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Post by Fozzy on Nov 5, 2004 17:16:34 GMT -5
Take my opinion on getting info on this meds! TRUCKINGhas I think on their mind and it is not YOU! I should know I just off their truck from training and if I would have known in advance what the actual truth was I would have never even looked twice at TRUCKING. They will keep on on a truck as long as they can due to their making a wag of money off you. He is and example and numerous complaints from trainee drivers. 275 hours policy (RIGHT) My experience and a lot others too! Week 1 > 70 hours of service lucky you will get 4 to 6 hours a day. Week 2 they will send you into New York, New Jersey for seems a life time. Major of time parked, traffic jams or just running little short routes. Then your trainer decide to do home time possible 4 to 6 days gone, motel time. The way I look at your situation TRUCKING will put you in a truck with trainer, after training their going to pull the some old nuts. Sorry your medical report indicate you can drive for this company. They used for training purposes only. Example for me, out 42 days hours drive time was 189 behind wheel. Average drive time per day 4.5 hours. This was not due to my ability to drive, it was short routes, swaps, split loads and down time due to New York and New Jersey runs. At 189 hours speed at average 50 = .36 cent per mile is $3402.00 for TRUCKING Your weekly wage is $325.00 before taxes. The longest run we had run was 543 miles then right back to the East coast. The Quallcomm is a major headache for trainees too. They love to slam you on line 4 constantly. Their watching you like a hawk. Just my opinion double even triple check your med status and make sure your willing to actual triple your out time for TRUCKING. TRUCKING knows all and they just wait to Enterprises you when you least expect it!
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Post by Pcuthbert on Nov 8, 2004 15:03:48 GMT -5
Hi Fozzy;
No offense intended, but I had a hard time following your post. I gather that you were quite upset at the time you wrote it.
Could you help me out by re-reading it and perhaps interpreting it for me. I am not sure if you left out words or not, but the continuity seems a little off to me.
Thanks for your help;
Pat
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Post by Fozzy on Nov 9, 2004 5:31:42 GMT -5
I guess I should have just put;
"INSERT YOUR COMPANY HERE_______________________". The point being is that there are such little difference in training companies and for new drivers that saying one company is worse or better because they are doing exaclty what almost every other training company does is just self-serving or just a waste of time.
Fozzy
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Post by Pcuthbert on Nov 9, 2004 19:37:43 GMT -5
No problem. I can see that you have a frustrating place of work, and that sometimes you vent here. We all do it.
I am happy that you took no offense.
I am a bit frustrated at the moment, as I found out at 16:30 that I must be 8 hours away from my home terminal by noon tomorrow.
I normally start my shift at 06:00, but this will mean being 2 hours down the road by that time. This means in the yard by 02:00 to pretrip and load and out of bed by 01:30.
Moves the whole day up by 4 hours without any real forwarning.
Ah well, Ours is to make the customer happy. I will be back in bed by about 2 PM for a couple of hours.
Take care on the road all;
Pat
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Post by drecurt on Apr 5, 2005 0:44:54 GMT -5
I know this is an old thread but I am new and felt like putting in my two cents for what it's worth. Wow!!!!! So many opinions and lots of information to take in. My name is Dawn and I am currently in the process of signing on with a company as a student. I also am currently taking medication for depression and am not worried in the least about whether I get approved to drive for a company. If I don't get chosen, oh well, I'll try someone who will give me the time of day. I am more than capable of driving for someone whether on meds or not. A job is a job and nobody wants to work but we have to. You'd be surprised how many people take medication that causes them problems such as Paxil, but it doesn't mean we cannot function on a job. I am a firm believer though that truck drivers need to have their own set of rules as far as the DOT is concerned. Truckers and truck drivers in training need to be honest with themselves and the trucking industry. If the medication makes you tired you should ask for something else. I have taken several different medications for depression throughout my life and my main complaint was (in all cases except today) that they made me tired. I HATED that. I have always wanted to be a truck driver and now I can say is the right time as I have finally found the BEST medication for depression. EFFEXOR. My doctor told me it is not a medication that makes you tired and she was right. I was able to drive on a vacation from Texas to Ohio straight thru for the first time in my life. I thought it was a fluke but I was able to get back to Texas the same way with no problems. It's doesn't have an amphetimine in it that I know of and I am not addicted to it. I don't like the fact that I have to take it but since I do take it I'm glad I found one that works as well as it does. Depression should not be a reason to keep anyone from driving a truck for a living. My main point here (sorry for rambling) is that people should use their own judgement. If you know that a medication makes you tired then you should DEFINETLY not be driving for a living. I know that on or off the meds that I can handle the job as a job is a job and we all have to work as I stated before. God bless all of you. If we all didn't have different opinions what a boring world this would be.
