In The News

OOIDA member hassled over swine flu hysteria

Think celebrities wearing face masks illustrate the fever pitch of swine flu these days? Try a smelting plant requiring truckers to take their temperature before unloading trailers full of used aluminum cans.

Paul, an OOIDA member and 20-year trucking veteran, has heard virtually every request a shipper or receiver can make before backing up to a dock.

Last week, Paul was hauling a load from the Midwest to a smelting plant in Kentucky when he received his first-ever request to submit to a thermometer reading.

On top of a thermometer reading, Paul also was told he’d be required to sign a release form for the temperature reading. The request followed guidelines from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he was told by an employee.

OOIDA members probably won’t be surprised to read what happened next.

“I just told them no – I refuse,” Paul told Land Line . “It seems like we just keep giving away our rights all the time. We’re letting everybody run over the top of us. At some point you just have to draw the line and say ‘That’s enough.’”

The swine flu has been transmitted to about 5,100 individuals in the United States, and has been blamed for six U.S. deaths, according to the CDC. The figures for the swine flu are slightly higher than the average flu season, the CDC reported on Monday, May 18.

Paul said he’s delivered to the smelting facility numerous times before, including a recent drop for which he wasn’t required to take a temperature test.

The driver said his employer had to use a different driver to bring the load in. He was told the incident would be a black mark on his record.

“I just feel like I’ve got to take a stand. You can’t just let everybody come up with their own policy,” Paul said. “Anytime you have to sign something, aren’t you giving away some of your rights, at least to a degree?”

Hours after the incident, Paul was still surprised by the ironic request.

“I really think people are overreacting,” Paul said of the swine flu issue. “There are a lot of things the public should have been doing a long time ago, or even in the trucking industry, to be clean. But people just overreact. I understand about protecting employees’ health and all. But I’m bringing in cans. Who knows where they have been?”


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