Narissa Thelo 
While pre-employment medicals are a legal requirement for hiring any kind of employee, when you’re hiring heavy vehicle drivers, the requirement doesn’t end there. Since heavy vehicles pose a greater safety risk, their drivers must meet higher medical standards.
While many truck drivers have licenses that show their capability to drive heavy vehicles, the organization should conduct an in-house commercial driver medical examination to rule out the risk of any unidentified health conditions.
Health Issues Affecting Truck Drivers
A heavy vehicle driver can suffer from a lot of health concerns, including:
Age-related Issues
These issues can impact their responsiveness on the road. After the age of 50, truck drivers in many states are required to get more frequent periodic medical tests.
Epilepsy
If a driver suffers from epilepsy, their seizures could cause them to crash on the road.
Cardiac Conditions
Although cardiac arrests are not specific to any age, monitoring cardiac health is important for truck drivers since it could affect their and others’ safety on the road.
Vision Problems
Vision problems could contribute to the driver’s responsiveness on the road and the safety of the vehicle.
If a driver has vision problems, they need to wear corrective lenses or glasses while driving.
Sleep Disorders
Since driving huge vehicles is a tiring job, those with sleep disorders could sleep while driving on continuous roads like highways. Sleeping while driving is a common problem as well and it can be corrected by the use of a support driver.
Diabetes
Diabetes is a chronic condition characterized by high blood sugar levels. Truck drivers with diabetes must carefully manage their condition to prevent complications such as hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) or hyperglycemia (high blood sugar), which can affect their ability to operate a vehicle safely.
Neurological Disorders
Neurological disorders like tremors or sudden stiffness can impair cognitive function, coordination, and motor skills, which can impact a driver’s safety while driving heavy trucks.
Medical Requirements
The driver’s health is one important element of safety on the road. So, drivers must meet some medical standards to ensure their health does not contribute to the risk of a car crash.
Commercial Driver Medicals are required to meet the National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme and are designed for truck drivers and drivers of vehicles carrying dangerous goods like petroleum or chemicals.
The medical requirements for drivers include a pre-employment medical test and periodic medical tests. These tests include a thorough medical examination of the truck driver and an audiometry test to assess their hearing skills on the road.
Because the standards and medical requirements for truck drivers vary from state to state, a health consultant in your state can help you identify the medical requirements, carry out the needed tests, and obtain the required licenses.
Conclusion
If your organisation employs truck drivers, it is important to make sure that they stay safe on the road. So, apart from road training, keeping track of their health by pre-employment and periodic medical assessments is an important part of the company’s health and safety policy.
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