Back To Square One...

Just graduated the SWIFT driving academy in Corsicana, TX. upon graduating I was informed that they would not be hiring me. I had back surgery this past september and another procedure in january of this year. My medical release form had a lifting/pulling restriction so they won't hire me with that. So now I have a cdl school loan to pay back, which stings a little, I was on the veteran scholarship program, so the academy would have been free for me as long as I stayed at swift for at least 9 months. So going forward I just need to find a company that doesn't do hair follicle testing, that's what started this whole mess. the painkillers I was on after surgery popped up on the hair follicle test.

But on a positive note, I finally have my CDL. The swift academy I went to was great, I had a really good time. I would highly recommend them to anyone looking to get their CDL.

Congrats!

Seems strange the medical issue wasn't addressed up front though, I'd thought they took care of all that during the first couple days of orientation.

Josh, did you completely disclose this surgery and the painkillers prescribed on your Medical long form? This is the one you filled-out before the DOT physical was administered.

G-town: yea I told them about the surgery and that I was good to go and pain free. I never even thought about telling them about painkillers, I thought that was just common knowledge that after a surgery you were on meds for pain for a week or so. I’ve never done any kind of drug either so I’ve never worried about a urine test or hair follicle test before, if I would’ve known that was going to pop up then I definitely would of told them just to be crystal clear.

But actually I think we are getting things cleared up and they are working on hiring me now. My doctor was able to fax them a proper medical release with no restrictions. Just up to the safety dept at SWIFT to sign off on everything and I’ll get hired on, again lol. But regardless of what happens SWIFT has been first class about all of this and they are doing everything possible to help me out and get me on board. Looking forward to starting my driving career very soon

Is it going down on your record as a failed drug test? Terminated for breaking company policy? I'd be most concerned about those being on my record if it doesn't work out with Swift.

Rob T. I don’t think it will, I provided all the info they asked for concerning the medicine I was on and even faxed them my full prescription list for this year, which both meds that popped up on the follicle test were On that list. So it’s not the meds on the follicle test that they weren’t hiring me for, it was the lifting/pulling restriction that did me in. They said they can’t hire with any kind of restriction like that. But my dr faxed them an updated form with zero restrictions so they are working on hiring me again. I technically was never hired while in the academy, they don’t hire until you pass your cdl test and graduate the academy

Congrats!

Seems strange the medical issue wasn't addressed up front though, I'd thought they took care of all that during the first couple days of orientation.

Yeah, that stinks you didn't know until the end. We are a "100%-No-Touch" carrier, and we still have a requirement that says you have to be 100% certified by your doctor to return to work driving a commercial motor vehicle and have no restrictions.

This is my personal, and not professional opinion: I'm guessing the higher risk to workers-comp claims makes the risk higher. Because if a driver were to attempt something that was outside of the limits of what the Dr recommended and gets hurt, the company is still on the hook for that injury, and its hard to prove otherwise.