I know many people have different views about coronavirus, Im not asking this to be political, etc. But If your terminal had a supervisor test positive with symptoms and you had contact, ( as in received bills/dispatch from the day before their symptoms and positive test) and you later found out about this, would you be happy about not being contact traced and happy that a letter circulated in the terminal that stated had not been in contact with anyone? Just curious..
ABF | Covid Exposures?
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Puff Driver
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Not sure what the HIPPA Laws allow??
There are a few conflicting legal issues involving notification.
canaryinthemine
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So far, no states have enacted laws alleviating liability in the advent of the careless handling of a potential positive Covid-19 diagnosis,............Here in Penna. the Governor just vetoed a Bill absolving businesses and churches from any liability or personal lawsuits involving the spread of Coronavirus in particular,....and any other infectious disease.
Think back to the AIDS scare,...and infected people spitting on policemen, trying to use their infection as a...."weapon".....
Any business that mis-handles, or misleads information about a possible infection should be sued for reckless behavior. They should have to.....Prove, in court,....that what they did was an inadvertent mistake,....and not a deliberate choice of....Profit over Public Safety.
You can make a mistake,........But,...if it became "convenient" not to tell employees and the Public about potential exposure,...That is a Gross and Deliberate calculation to say: "To hell with you, Money is more Important."
If you can Prove that the Supervisor was in contact with Employees,....KNOWING he had a Positive test,....the first thing I'd do is file a grievance under Safety,.....And then let the Attorneys that all Local Unions have on retainer start preparing their cases.
If it's just an unfortunate case where he didn't know he was infected,....the best you can probably do is a "negligence" lawsuit. Trucking is an "Essential" industry,....and the CDC has laid down many guidelines for safe operation,.....including constant testing and tracing.
Think back to the AIDS scare,...and infected people spitting on policemen, trying to use their infection as a...."weapon".....
Any business that mis-handles, or misleads information about a possible infection should be sued for reckless behavior. They should have to.....Prove, in court,....that what they did was an inadvertent mistake,....and not a deliberate choice of....Profit over Public Safety.
You can make a mistake,........But,...if it became "convenient" not to tell employees and the Public about potential exposure,...That is a Gross and Deliberate calculation to say: "To hell with you, Money is more Important."
If you can Prove that the Supervisor was in contact with Employees,....KNOWING he had a Positive test,....the first thing I'd do is file a grievance under Safety,.....And then let the Attorneys that all Local Unions have on retainer start preparing their cases.
If it's just an unfortunate case where he didn't know he was infected,....the best you can probably do is a "negligence" lawsuit. Trucking is an "Essential" industry,....and the CDC has laid down many guidelines for safe operation,.....including constant testing and tracing.
I don't know how much ABF really cares about HIPPA laws as my SCM talked about a medical thing (not covid) about me with another driver,actually taking advice from the other driver! I lost alot of faith in confidentiality and ABF at that point.
we had a similar case at my barn....outbound dock supervisor came back from maryland (which was a hot spot) on a Wednesday ......worked the next three days......missed the next two weeks starting that monday......was told that she was exposed during the weekend not to worry....lmao....nobody believes that lie....at least no one got sick
I would contact the Fort & see what they have to say about it? God forbid someone dies from it by keeping it hush-hush. I would not want to be in that SCM’s shoes....
canaryinthemine
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What I'm surprised about is that no companies have revived the "Hold Harmless" agreements. I would figure food warehouses would be the first to try and use these.....illegal.....documents.
LTL guy in a food warehouse doing his own sort & segregate? During a pandemic?....no lumper?
"Hold Harmless" agreements were something designed by Tort lawyers years ago,...to alleviate any business from claims or lawsuits,...if a contractor or customer gets hurt on their property,....by ANY method,....gross negligence by employees,.. hazardous conditions,....illegal acts,....
Fortunately,....they are illegal to impose on delivery personnel,....whose freight drayage contract requires delivery/pickup of that customer's products,.....legally requiring that delivery person to enter the property to perform contracted services.
An example: If you signed a "Hold Harmless" agreement at a consignee's gate pass as a condition to enter the property,....and one of their employees was smoking marijuana on his lunch break,.......and crushed you against the side of the trailer with a towmotor,...
