Long hours, hearing loss are hazards
COMPENSATION: Drivers would like a return on the money they paid into WorkSafeBC over the years
The public, whether motoring or standing still, has strong opinions about the trucking industry, my profession. And like so many strong opinions, they’re based on a woeful lack of knowledge. Seeing is one thing, but understanding is another.
Take Workers’ Compensation, or whatever they prefer to call themselves these days. OK, WorkSafeBC. They are of the written opinion that all drivers of rigs fit into a single little box in one of their case files. In other words, all drivers are exactly alike.
Case in point: a common job hazard for all rig drivers is hearing loss. Ours is an extremely noisy profession, as the noise comes from all sides, at all decibels, and often with little to no warning. The one common thread is that most drivers, myself being no exception, suffer hearing loss, particularly in the left ear.
Yes, I have hearing aids. I am not embarrassed by it. Came by them honestly. I worked darn hard to achieve that loss. I long ago accepted the fate that to care for my family, I had to pay a price. Long hours and loss of hearing were the two highest costs to achieve that end. Same for almost all of my co-drivers.
And this is where it gets interesting. WorkSafeBC, which I find a very amusing name, are not very willing to answer the call of drivers who complain of hearing loss.
We don’t usually notice the world is a little quieter until we notice the wife is not nattering at us as often as she used to. Suddenly you understand why. You can no longer hear her. So at her insistence, off you trot for a WorkSafeBC hearing test.
In hindsight, it’s a great idea to have a hearing test as soon as you begin your career driving rigs. Then show up at the wife-arranged WorkSafeBC hearing test, with the previous test in hand, and an immediate comparison can be made of the driver’s hearing loss. Without the earlier test results, the driver is at the board’s mercy.
I had the previous test, so I came to WorkSafeBC locked and loaded. I have had countless numbers of drivers, both current and retired from driving, go in with no comparison test results, and come out the other end, really upset. Some have been rejected outright.
The latest sad story occurred when an ex-driver, who now works in a warehouse, was told that the board will supply him with hearing aids, but five years after he retires from his “very quiet current warehouse profession,” they will cut him off.
Their explanation? Working in a warehouse is a very quiet profession. No hearing damage caused by such a lovely environment, right?
Well, I’ve spent time in that particular warehouse, and it is anything but quiet.
A fellow former broadcaster, who also wore earphones over both ears 8-10 hours a day, six days a week, listening to people and sounds coming at him at all levels, was totally denied hearing aids because WorkSafeBC folks have it in one of their little books, that like warehousing and driving rigs, radio broadcasting is a quiet profession.
I can write about it, but I can’t solve the situation. From my experience, WorkSafeBC people live in a dream world, work in quiet little offices and believe in fairy tales.
It’s a big noisy world out here, and we drivers would like to get a return on all the money we were forced to pay into WorkSafeBC over the years, just so we could work and be protected, then and now.
Protection, it seems, is just a 10-letter word.
I could fill a newspaper with stories about road life on the road, but why not share yours? Send them to Driving editor Andrew McCredie at amccredie@postmedia.com