Vet With Bad Knees, Weak Back, Should I Become A Truck Driver

I've had ACL and Meniscal reconstruction on both knees and have intermittent lower back pain and don't lift heavy loads. Jobs that require me to be on my feet for hours on end now run havoc on me for a day or two after. Practical example: bowled three games the other night, now limping around with lower back stiffness and pain.

Should I consider becoming a truck driver?

I love driving long hours anywhere and enjoy the solitude of the open road and a radio on. Can pull long hours with little to no sleep and recharge on little sleep as well. No wife or kids. Truck driving seems like a good choice. Repetitive motions, so long as I have breaks in between and am not jarring my legs at odd angles are fine.

I have no actual knowledge of truck driving over long periods of time, having only driven 26' automatics for an old job, which I enjoyed doing.

I worry about the clutching and whether or not moving loads around the back of the truck is just a given in any truck driving job. If I were just picking up and dropping off loads between long distances, with no heavy lifting, I would only then worry about the clutching.

I was hoping someone out there can give a former Jarhead some straight talk on the matter. Class starts on Monday.

I've had knee issues since my early twenties (no surgery yet, thank God, but I do gobble Aleve like they were Skittles) and back issues since time out of mind. I have stage 3 scoliosis and should be seeing my chiropractor at least once a month, but I haven't been in his office in at least a year and a half, maybe closer to two. For the most part, the job doesn't aggravate either my knees or back. There are times when I've had to assist with unloading that have been unpleasant, and chaining...ugh, chaining. My back is still all sore and up in knots from having had to chain up on Tuesday. But if those things are simply beyond your body's capacity, well, that's what ADA laws and "reasonable accommodations" are for. You should be able to explain to your company that you are incapable of those tasks, and be allowed to reject loads that require driver assist or handstacking, as well as getting a repower or being allowed to wait out a winter storm if you have to run through an area with the chain law up.

I do want to point out that the overwhelming majority of my loads are no-touch. The closest I generally get to touching freight is to put on load locks, and better than half the time if I leave them in the trailer when I back into a door, the guys loading me will put them on for me. So really, most of the time the most strenuous thing is getting in and out of the truck, and if you can climb a short flight of stairs you should have no trouble with that.

I've had knee issues since my early twenties (no surgery yet, thank God, but I do gobble Aleve like they were Skittles) and back issues since time out of mind. I have stage 3 scoliosis and should be seeing my chiropractor at least once a month, but I haven't been in his office in at least a year and a half, maybe closer to two. For the most part, the job doesn't aggravate either my knees or back. There are times when I've had to assist with unloading that have been unpleasant, and chaining...ugh, chaining. My back is still all sore and up in knots from having had to chain up on Tuesday. But if those things are simply beyond your body's capacity, well, that's what ADA laws and "reasonable accommodations" are for. You should be able to explain to your company that you are incapable of those tasks, and be allowed to reject loads that require driver assist or handstacking, as well as getting a repower or being allowed to wait out a winter storm if you have to run through an area with the chain law up.

I do want to point out that the overwhelming majority of my loads are no-touch. The closest I generally get to touching freight is to put on load locks, and better than half the time if I leave them in the trailer when I back into a door, the guys loading me will put them on for me. So really, most of the time the most strenuous thing is getting in and out of the truck, and if you can climb a short flight of stairs you should have no trouble with that.

. . . ditto . . If you ever have to chain up in California, there are "Chain Apes" available on the roadside to install for you - for a price and a fairly expensive one as well . . . however, maybe the company would pay under ADA laws, I don't know . . .

Jopa

Thanks for the input. Gotten to do some minimal driving in school already, so heres my week one update. Clutch actuation isn't tweaking, grinding or causing damage. I'm really very surprised. There's pain, sure, but, like I said, I don't feel like its damaging, and theres gonna be pain no matter what Im doing. Is my leg dead after a while? Yeah. Shaking? Yeah, but so are half the other students. Feels like i just got done at the gym.

As far as chain apes go...ready yourselves, chain apes. You will be used. I figure I'll just insist on a no touch long haul gig. If it takes me a little longer to find the right company/gig, thats fine by me.

Still haven't done continual driving, tons of shifting or a million other things I probably don't know about yet, but I gotta say, I'm pretty excited about this stuff.

I don't think you'll have much to worry about from a driving aspect. Interestingly enough I can't remember ever hearing one single person say they couldn't drive a truck because it bothered their back too much. You would think there would be quite a few complaints about a job where you're sitting all day going down the road. But the air suspensions and air seats make a massive difference in how smooth the ride feels. Back pain doesn't seem to be much of a problem in trucking.

Also, I drove 15 years without ever putting a set of chains on. Some companies may require that you chain up from time to time. Of if you're running certain routes regularly you might be sitting from time to time waiting for the conditions to clear up. But chaining should be a very rare thing for 99% of the drivers out there.

And you can easily find plenty of jobs where you almost never touch any freight. Even the times you do have to do something you're not going to be carrying boxes of lead around a warehouse. You're going to be moving some pallets out of the way or counting boxes or restacking a row or two off of one pallet and onto another. It isn't going to be gruelling work by any means. And it will be quite rare.

I don't think you'll have a problem finding a job that suits you.

I'm a recently retired Army Vet and I too have bad knees(ACL repl and meniscus) and lower back problems. I'm in the tanker division and moving a 20-30lb hose around has been the hardest thing I've done so far....and not on every load. So you might want to give the tanker division a chance. The few times my knees or lower back have gotten stiff, I just stop and stretch out. You'll be fine IMO.