....then, theoretically according to SOME Lawyers,......you could not sue that consignee's company, or even the employee,....for criminal negligence. You signed a "Hold Harmless" agreement........
I could see a warehouse requiring drivers who are on their dock doing sort & segregate for say,...hours,...using bathrooms, breakrooms, other facilities,....to sign "Hold Harmless" agreements,..pre-supposing the drivers might sue for being exposed to Coronavirus.
Those "agreements" are illegal,.....but SOME Lawyers claim if a driver signs one .."of his own free will...",...then he has "agreed" to never sue that business,...for ANYTHING,....including that business's mis-handling of CDC guidelines on Virus management, sanitizing, and mask-wearing.....in the event the driver suspects he may have caught Coronavirus on some filthy, non-mask-enforcing, "who-cares-about-a-virus"...dock.......
Your Tort rights are part of your Constitutional Rights,....as was explained to me by the Law firm our Local kept on retainer,....and you can't be forced to,....give them away to do business.....
It would be nice for Ernie and Crew to reinforce that Constitutional Right clearly,.....so drivers don't feel forced to sign such agreements...
.....during a pandemic,....
Or ever......
LTL guy in a food warehouse doing his own sort & segregate? During a pandemic?....no lumper?
"Hold Harmless" agreements were something designed by Tort lawyers years ago,...to alleviate any business from claims or lawsuits,...if a contractor or customer gets hurt on their property,....by ANY method,....gross negligence by employees,.. hazardous conditions,....illegal acts,....
Fortunately,....they are illegal to impose on delivery personnel,....whose freight drayage contract requires delivery/pickup of that customer's products,.....legally requiring that delivery person to enter the property to perform contracted services.
An example: If you signed a "Hold Harmless" agreement at a consignee's gate pass as a condition to enter the property,....and one of their employees was smoking marijuana on his lunch break,.......and crushed you against the side of the trailer with a towmotor,...
....then, theoretically according to SOME Lawyers,......you could not sue that consignee's company, or even the employee,....for criminal negligence. You signed a "Hold Harmless" agreement........
I could see a warehouse requiring drivers who are on their dock doing sort & segregate for say,...hours,...using bathrooms, breakrooms, other facilities,....to sign "Hold Harmless" agreements,..pre-supposing the drivers might sue for being exposed to Coronavirus.
Those "agreements" are illegal,.....but SOME Lawyers claim if a driver signs one .."of his own free will...",...then he has "agreed" to never sue that business,...for ANYTHING,....including that business's mis-handling of CDC guidelines on Virus management, sanitizing, and mask-wearing.....in the event the driver suspects he may have caught Coronavirus on some filthy, non-mask-enforcing, "who-cares-about-a-virus"...dock.......
Your Tort rights are part of your Constitutional Rights,....as was explained to me by the Law firm our Local kept on retainer,....and you can't be forced to,....give them away to do business.....
It would be nice for Ernie and Crew to reinforce that Constitutional Right clearly,.....so drivers don't feel forced to sign such agreements...
.....during a pandemic,....
Or ever......
Some of these grocery warehouses don’t allow us in....It’s great
Trucker 206
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Nice little break from the sort & seg routine! I always thought downstacking a customers pallets was silly...basically free labor if the delivery driver does it FOR the customer. We had one (thank God) warehouse near our barn that required us to do it IF there was a ‘carton count’ total on the DR. If the DR just had a pallet count on it (very rare), then it was just count the pallets...easy schmeazy.
One day at this warehouse, which was my first of MANY deliveries and pickups that day, I decided to start checking the box in the handheld that said ‘Sort And Segregate’. Did this for every DR that required a downstack...just to see what would happen. Two weeks straight of this action got me a personal phone call from our billing clerk that that was a ‘no-no’...it was ‘agreed’ that drivers would sort & segregate and this company would not be subject to the assessorial charge. Huh????
canaryinthemine
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Good grief!.......Company management so desperate for marginally-paying freight, that they'll give away "free labor".......
Oh, well...........I always said as long as they're paying me,....By The Minute,....I'll do the Labor. I had a receiver ask me: "By the Minute?",....and I had it figured out to be around 42 cents a minute at that time.
