Comments By 40 Ton Land Captain

Western Express does NOT have cameras in their trucks. According to 2 recruiters I spoke with a few weeks ago.

There are no excuses and I don't care what people who have never smoked cannabis think about the drug. I'm looking for cold hard facts.

I smoked a little but over the summer of 2015, then quit for a full 2 months. When I applied to a trucking company, they sent me out for a DOT physical and drug screen. When it was all over, I had (still have) a 2-year medical card but never received a call back from the company. While I'm not exactly sure if my UA tested positive for THC, I feel that is the reason the company never called me back.

My question is - Is there some time frame that one must wait before they can qualify for a second attempt at DOT screening?

Call the company and ask directly what happened. They either didn't hire you for a failed drug screen or another reason came-up. Either way, you need to know what happened and if it will impact your possible career in trucking. Please update us when you have found out!

Good luck!

Thanks for the reply, Rick.

The most challenging part is having to have owned a regular driver's license in US then, as it means I have to spend at least a year there with probably low-paying jobs as an unqualified person. Does it help if I have a regular driver's license or even the one needed to drive trucks in another country? Would that help and/or (do the requirements) change from state to state? I am wondering if being granted a Green Card may help in this case.

As-salāmu ʿalaykum / Selamün aleyküm!

If you can get a "green card" then you are a perm US resident. Then you can do almost any job in the USA anywhere, anyplace. But you either need family in the USA to sponsor you or try to win a spot via the green card lottery. I am not aware of any visa category for truck drivers to come to the USA for work. However, Canada does have such visas in place. You should take a look at getting employment and a visa for driving a truck in Canada. Also, Canadian truckers can deliver and pick-up cargo from the USA, so a job in Canada would also allow you to possibly enter the USA as a trucker but you would still be unable to legally work in the USA.

Options like the J-1 student visa are often for low-wage, unskilled jobs for a limited time and the H2-B visas tend to be issued for foreign experts such as IT workers.

Look into Canada, they have a much simpler and better immigration system than the USA does. You might need to become a truck driver in Turkey or the EU first, but it is possible to get work and a visa for truck driving in Canada.

Good Luck!

I wish I was leaving stuff out of the story for you fellas but I'm not. "Theres gotta be more to it", there really isn't.

The only parts i'm leaving out of the story were parts I was arguing with my LT or parts of anxiety, and just small parts driving down the road and whats going on in-between the situation.

I just called everyone on TruckingTruths page, and they all said getting terminated for safety issue I will not get hired on for at least 1 year to 5 years.

Looks like my CDL career is indeed killed before it even started. Only option now is to fight it out with CRST safety I guess, and the odds of them giving me a job is as good as calling another company.

Try contacting a labor lawyer, someone who knows trucking would be best. If that fails then and look at what you can do that is not a big CDL company- Class B jobs like dump trucks or box trucks, for example. I would think if you can drive a local truck safely for a year then you can go OTR if that is your goal. As long as you have a class A CDL you have options... And you asked about what to tell employers? Tell them you trained on a freind's truck or some such story. If they don't check with DAC and there is no ticket on your MVR then only way would be to tell them you worked for/got fired from CRST which means you won't get the job anyways.

I think your trainer had it in for you. I have seen this before in the trucking industry. Some of these so-called trainers are real works of art. He seems to have been looking for any reason to get you canned and clipping that other truck's mirror was it. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a set-up but the trainer should have been proactive in this situation IMO. New driver is nervous in a tough situation, trainer needs to take over and help out. Otherwise, what is the point of sending a newbie out with a trainer? Oh right, it's about those newbies running team and making MONEY for the trainer, not actually teaching anything to new drivers. What a great system!

Any ideas or opinions about Hogan? As a company driver, not a lease operator. Also, would be OTR not local.

When I first started this job, I had a co-worker decide to accuse me of being a homosexual, I guess it was his way of entertaining himself. The company was made aware of this and he was supposedly warned not to do that anymore. Then they promoted him to a better paying position. Then when I turned 50, I began receiving lectures about my slow performance and that I needed to work faster. Interestingly, I did the best I could to comply and the company said in their own letter that issue was resolved.

Just my two cents but if you were harassed for being gay (I don't even think you would actually need to be, and it is NOT anyone's business anyways) plus the fact they began to cause problems once you hit 50 years of age can bring up two issues:

1. Civil rights violations/discrimination based on sexual orientation as well as creating a hostile work environment. 2. Age discrimination since you are above the threshold of 40.

Do you have any emails, letters etc about either issue? From you to the company or any responses? While you might not be able to get DOL/EEOC to go with this (you can file a complaint anyways) I would think a decent lawyer could really light a fire under their @$$es for this... Enough so as to get the company to do several things: First, stop them from reporting to DAC and/or remove anything negative they might have placed with HireRight/DAC. Second, they can change their HR files to state you resigned with notice and were a good/decent employee/driver.

I am not a lawyer, but a good lawyer is more than worth the $500 bucks or whatever it would cost to take care of this for you... Most companies do not want to deal with lawsuits or even worse, having complaints filed against them with various government agencies for various forms of discrimination and harassment let alone having their "good" name and reputation tarnished.

And asking them to remove a negative DAC report and to NOT blackball you on background checks isn't asking much of them either. It's one thing to ask someone to leave their job, it's another thing to try and ruin a person's life/career. As professional drivers we need to stand-up to this kind of abuse and mistreatment.

Again, good luck!

My advice would be to apply to a few companies right away- maybe 1 that you have no plans to hire on with but let them pull your DAC for you and see if there is anything on it yet- Next step would be to apply to a few good companies you do want to work for and see what happens...

If you do have something placed on your DAC you have rights- Right to a free copy of your DAC report once per year and also if you have been denied employment because of the info on your DAC I believe in the last 60 days as well. You can contest ANY info on your DAC report and the company that placed it there must respond to HireRight within 30 days. If they don't, HireRight must remove the info you contested.

And you can try any of the smaller, local outfits that don't pull your DAC.

Good luck!

Hey guys, I want to get into trucking but I'm trying to figure out if my medical history is likely to complicate things much.

Over recent years I have occasionally asked my doctor to put me on various medications such as Adderall (hoping it would help me to stay motivated as a freelance programmer), antidepressants (for moderate depression; only took them for a few months), and lorazepam (for occasional social anxiety). I basically self-diagnosed myself with these conditions, and my doctor had no problem writing the scripts. I wanted to see if the meds would make life any easier, but over time I've gotten to the point where I prefer handling things on my own. Some people truly need these medications, but for me, I think the problems were mostly in my head.

For the last few months I've been medication free, but I'm wondering if that alone will be enough to get me through the DOT physical. I have thumbed through some of the FMCSR's and found mention of these issues, but the language is pretty dense and I'm wondering how seriously the examiners actually scrutinize things in the field. I love driving and have a clean record, and I'm confident that none of these past issues would prevent me from becoming a skilled OTR hauler.

I've also searched around on the forums, but my understanding of the physicals is still somewhat murky. Some people make it sound as if the only real problem would be if I was still actively taking the medications. One guy mentioned running into trouble when his employer forced him (perhaps illegally) to hand over his medical records and discovered the driver's past diagnosis, but it sounds like this situation isn't too common with the reputable companies.

What are your thoughts? Have any of you guys had a close scrape (or failed to make it through) because of your history with any of these issues? Thanks.

As Rick said, the new DOT forms are more in-depth... And if you answer YES then you will need to have some real info to back-up WHY you can drive a truck SAFELY.

However, if you are clean of these drugs at least 6 months, then they won't show up on tests and more importantly (IMO) you will know how well you are doing without meds. That is something you need to think about. Can you handle the stress of this job that is much more than most jobs.

Being a trucker IS stressful. You will be gone from your home life, your routine, your family, your circle of friends etc If you have been gone for weeks or months before without a problem, then you know you can handle that part of the job well enough. If on the other hand you haven't been out of your comfort zone for an extended period of time, you might want to see if you can adjust. Some people can't and leave the industry, often in debt for training.

