Physical Endurance Tests

Hey y'all,

I am still in training for my CDL but have noticed something on company sites. Once you get to orientation they have you do a physical test to check your condition / endurance. Can someone give me an idea what they are really looking for? Are they just checking to make sure the new hire is not going to fall over with a myocardial infarction or if they are looking to find athletes for the company softball team? What does the test consist of and how hard do they push? If you don't meet their standards - what happens next?

Going in and out of the cab using 3 points of contact....Maybe waddle under the trailer to check 5th wheel locks kingpin.......climb in & out of the back of the trailer. Dry van.....flatbeds a total different duck

It varies by each company. As Stevo pointed out some require climbing in and out of trucks, trailers and even the "duck walk" under the trailer. This shows them you're capable of climbing under the trailer to check the coupling, as well as pretripping your equipment. I definitely would not want to be kneeling on the parking lot at the truck stop in god knows what. Flatbed will require you to lift tarps onto the trailer, some up to 70 pounds or more.

When I had my physical for food service they had taken my resting heart rate. I was then put through an intense workout that had me lifting an increasing amount of weights in a milk crate until I reached the goal of 90 pounds and lifting to a shelf waist high with proper lifting techniques. I was then told to do the same thing until I reached the goal of 60 pounds to a shelf shoulder height, then 40 over my head. Next was stepping on a small step platform on/off to the beat of a metronome for 60 seconds, climbed a 7 foot ladder skipping every other step, then pushed a 2 wheel dolly about 100 yards loaded with 200 pounds while balancing it to open a door. After each exercise I was given 60 seconds to rest before my heart rate was taken. They had some sort of formula that took into account my resting heart rate and age to come up with a heart rate maximum I needed to be under. That job was one of the most physical trucking jobs so it's not likely you'd face something like that in your typical OTR job.

With my current job there was a lift test that used some high tech machines to measure resistance. They had me do shoulder presses, bench press, leg presses and some exercises with my wrist. It was meant to see exactly what my strength is but personally I find those machines to be a P.I.T.A. I also was timed with push ups and sit ups for 60 seconds each to do as many as possible. All this data was put into an algorithm that gave the company a yes or no answer of whether or not I'm physically fit for my job. The job i have was rated a 4 out of 5 for some kind of occupational safe lifting score and I scored a 4.4 giving me the green light to continue on.

If you have any specific company in mind you can ask about that specific company and we can give you an idea of exactly what the physical consists of. We have drivers for nearly every mega carrier that contribute to the forum.

Interesting....none of the companies I have driven for has done a physical test of any kind when I hired on.

Laura

Interesting....none of the companies I have driven for has done a physical test of any kind when I hired on.

Laura

'Cause you're a girl!