New Hires/Gray Areas

Hello everyone. I have been away for a bit but several events have given me reason to return.

Some background. My name is Robert Palm. In the last two years I have been building what we hope will be a reliable source of assistance for North American Truck Drivers and Their Family in Times of Crisis.

Since early 2014, we have assisted 42 trucker families with helping bring a deceased trucker home for burial, getting a truckers wife to his side after a severe injury or major medical episode, or getting a trucker home when a disaster wipes out his/her home or a tragedy strikes his family while he is out on the road.

Here is some reality we have learned. ... One ... if you are a new hire in the industry, or an old hand moving to a new company ... READ the insurance policy! We had one trucker on his first run pass away far from home and the company (nor workers comp) would cover any of the expense of getting his remains home because his insurance wouldn't kick in until he was on the job 60 days!!

Second ... "off duty" .... if you are logged off duty .... don't die, get injured, have a heart attack, and hope everything remains fine at home. You are on YOUR time. We have had several instances of truckers passing away in their truck, getting injured in the truck stop parking lot, and more ... where the company refused to assist because the driver was logged "off duty" and the event was not "work related". If you're injured and are violating a company policy .... don't look to them for help.

Now ... many companies will and do assist. We have had several that will tell us that they have it covered and a couple that have even paid funeral expenses..... which can be thousands of dollars.

Let me give you an example: to get a deceased trucker home (regardless of fault or cause) your first expense is "event local transport" What is that? That is the cost (usually in the $300.00 - $400.00 range) to get the remains from the "event" ... say a truck stop ... to hospital, to medical examiner and finally to a local funeral home in that far away city.

Second expense. There are minimal requirements that few know, to fly (whole) remains across state lines, they must be embalmed. Usually anywhere between $900.00 to $1,200. Prices vary because there isn't uniformity in the funeral business. Perhaps the drivers belief, or family's request is that the remains are cremated. There is a 48 hour hold in most cases in the event of any official investigation, and the cost is usually around $900.00. Either way, proper permits must be in place to allow for transport or cremation. Just a note: you can mail cremains ... we don't.

Third expense: Transportation. A flight can be upwards of $750.00. Ground transportation (in a hearse) is about $2.00 per mile (minimum).

The fourth expense is the "home town local transportation". To pick the remains up from a local airport to the family funeral home is another $300.00 - $400.00.

All total, with no insurance, no company assistance, no VA ... (6 weeks to 6 months) ... getting a deceased trucker home runs an average of nearly $2,500.00!!

SOMETIMES ... the local family funeral home will pick up the costs just to get the remains home. SOMETIMES ... they want payment UPFRONT!!

There is no law, statute, regulation, ordinance or any other written or unwritten rule that says your employer must help if tragedy strikes. None.

Trucking can be and sometime is a very dangerous profession. I've been doing it since "82 and would never wish to do anything else. I guess my point here is to remind everyone to check the paperwork, look at the company policy on death, injury, emergencies at home and BE PREPARED!

Many of the phone calls we receive are from new widows not knowing where to turn or what to do.

Should admin allow it, we are www.truckersfinalmile.org.

We operate only on the donations we receive.

Thank you for your time, and be safe.

Robert Palm, Founder truckersfinalmile.org Respect and Dignity for North American Truck Drivers 888.857.7871 robert@truckersfinalmile.org Facebook@truckersfinalmile.org and a rare tweet @finalmiledotorg

And "thanks" to TruckingTruth for all the support!

Hey Robert!

Good to hear from you again! You should stop by more often. I have supported the Trucker's Final Mile in the past and would encourage others to look in to it as well.

Also, a little known fact is that you can donate to Charities through your Amazon purchase.

Amazon Smile donates 0.5% of the price of your eligible purchases to the charitable organization of your choice. Amazon Smile is the same Amazon you know with the added benefit of supporting charitable organizations.

You can make a donation to Trucker's Final Mile or any other trucking charity of your choice. If you order from Amazon as much as I do, this may be beneficial to you.