't tell you that shit when they're convincing you to go to college

I think that I would much prefer the work as well. I'm not working as long of hours now but for 3 years I put in 60-80 hours a week, and on special events about 120. No exaggeration. I was doing well to pull in 50 heh. And I had to put up with horrible people and 110 degree heat in the process.

Good thing I indebted myself to the hilt and worked my ass off all those years lol.

Good for you.

[4dsc]

25. Bedbuggers' still make good $$$$$$

It use to be that bedbuggers(people that drive you moving vans) use to make well over $300,000 to $400,000 a year minus expenses.. While corporate America has taken its toll on many of these drivers, one can still make a decent living in the moving business.. But its very hard work..

Heck, I still make about $70,000-80,000 as a company driver and I probably only work about 10 months a year..

[mantis49]

15. Not all of them.

There's a wide range of pay scales, depending on many things. Depends on the company, whether or not they are Teamsters Union. Then there are the owner/ operators that are barely getting by.

[ChoralScholar]

28. Thats the truth

The Teamsters' retirement plan is pretty awesome. My dad (out of the local 878 in Little Rock) got 100 dollars per month for every year he had paid union dues. There was a while that he made more retired than I made working.

[brentspeak]

16. ????

Most truckers today are struggling mightily. A lot of them have gone out of business thanks to fuel costs.

[ChoralScholar]

27. Many Owner Operators do make that much

but the cost of owning and maintaining your own rig and buying your own diesel fuel makes that 80k-120k look more like what most truckers make - 40-50k.

[Doremus]

17. Truck drivers should find another occupation 'cause the clock is ticking on trucking.

Don't get me wrong, I support truckers and stand in solidarity with them. It's often a lousy job with long hours, not to mention the increasing pressures of fuel prices.

I hope they see the "Road Closed" sign ahead and start making exit plans, i.e. career training, job research, etc. The days of the over the road trucker are almost up and I'd hate to see them caught short.

[ChoralScholar]

29. And how will we get things from railroads, oceans, rivers and airports to places of business?

If you can lay your eyes on it, it's been on a truck at some point. I don't see how it's going to change drastically anytime soon.

[A HERETIC I AM]

18. Medical exams for Commercial Drivers are required every two years, not annually.

Unless a medical condition exists which requires closer monitoring, a Commercial Drivers Medical Card is good for 24 months.

http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/topics/medical/aboutDOTexam.htm

[readmoreoften]

11. God damn these sick truckers, who continue to selfishly try to feed their families while ill.

If they worked harder, they'd be able to afford personal "little people" chefs who could live in the back of their cabs so that they could eat fresh meals high in omega-3 and vitamins. But no... These lazy bastards won't use their money on personal "little people" chefs, and instead they eat truck stop food. When they were protesting the price of gas, did they think once to protest the lack of exercise equipment at truck stops? No. They didn't.

Why can't their kids quit college so these truck drivers can retire? Why did they selfishly have children in the first place 20 years ago? Why don't they routinely fly to France so they can get proper medical care like any normal person would? Have they considered suicide now that they are worthless to us? Why didn't they return to school and become physical therapists or software developers before it was too late? Can't their wives get a third job?

I'm just so sick of these malnourished, undereducated, uninsured, gas using, air breathing, student loan debt having because they didn't work two full time jobs through college, low salary, glum-faced, workers !

[Buns_of_Fire]

20. Damn right there are! Why, just this morning, some silly sumbitch...

What?.....oh, you said sick TRUCKERS!

Never mind.:blush:

[galledgoblin]

22. not at all surprised

I don't blame the truckers, either. it's another symptom of the larger broken transportation system.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

26. "admits it hasn't completed any of eight recommendations safety regulators have proposed since 2001"

heckuva job there, y'all... :mad: