CDL

CANCELLATION EFFECTIVE DATE  11/07/2016

“If you fail to regain medically CERTIFIED status the Department will cancel your Commercial Driver License (‘CDL’) on the CANCELLATION EFFECTIVE DATE shown above . . . and it will be unlawful for you to operate any motor vehicle.”

      There were three or four other paragraphs, citing various and sundry laws, but the meat of the letter was in the forgoing sentence.  It certainly caught me by surprise.  My license doesn’t expire until my birthdate 2018.  I have to have a physical every two years to maintain my CDL.

      I have held a CDL ever since the federal law that unified all 50 states’ commercial driver’s license requirements.  Before that, I held a chauffeur’s license. 

      When the federal law went into effect, two things led me to pursue a CDL.  At first, “they” said farmers had to have a CDL to transport anhydrous ammonia and other such hazardous materials, including some pesticides. 

      Second, all those holding a chauffer’s license had only to pass the written portion of the CDL test.  We didn’t have to go through the pre-trip inspection and driving test.  IF we took the written test by the deadline.

      As the deadline approached, farmers flooded their local driver examiners’ offices.  “They” then said that farmers were exempt from the CDL requirements as long as they didn’t transport hazardous materials outside of a hundred mile radius from the farm.

     It was too late.  Many farmers had studied the book and were ready to take the written test.  They probably reasoned the same way I did:  what if requirements changed and down the line, you had to have a CDL?  Then you would have to take the driving test which included the dreaded pre-trip inspection.

      The driving test was dreaded because you had to supply the rig.  There were horror stories of guys taking their trucks in to take the driving test and not getting past the pre-trip inspection because their truck had too many safety violations.  It cost thousands of dollars to get the truck up to par before the applicant even got to demonstrate his driving skill.

      In Kansas, you can renew your license at the county court house.  If you had to take a test, you have to go to a bona fide driver examiner.  The closest to us was in Colby.

     So I joined twenty or thirty other folks standing in line waiting to take the CDL written test before the “grandfathered” deadline for us chauffer’s license holders passed.  In a few hours, I walked out with a little piece of paper that said I now possessed a CDL.  The actual license came in the mail in two or three weeks.

      I renewed that license a few times by taking written tests.  I never had to take a physical exam.  Until I exchanged my Kansas license for a Colorado CDL.   I didn’t have to take a written test.  But I had to pass the “CDOT physical”.

      The physical exam went pretty well until it came to the vision check.  I had to identify three colored dots.  I missed the first one.  It was red and I said green, or maybe vice versa.

     To pass the physical, I had to call on an optometrist who would verify that my vision, in spite of my color blindness, was good enough to qualify for a CDL.  The local optometrist would probably do that for $50.

     I had within the preceding month had my eyes examined at a place in Denver.  I had to revisit that clinic, but the optometrist lady agreed to write a letter for me once she understood what was needed.  Since I was there within sixty days of my original examination, the service was free.

     She wrote and faxed the letter to the clinic where I had taken the physical.  I had to go back to the clinic to get the rest of the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed.  The official papers had to go back to the driver's license examiner.  Finally, I was good to go, until 2018, at least so I thought.

     Then in October came this letter.  Somebody probably told me I had to renew the physical in two years, but it didn’t make a very deep impression.

      This time, I knew I would have problems with the eye exam, with myasthenia gravis and all.  I took an eye exam in Ft. Collins.  This time, the optometrist lady would not agree to write my letter.  She said I needed to get that from the ophthalmologist.

       I contacted the ophthalmologist to ask her opinion, is my eyesight good enough to keep my  CDL?  She replied in the affirmative and agreed to write the necessary letter.  She gave me a phone number to call when I got the specific requirements.

     I made the appointment with the clinic in Hugo.  I should have done some investigating.  I later found some places where they only do CDOT physicals, charging less than $100.  Mine cost $250.

      Armed with my ophthalmologic phone number, I entered the clinic and completed the paperwork.  Then came the actual exam.  We started with the eye exam.  I was able to read the rows of letters adequately with either eye and with both eyes, though truthfully, I was using only the left eye when I was supposed to be using both eyes.

     Then came the color test.  “What color is this dot?” asked the examiner as she pointed to the dot in the upper left hand corner of the eye chart.

     “Red.”  She didn’t miss a beat.  She moved her pointer to the upper right corner.

      “This one?”

     “Yellow.”  Of that I was sure.  She moved her pointer to the lower right corner of the chart.

      “This one?”

      “Green.”  The eye exam was done.  I passed the color test!

      It wasn’t until she looked at my medical history that the examiner brought up my eye problem.  When she expressed reservations about passing me because of the myasthenia gravis I whipped out the phone number from my pocket and asked her to contact the ophthalmologist, who was willing to vouch for the accuracy of my eyesight.

       She left the exam room, to contact the ophthalmologist, at least so I thought.  She never came back.  Instead, her understudy came in about ten minutes later and rechecked my blood pressure.  It was too high, 150 / 80, she said.

      Instead of a two-year extension, I got a three-month extension.  I have to go back in January to see if my pressure has receded.  No mention of myasthenia gravis or eyesight, or anything like that  

      Off to the courthouse where the driver examiner practices.  I removed belt, suspenders, cell phone and passed through the metal detector.  In a matter of minutes, my medical certificate was copied and registered.  It was only good till January, the examiner cautioned me.

      This week, the ophthalmologist’s nurse called me to let me know my recent blood tests had all returned with normal readings.  So I asked about the blood pressure.  Could it be caused by the Prednisone?  She didn’t know.  Consult your family physician.

     Rather than go  off on the problem with modern medicine being all the specialists who only know one thing about the body, whose advise and prescriptions may conflict rashly with the advice and prescriptions of other specialists treating that same body, I wondered if she had heard from the CDOT examiners.  I don’t think they had been in communication with each other.

      Suspicion reared its ugly head that the medical bureaucracy, like the government bureaucrats, don’t think they have done their job properly unless they have required you to come back at least twice.

     I thought I had outsmarted them by having the ophthalmologist ready to testify.  But they found another reason to cause a second visit.  I can’t help but wonder if they had been able to “get” me with the vision issue, if they would have brought up the blood pressure issue at all.  I shouldn’t be so cynical.

       Between now and January, I will have to call on the family physician to address the blood pressure issue.  I will return to the clinic and apply for an extension of my CDOT physical.  Whether that is granted or not, I will have to return to the driver license examiner to either register the extension or to convert the CDL to a regular license.  Red tape wins again.

     I should be grateful that someone is making me address the blood pressure problem.  I have been to the ophthalmologist and the endocrinologist in October.  Both took my blood pressure.  Neither mentioned it.  I guess I’ll have to ask why.

      In the meantime, my CDL is still valid--until January.