Profile For Oscar Graham III

If you feel this site is full of cyber bullying, I can't imagine you've ever been to any other site.

As for going down to the truck stop to get a 'real feel', good luck with that. You'll need it. The drivers sitting around in truck stops are great sources for what NOT to do by just doing the opposite of whatever they tell you, for the most part. Same with around terminals.

As for emergencies, not that you'll end up caring, but response times can be all over the place, even in rural areas. Before trucking I was on two different fire departments that responded to medical calls, both very rural. One ranked in the top 15% of fire departments, paid and volunteer, in the country for response times. The other varied from a couple minutes to nearly an hour, depending on the location and who was available to respond.

Complicating matters tremendously is that there are still a few places that don't have 911 service and instead have a regular phone number you call for emergencies. Not to mention the number of places that don't have cell service. In theory if you have a CB you can use channel 9, but it's quite likely no one is monitoring that channel. That's one of the reasons we get physicals and need to be completely honest during them.

I would never LIE during a physical. At least in the army, qualified medics were always in the field during maneuvers from anything to frostbite to heat exhaustion a soldier might experience. In many civilian trucking could even be MORE hazardous than military service during peace time.

I still believe I will be much more qualified when my weight gets below 200 pounds. If my BODY can handle the job, my MIND and SOUL can handle it.

Also, you have been fliipant about your health issues. You can't say you are healthier than a woman which is offensive to women, but then claim the victim of "but I'm disabled".

Seriously its not about you. Its about the potential of someone with heart and health issues has to KILL a family on the road, destroy company, public and private property, as well as product that results in millions of dollars in lawsuits.

We drive 80,000 pound killing machines that can torpedo down a mountain at 90+ miles per hour and burst into flames. Even if it doesn't kill anyone but the driver, the clean up and losses are staggering. The company then pays. Do you think they would take a risk on an unhealthy person?

Think real hard here. If you were the owner of a company, would you hire someone who could put your company and profits at such risk?

I believe I said I am now RECOVERING from disability. I am receiving disability pay right at the moment. I feel quite better now than I did five months ago. My doctor has told me that I am expected to fully recover (chest pains shortness or breath, chronic fatigue syndrome, suspected sleep apnea, everything) when my weight gets down below 200 pounds.

I will not even attempt a trucking career until I get below 200 pounds anyway and that could be another year from now.

It is my doctor's medical opinion that all my disabilities are obesity-related.

I never said I was ready to start driving tomorrow morning.

Let's say that right now I feel no weaker than the average 50+ age woman. Even men with a slight heart condition have a little more endurance than the average middle-age woman. Sorry, if that sounds sexist, but that is my humble opinion. I can occasionally lift up a 75-pound box and move it across my apartment without falling out dead but that does not mean I am fit to work for a moving company full time.

I was just posting here because I am bored but I wanted to try to FEEL life as a trucker out for the time being. I probably really won't know what is all about until I get out their and get my hands dirty.

Still, even a young, healthy truck driver with a heart "made of steel" could get in an injury accident (not even his own fault necessarily) and may need life-or-death treatment immediately. When I was in the army, a young soldier under 30 in my unit had a heart attack while running during PT and never had any medical condition like that before. He was on the heavy side, i should note.

I have seen a lot of heavy truck drivers and many who smoke. It seems to be a common problem. People in that condition are prime candidates for heart attacks and strokes.

One more thing I didn't mention. The crank handles for the trailers can be really tough to turn. I'm extremely strong with a great strong heart. But there have been handles so hard to turn that I kicked the handle to move it. The heavier the load, the harder to turn.

Sometimes you can stand there for 15 minutes just cranking. Try that in 110 degrees or -10. Its not fun.

There isn't a lot of physical duties on this job, but the ones we do have can be really difficult at times.

This also doesn't go into your special diet which would be hard on the road unless you stop at walmart all the time.

I think maybe you need to reconsider trucking. Sorry.

Some of you "people" posting here could be "bots" for all I know. I won't mention any names. I might just go to my local truck stop and chat with some drivers in person there to really get a FEEL for this line of earning a living. Maybe I will go to my local library and pick up a coupe of books on this subject just to while the time away.

Yes, I am willing to stop or get a cab ride to Walmart or some restaurant in town as much as possible. I definitely want to have good sandwich-making supplies while driving through Nevada whether in my own car or in a truck. Winnemucca has nothing but choke-n-pukes for hot food service. I know that from car traveling experiences in the past. Other posters at this site have already satisfied my curiosity about dealing with meals on the road a month ago. I have this whole food thing down pat now.

If I have a jug of tap water to douse my body, I am sure I can handle the landing gear when it is 115 outside. I have never heard of semi landing gear that is motorized but that might be a nice invention if it ever came to be.

Rule Number One: have at least five one gallon jugs FULL OF WATER in the vehicle (commercial truck or private automobile) while traveling through the desert or mountains all year long. Maybe a two-day food supply to boot.

Perhaps my beef is not so much with this site itself, now that I think about it, but with some posters who can't talk nice. It is cyber-bullying. But I am a tough man. Sticks and stones.....

If I do end up trying out driving, I might report back here once in a while to tell everybody how it is going even.

Nothing is made like it used to be. My moms 1973 Pontiac lasted 27 years.

Call 911 and pray. But you won't have a job anymore if you have a heart attack, it will void your DOT med card. And hopefully you'd be smart to have bought the disability insurance.

As for workmen's comp...many of these companies are self insured. It gets paid faster...but if you think you will get 100% forget it. And any pre existing condition rules it out.

Read my post on your other thread.

Is the disability insurance offered by an independent carrier or through the hiring company?

Yes, ma'am, I would like to learn more about this disability insurance. I will see what you posted

on my other thread. It might be prudent for any driver to opt for it indeed.

