TMC Orientation-DOT Physical

Hello all, new here. Received my CDL a couple of months ago and when I did my DOT physical the administrator just held up three different colored cards which I could easily identify. I’m aware I will be doing a company DOT physical on the first day up there at TMC orientation. The question I have is if they did the ishihara color test or another one. I am not able to tell what’s inside of the little dots but I am not color blind as I can see all colors and differentiate between them. I may be deficient or something is why I can not see the numbers in the dots. Hoping someone who has been through their orientation can shed some light on this. Thanks all. I go to orientation on the 22nd of this month.

So after some digging and talking with my recruiter, they do want you to pass the ishihara color blindness test. I am going to go to the eye doctor and get a waiver to send over to them to see if that will work. Will leave this post up for others to see incase anyone else runs into the same issue. Will post an update sometime next week when I get my answer. If all goes well I will also post an orientation log for TMC.

Hello Elijah, and welcome to our forum!

Go ahead and start applying at several companies. There is no waiver for a particular form of testing for color blindness. I can tell you TMC are sticklers for their requirements. I know. They rejected me on three different occasions.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Be willing to adapt and overcome. That's what trucking is all about anyway.

Good luck with your job search. Never fall prey to this common misguided perception that you have to be with a certain specific company. Trucking is similar no matter where you work. There is very little a trucking company can do to differentiate itself. Truck drivers themselves are the determining factor in this business.

Be the best you can be. You can do that no matter what name is on your truck. The person in the driver's seat makes or breaks themselves in this highly competitive environment.

I just went through this, it's difficult to find a doctor that will sign off on the waiver, so do some digging for an eye doc that understands function color deficiency. I wasn't able to find one.

My company physical simply required me to identify 9 different color panels and while not being able to tell the color, I was able to see that there were different colors present.

I'm not recommending it by any means, but for scientific reasons, I downloaded the answers to the ishihara test, memorized them to see if I could train my eyes of course. I memorized them forwards and backwards in order. Somewhat akin to memorizing a phone number and extension. It's a handy exercise to do of course.

Davy, is there a waiver for color blindness? I am unaware of this.

Davy, is there a waiver for color blindness? I am unaware of this.

It's a form in the general vision exemption. A doctor has to certify that the applicant can detect the difference in colors on a stop light. There's several other tests that must be certified on the form such as peripheral and others. If memory serves me correctly it's form 578. The applicant downloads the form and brings it to their eye doctor who fills it out.

I went to a few doctors and they wouldn't do it, they were unfamiliar with it and said they had no way to test color other than the standard tests which cover a very broad range of colors and shades. I found one that was familiar with it and used different lights to test. But it was a mute point as they passed me on the physical, yet noted color deficient.

For reference, lights appear Red or Brown, orange and white to me. Very pronounced different colors. We see colors, it's really more color mismanagement rather than color blind.

Thanks Davy!

I learn something everyday.

Red Light Green Light trivia time!

Many "green" lights have a blue tinge to them, just so R/G colorblind people have a better idea of which light is on.

A New York City example.

Many "green" lights have a blue tinge to them, just so R/G colorblind people have a better idea of which light is on.

My husband was green color blind. Some of the green lights appeared blue and others appeared yellow. He didn't confuse the green light with the others because it was always brighter whether in the bottom position or sideways in the right position.

For him, some grass appeared blue and others appeared yellow. If I saw a green house, I would ask him what color it looked like and he would tell me black, blue or yellow and that would be the base tint coming out. When he was in the army in the 50s, during war games they would put him in a helicopter to fly over the "enemy" to see where their tents were. All the tents to him were a solid black 🙂 For his chauffeur's license, he could pass the eye test easily enough and never had to do anything special. He last drove in 1993 with a chauffeur's license.

Laura

To expand on what Old School said, I thought I had to pick the perfect trucking company for me before I came here. In reality, I used the app here and went with the first company that reached out that met my basic minimums. One I've never heard of at that. What I got was a solid foundation and am on a fleet doing something that I didn't even know existed, and couldn't be happier.