keepontrucking
Junior Member
well, here goes. I was recently fired from a truck driving job for " falsifying " a d.o.t. ( department of transportation) physical. this company is a very large ( top 5 ) transportation outfit that is based out of iowa. i live in ohio. i did not have a cdl and was looking to get into this industry, so i found this company which offered " company sponsored training". They bussed me out to iowa and put me through a 2 week school where i obtained my cdl. In exchange for this i had to sign an 8 month contract that basically stated that i would remain employed with them for 8 months. After completing school i was sent to company h.q. to do 5 days of company orientation and at the end of this 5 days i was officially hired by them and given an employee i.d. #. The next phase of this process was to do 28 days of over the road training with a " trainer" . upon sucessful completion of this phase i would become a certified "over the road" truck driver, and become a regular employee of the company.
I suppose a little bit of backround on myself is relavent here, so i am a 27 yr old white male. about a year and a half ago i sustained a severe back injury and was put on very strong painkillers by my doctor. about 4 months ago my back was pretty much healed and it was time to stop taking these painkillers. when i did i experienced what i later learned to be " acute withdrawl from opiates" . . . . not fun. long story short i end up going to a specialist who put me on a new medication called SUBOXONE which would allow me to stop taking the painkillers without experiencing any discomfort. everything was going fine, and i decided truck driving was what i wanted to do, so i discused this w/ my doctor. He advised me that this suboxone was not restricted by the d.o.t., and would not even show up on a d.o.t. drug screen, which it did not. he also advised me that i had " rights to confidentiality" regarding my situation.
The first day of truck driving school we were all taken to a clinic to get our physicals and drug screens. there was a question on the forms i filled out asking about past medical history. one of the questions asked if i had ever been an alcoholic / drug addict. i don't consider myself to be a drug addict. i've never bought drugs off of the street, i'm not a crackhead or a junkie laying in an alley or anything like that. so i answer the question "no", take the drug test and go back to school. i was a little worried about it because i was taking my medication throughout this whole time. a couple of days later 1 of the guys was sent home for failing his drug test so i assumed the results were in, and never heard anything about mine. my doctor apparently knew what he was talking about.
So i get hired at the end of orientation and begin my training. a week into training i ran out of suboxone. i had been taking this stuff for about two months and according to my doctor i could just quit taking it and get on with the rest of my life. i couldn't sleep that night, which was one of the symptoms of withdrawl, but i didn't think much of it. i figured i wasn't used to sleeping in a rolling, rumbling truck, no big deal. over the course of the next day i kept feeling worse and worse, and eventually i knew something was seriously wrong. i told my trainer the situation and that i needed to go to an emergency room. he was cool about it, but was very by the book, and insisted on letting dispatch know what was going on. he told them he was taking me to the e.r. and the name of the medication i was on etc.. i figured that would be the end of my stint with this company right then and there, but never heard anything. the e.r. gave me some meds to help me relax and sleep and everything was fine. i drove with my trainer for almost another 4 weeks to finish out my training, and in my trainer's words " did an exceptional job". one of the best students he ever had in his 25 years. so i finally get to go home after being gone for almost 2 months straight. at the end of my home time i called in to dispatch to find out what truck i was going to be assigned and where to pick it up. at this point i had almost forgotten about the e.r. visit and was excited about my new career. i absolutely loved hauling freight all over the country. when i called dispatch they told me there was a note on my file and that i needed to talk to someone in thier safety department. this guy gets me on the phone and starts grilling me about this suboxone medication and tells me that thier hands are tied and they have to fire me. didn't even want to hear what i had to say. says that i falsified my physical.....that's got to be a first
It's been about a week now and i have not spoken to anyone within the company nor have i heard anything from them. but there is the matter of this contract. from what i understand if you breach your contract you owe them something to the tune of $10,000
Now at this point i should point out that during my training i was paid a $50 a day flat salary. once i became a company driver i would be making what roughly equaled to be a $25-30 per hour job. it seems awfully funny to me that they would wait to fire me just before they actually had to start paying me real money. why not do it 4 weeks ago when they were informed about my situation? i guess it wasn't an issue when they were only paying me $5 per hour to haul thier freight. so where do i go from here?