And I told him that by standing there telling him how much I was making "by the Minute...",....I had made almost a buck. I would imagine he got hold of a calculator somewhere,...and realized how much more an hour I was making, as opposed to what his non-Union overseers were paying him,.......
He always seemed to have a...sour attitude when I delivered to his dock,....and tried to get me out of there as soon as he could, before I could tell him again I was...."paid by the Minute..."....
Trucker 206
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Ha! Yeah, I enjoyed using the ‘paid by the minute’ line occasionally. You could see the wheels turning. The fun part was sitting, waiting, to be checked in, and getting paid...by the minute, on their docks. I’m ‘sitting’ as I write this, but I’m too shy to tell you where. Plus...I’m not getting paid. Well, I kinda am...the Teamsters are busy calculating my next check to be deposited January 4th.
vitamin D3 ( about 5000 iu) daily is apparently the magic bullet against this demon. It is demonstrably 89% effective in reducing serious complications from this virus. Yeah, I'm not a doctor, I've just read the research. Work smart and take care of yourselves. Don't let yourselves become too preoccupied with what you are doing and drop your guard. Masks DO help. Even if they just reduce the viral load you receive, your immune system has a chance to identify this pathogen and produce antibodies before it overwhelms your immune system and you develop serious complications. Carry and use hand sanitizer religiously while working, especially out on the street. Wipe down the steering wheel frequently before you start driving. I used to carry 70% isopropyl alcohol for that when I was driving. This is probably the most dangerous and easily overlooked infection pathway. Watch for cuts or open lesions on your hands, and protect them. The company should provide masks and hand sanitizer. Do they? They should without having to file a grievance. We don't yet know what the long-term physiological damage from this virus will be. It may well prove to affect the brain, blood vessels, micro blood clotting, lungs kidneys, liver, heart and testes (semen production as well as testosterone- insert joke here if necessary). It even crosses the blood-brain barrier in the brain. Sarin nerve gas can't even do that! This AIN'T the flu dude! And don't let anyone tell you otherwise... But the real danger is to our health care system and overloading our hospitals and ICU beds so that they can't handle other normal medical situations, and that can be fatal to a lot of us.
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Hey hang belly...do you have me beat on the "belly hanging part"? There are some advantages to wearing a size 38-40 pair of Levis and letting the rest hang over...just post your photo like I did..
.I ain't really learnt to cut and paste but I do like the part of your post that says "semen production as well as testosterone"...going down to Wally World and get me some today! Ageless Male vitamins--too expensive for this retired old guy!
canaryinthemine
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We'll go together and see if they'll allow us my Veteran's Discount.... AND the AARP Discount........Buy a case of the stuff!
We'll take so much of those "Ageless Male" vitamins, we'll live forever,.....and we'll rattle when we walk......
Canary, My Friend! Not talking "Politics", but Joe and Donald , Bill O'Reilly, Bill Clinton, Teddy Kennedy, et al, must have been the experimental guys for this!
canaryinthemine
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All those guys you mentioned took their “Ageless Male” vitamins in liquid form.........
as in "Geritol"??? Gives a whole new meaning to "Viagra Falls, NY" ! We went there 45 years ago on our honeymoon. Didn't need the "viagra in Niagra" wayyyy back then.
I guess you can tell by the time stamps on my posts that I am still getting up like I was breaking (not literally) freight...I remember once a "suit" came down and told us to use the term "distribution center" and not "break-bulk" ...Kinda like the sales pitch...never use "cheapest" ...only "less expensive'..but wait! buy one, get one free, just pay a separate processing fee.!
By the way, is everyone as sick as the "MY PILLOW" commercials as I am...Kind of slight of hand. Ole Mike brags about the pillows made in the USA (Kudos to him) but with all that cotton from Africa, the sheets are made in INDIA (not Indiana).
You never hear him say "made in the USA" in the sheet adds--like I said, Slight of hand.
I bet the guys mentioned before would love to have laid on those sheets with Stormy Daniels, Monica Lewinsky, Paula Jones, Hillary (ugh, no!),
Mary Jo Keopeckny, any of the "Mrs. Trumps--(especially the current one) and too many others that just "showed up"..Heck, Jill Biden is a "looker" especially for older ..err, I mean "more seasoned" men like us! The "snow on the roof" means a "fire down below"
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