CDL school is INTENSE. You need to focus 110% on that for 3-4 weeks just to get your CDL, then take road tests for the 1st company go out with a trainer for anywhere from 4-8 weeks (or more) and during that time you're at another person's mercy. They can be really nice, helpful etc or they can make your life hell. Sure, you can ask for a new trainer but they might not be any better. Meanwhile you are making peanuts while the trainer is raking in the miles/dough from you. Yeah.

After that, you need another road test at the company (They expect you do much better this time cause you been with a trainer for a month or more) and then you get your own truck. Even then, you might find yourself in a truck for weeks at a time with no one else to really talk to... CB radio or even a cell phone are not the same as being able to just have a conversation with someone... It's a rough life and then you might get 3 days off (if lucky). At home you will find your family and friends have been living their lives like normal while you been OTR and as time passes.... You lose friendships, relationships grow cold etc and in-turn you might find that people at home just don't get "it"... Which leads you to want to do what? Go back OTR! Where at least the other truckers at the stops you make can understand you.... You should see where this is going. It can be easy to get into this as a job and it becomes a lifestyle which makes it difficult to leave. Many marriages have ended because of this, same for friendships etc.

Add to that the stress of being an OTR driver... Load delays, bad weather, bad food, few places to park, being kept out longer than planned/promised, etc. Not trying to stop you, there is a TON of info on this site. There are some great parts to being a trucker- Seeing the country, being able to make more money, able to move to any city in America and get a job after a year exp. going OTR. This is an occupation in DEMAND and that isn't going away.

My advice for the DOT medical: You are Superman with no memory. Think about that and you'll know what I mean :-)

Hello Everyone, I am getting ready to go to cdl training with Prime Inc at their training center in Springfield, MO. My home will be in Northeast Alabama, about 7 hours away from Springfield. So I'll be getting my cdl permit and eventually my cdl from the state of MO. The recruiter for Prime told me that once I was hired by them and was driving solo, I would have to transfer my MO cdl over to AL. Is that true? And is transferring a cdl from one state to another easy to do or do you have to retake the test? One more question: when you get your CDL, do you surrender your regular drivers license and the CDL is now your drivers license. I was under the impression that you have a regular license and your CDL. Any info on these things will be greatly appreciated ! Thanks, Gary S.

Hello Gary. I'll answer your question best that I can, maybe somebody else knows the specific laws/CFR's etc and can chime in as well.

You need to turn in your old DL in order to have a CDL. The CDL supersedes the DL as a Class A CDL also covers all other classes of commercial and private vehicles. It is a BIG No-No to have 2 DL's at the same time, example being one is a regular DL and the other is a CDL. You must be very careful when driving in your own private vehicle, any tickets or violations can and do affect your CDL as it will be your only license. This isn't a "job" you leave after doing 8 hours and go home- The CDL follows you around always-It comes with being a professional driver.

If you transfer an out of state CDL you should not have to take any tests unless you have HazMat then you will indeed need to retake the written test for that and also pay another HazMat fee again and wait for the HazMat to clear (no, doesn't matter you just got HazMat in another state, they don't care-Rules are rules) and you need to change your license over within 30 days of changing address (most states are that way, some might allow a longer period of time).

You should contact Alabama DPS and/or check their website to be sure.

How long does information stay on my DAC report? A DAC report will typically keep information on it for 10 years. However, after 7 years, things like accidents, work record, and eligibility for rehire will be removed, leaving only the dates of employment and what type of experience you had.

FMCSA regs require 10 years of job history on applications. And this is typically DRIVING JOBS, though most companies just go for 10 years on their applications.

I believe failed or refused DOT Drug/Alcohol Tests stay on permanently.

There are other things on a DAC, like the CRIMINAL PORTION, that stay on FOREVER. Most BG checks use the NCIC Criminal Database - which means if you were FINGERPRINTED - then you are gonna pop - regardless of whether or not the case was dismissed or found not guilty at trial.

So, under your theoretical example - if you were dismissed from a company in 2009, it may not be gone until 2019. And in the application process, any company you worked for less than 10 years ago, will have to be listed on your application - and may well be contacted (whether or not they appear on your DAC report - as many companies do not report to DAC).

Rick

Thanks for the 411!