- do i have rights to confidentiality about being on that medication?
- i don't have any interest in trying to sue them, but would it be possible to leverage this into getting out of my contract?
- if i apply with another trucking company they will surely contact my old company, how much of this situation should i expect the old company to tell the new company?
any information from someone educated in these matters would be GREATLY appreciated thank youWhat is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
I suppose a little bit of backround on myself is relavent here, so i am a 27 yr old white male. about a year and a half ago i sustained a severe back injury and was put on very strong painkillers by my doctor. about 4 months ago my back was pretty much healed and it was time to stop taking these painkillers. when i did i experienced what i later learned to be " acute withdrawl from opiates" . . . . not fun. long story short i end up going to a specialist who put me on a new medication called SUBOXONE which would allow me to stop taking the painkillers without experiencing any discomfort. everything was going fine, and i decided truck driving was what i wanted to do, so i discused this w/ my doctor. He advised me that this suboxone was not restricted by the d.o.t., and would not even show up on a d.o.t. drug screen, which it did not. he also advised me that i had " rights to confidentiality" regarding my situation.
The first day of truck driving school we were all taken to a clinic to get our physicals and drug screens. there was a question on the forms i filled out asking about past medical history. one of the questions asked if i had ever been an alcoholic / drug addict. i don't consider myself to be a drug addict. i've never bought drugs off of the street, i'm not a crackhead or a junkie laying in an alley or anything like that. so i answer the question "no", take the drug test and go back to school. i was a little worried about it because i was taking my medication throughout this whole time. a couple of days later 1 of the guys was sent home for failing his drug test so i assumed the results were in, and never heard anything about mine. my doctor apparently knew what he was talking about.
So i get hired at the end of orientation and begin my training. a week into training i ran out of suboxone. i had been taking this stuff for about two months and according to my doctor i could just quit taking it and get on with the rest of my life. i couldn't sleep that night, which was one of the symptoms of withdrawl, but i didn't think much of it. i figured i wasn't used to sleeping in a rolling, rumbling truck, no big deal. over the course of the next day i kept feeling worse and worse, and eventually i knew something was seriously wrong. i told my trainer the situation and that i needed to go to an emergency room. he was cool about it, but was very by the book, and insisted on letting dispatch know what was going on. he told them he was taking me to the e.r. and the name of the medication i was on etc.. i figured that would be the end of my stint with this company right then and there, but never heard anything. the e.r. gave me some meds to help me relax and sleep and everything was fine. i drove with my trainer for almost another 4 weeks to finish out my training, and in my trainer's words " did an exceptional job". one of the best students he ever had in his 25 years. so i finally get to go home after being gone for almost 2 months straight. at the end of my home time i called in to dispatch to find out what truck i was going to be assigned and where to pick it up. at this point i had almost forgotten about the e.r. visit and was excited about my new career. i absolutely loved hauling freight all over the country. when i called dispatch they told me there was a note on my file and that i needed to talk to someone in thier safety department. this guy gets me on the phone and starts grilling me about this suboxone medication and tells me that thier hands are tied and they have to fire me. didn't even want to hear what i had to say. says that i falsified my physical.....that's got to be a first
It's been about a week now and i have not spoken to anyone within the company nor have i heard anything from them. but there is the matter of this contract. from what i understand if you breach your contract you owe them something to the tune of $10,000
Now at this point i should point out that during my training i was paid a $50 a day flat salary. once i became a company driver i would be making what roughly equaled to be a $25-30 per hour job. it seems awfully funny to me that they would wait to fire me just before they actually had to start paying me real money. why not do it 4 weeks ago when they were informed about my situation? i guess it wasn't an issue when they were only paying me $5 per hour to haul thier freight. so where do i go from here?
- do i have rights to confidentiality about being on that medication?
- i don't have any interest in trying to sue them, but would it be possible to leverage this into getting out of my contract?
- if i apply with another trucking company they will surely contact my old company, how much of this situation should i expect the old company to tell the new company?
any information from someone educated in these matters would be GREATLY appreciated thank youWhat is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?