Dude, please stop posting! You promised all of us "You were giving up on this Website", so please go away.

Well, I changed my mine. That is my "feminine" quality!

Does anybody here know anybody here who has had a heart attack or something bad while driving a commercial truck anywhere in North America and especially in a remote area?

I am just curious as to how any driver could summon emergency medical help and how long it might take to get a response in the most rural of places any driver might be in.

I know more than one driver has had serious medical issues on the job over the history of this industry. There was a story years ago about a driver who died from a bee sting because he was allergic to bee sting and a bee got into his cab and stung him on the job.

I am not allergic to bee sting myself but I have a history of heart palpitations, chest pains, faintness and shortness of breath. Last year I did drive my car 2,500 miles, a 1995 Toyota Corolla, with good working factory air, 100,000 original miles. This was in the summer around this time of year. I drove from California, through Oregon up to Washington back down through Idaho and across the HOT 105 degree Nevada desert in broad daylight and back home safe again unscathed even with two BAD tires with some degree of tread separation!!!!!!

In short, I am NOT the least bit scared to drive my little 22-year-old Toyota across the searing Nevada desert. I have a cell phone but it might not work out in those boonies.

Perhaps, Toyota Motor Company should build Class 7/8 trucks with their same level of "famous reliability" they have had in their smaller vehicles for many decades now! My father used to tell me about big diesel trucks like Peterbilt. He said those things never have to be "messed with" (mechanically speaking) for hundreds of thousands of miles. He implied big diesel rigs were built like army tanks and navy battleships and they really should be. Perhaps, truck manufacturers should consider the potential for major lawsuits due to not building mechanically-robust vehicles and such dependability a driver can stake his life upon.

Now MEDICAL emergencies (or the potential for them to happen) are definitely NOT trivial posting topics. Anybody considering this trade should FIRST consider their overall state of health.

One more question, how much should any American company driver expect to be paid on workman's comp should he sustain a work-related disability?

I have been on W/C at least two times in the past for back injury on the job and I only received about 66% of my normal wages.

I have read Brett's literature and stuff like W/C and medical emergencies I did not seem to find there.

Im.replying.for.future.readers.

I drive a 2016 Casacdia.for.prime, one of.the largest and highest paying companies with the newest equipment, not.a.mom and pop as he implied. I have never been.denied a repair. all equipment will fail at some point and his boasts about only working for.a company with state of the art equipment is laughable if he thinks a brand new truck can't have defects, or wont react to extreme comditions. heat and cold.cause metals to.expand and contract which is pure physics. the stress will break things. extreme heat will cause APUs and reefers as well as trucks to over heat.

anyone who has waited for AAA in a car can tell you that it can take hours, even in a city. so just imagine being in the middle.of nowhere in KS or NE. so it has no.bearing on the quality of your company.how long the roadside assistance takes, they are a.contractor basically, not.your company repairmen.

he stated that he will only work for a.company that runs him.on interstates, but apparently he has never.opened an atlas. some states have limited interstates. no company is going.to pay for.mileage fuel and.maintenance costs for a driver to go out of route 200 miles. its.not.cost effective. check put dodge city and liberal Kansas. tell me how you would get.from two of the.biggest meat plants in the country to an interstate. plus, many of.tge customers pay for specific routing.

regardless.of what his personal doctor says about his fitness for duty in trucking, any company.will send him to their choice of DOT doctor and perhaps an agility test consisting of lifting various weights, bending, twisting, climbing, reaching and more. the company will decide whether to hire him based on their findings, not.his doctors.

his attitude about choosing a company is way off base. we don't choose.the company, they choose us. our choice is really selecting the company who will accept us. we've seen plenty of drivers who did stupid things to blemish their past either.criminally or moving violation wise which limited their prospects. for instance.if he "chose" to work for Prime but they said he couldn't pass their agility test and rejected him, he'd have to "choose" to work.somewhere else.

bottom line: most who start out in trucking fail. you can research the important topics and learn how to.become the best of the best..to become dispatch's "go to" driver that can open doors at various companies, or you can worry about music, the looks of the trucks, the shape of the foit pedal and if truck drivers will ever fly to th moon.

Sorry, folks, it is the next morning and I could not resist to check back here in spite of my "goodbyes" yesterday.

I want add at least one or two more things. OK, acknowledged that I would likely get roadside service in case of flats.

But what if any driver (not just me) were to have something serious like chest pains or a HEART ATTACK on the job out in the middle of nowhere? Will any trucker communications technology inside the vehicle allow emergency services like ambulance, police and fire to respond instantly? What is the longest it could take an ambulance or life-flight helicopter to reach a driver in a critical medical emergency in any part of North America in any weather?

What people here don't understand is that I have a history of heart issues and being hospitalized for heat injury. Maybe I should just stick to non-transportation type work in the relative safety of the larger city.

You do sound like a 16 yr old not a 53 yr old man sorry just my opinion

More condescending attitudes here, Mr. Moderator.

Ok, I am throwing in the towel here myself at this website. I think this site is just a bunch of bogus junk. Goodbye, adios and may you all get a flat on the inside dual when it is 125 degrees or below zero outside with a wind chill of - 35. I am tired of being treated like a criminal here.

Oscar, sorry I'm done. Each and ever piece of information I and others have given you has been dismissed, debated, and downplayed. You keep changing your story to align with and support your come back.

Not going to waste my time anymore.

Good luck.

PS - Changing what story? You did not cite an example, Mr. I don't appreciate being called a liar. I am NOT a politician.

Ok, I am throwing in the towel here myself at this website. I think this site is just a bunch of bogus junk. Goodbye, adios and may you all get a flat on the inside dual when it is 125 degrees or below zero outside with a wind chill of - 35. I am tired of being treated like a criminal here.