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Post by Fozzy on Apr 5, 2005 5:13:26 GMT -5
I think you've missed the point also. It doesnt matter what YOU think about how well YOU adapt to whatever drug you are on. The liability to the carriers is what is the main issue. If you are feeling like a million bucks and the drug helps you to be better than the average human. You could be used by the opposition's lawyers as THE problem! Even if you are envolved in an accident where a drunk comes across the center line and hits you full blast in the grill... the trial lawyers could make the case that IF you were not on these meds that you could have possibly done something to protect the drunk from themselves. When a company foots their own insurance bills they can see this as a possible threat.
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Post by drecurt on Apr 5, 2005 6:34:49 GMT -5
You're right, it doesn't matter what I think but to be honest there are more people on than off the drugs anymore. Companies are just going to have to regulate these drugs as they do others by having Dr. letters, regular blood tests for medication levels as they do for some other meds. I just don't think it's something that the companies NEED to be so worried about but I do get your point Fozzy. Thanks for responding. Dawn
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Post by drecurt on Apr 5, 2005 12:42:14 GMT -5
Thought I'd share if anyone is interested.
Just got back from applying at Stevens Transport. They flat out refuse to hire anyone who is on ANY anidepressants. However, they will hire you after you have been off the medication for thirty days and then you have to have a Dr.'s note stating that you can stay off the medication. If your on anti-depressants don't go off of them just to get a job. It's not worth it, but be sure and ask any company you may apply with TEXTbefore TEXTyou go through hours of filling out paper work like I did.
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Post by Fozzy on Apr 5, 2005 15:26:15 GMT -5
Well, I'm sorry to hear that. I would be very careful though. If a job offer to work for anyone is actually forcing people off of meds that seem to help them deal with things while they are in their "normal" lives and then the stress and topsy-turvey environment hits them, what could some of the possible health and personal outcomes be?
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Post by drecurt on Apr 5, 2005 20:41:10 GMT -5
Thanks Fozzy. I'm not put out by it though. I know that there is someone out there who will hire me and I will not go off the meds just for a job. That's just their policy and so be it. It's really their loss anyway because I bring to any job an excellent work ethic and excellent customer service. Again, policies are in place for a reason and they obviously have their reasons.
Dawn
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Post by drmike on May 18, 2005 23:48:02 GMT -5
Hey Trucker Tom . Where do you train? I don't want to come to your school cause you are biased and uninformed.
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Post by truckertom on May 23, 2005 9:57:37 GMT -5
"Hey Trucker Tom . Where do you train? I don't want to come to your school cause you are biased and uninformed."
Here is the trouble: I can feel all the sympathy in the world for sufferers of depression. And mine is not the opinion of someone that is uninfromed on the subject or has never suffered. This is not a social discussion where we mesh our opinions and bump our heads together on how justified the rules are. Fozzy and I both keep getting told how "ignorant" we are about depression. That it is a chemical imbalance that is not the fault of the person who is suffering it.
I can feel all the sympathy in the world for depression sufferers, but the medication is going to show up in a drug screen. Paxil may have improved the lives of many sufferers of depression, but if it is on the company list of things you can't take and drive for them, we can argue this point untill the end of the world and it won't make a difference.
Telling the truth does not make me a hater. Neither does it make Fozzy a hater....no matter how many times people accuse us of being just that.
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Post by Pcuthbert on May 23, 2005 15:22:45 GMT -5
Tom et al;
I agree with you about "Rulz is Rulz".
For those that disagree, please contact the folk who can change the rulz. If enough people contact their government rep with the correct information, these changes can and will be made.
The politicos feel that one letter (or email) is the same as teh feelings of 1000 people. Make your voice heard. It echos 999 others.
Pat
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Post by Fozzy on May 23, 2005 15:43:41 GMT -5
Telling the truth does not make me a hater. Neither does it make Fozzy a hater....no matter how many times people accuse us of being just that. Bravo Tom! That was a great reply. The problem here on this question is just like some answers on other equally touchy subjects. We have through years of experience learned the truth of how the industry and the world in general operates. We know the difference between someones desire and someones reality often collide. We try to describe the facts to people and they sometimes "lash out" at those who they see as the enemy, when we are only in fact OBSERVERS of the process. We describe the POTENTIAL problems and the reaction is one of ridicule and attacks from people. I KNOW the truth, the truth is not my enemy. Telling the truth is just plain offensive to some people.
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Post by truckertom on May 27, 2005 11:45:18 GMT -5
Many see us telling them the truth about the industry as some personal "put down". I have an old friend that discovered he has a seasure disorder back in the 80's, why he never knew before this is a mistery to us all. But when he had that seizure, he was happy to know what it was that had been haunting him all his life.
But that one seizure was enough to knock him out of the trucking business as a driver. He went through rehab, got on the meds but his income has never returned to what it was when he was a driver. Now he wants to return to trucking but he cannot, he is on Tegretol and you cannot take that and drive a comm. vehicle.
This guy was a GREAT driver back in the day, one of the best I have ever known. He could take an old junk truck and make that old lady of the road sit up and run down the road like it was a new Pete with a 425 Cat in it.
Now, he mows lawns for a living. Fair? No it isn't. The road is in this guys blood, and now he sits at the end of the day talking to all his old trucking buddies about times gone by.
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