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FedEx Freight | Hearing loss

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iron eagle

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If you’ve worked here for several years you probably have hearing loss and don’t know it. Get your hearing checked and file a workers comp claim. I’m in the process and they are fighting me but I know working the dock is the reason for my hearing loss. Good luck
 
Make sure that the Audiologist has a base isolated sound proof room to put you into. It should seal with a pressure you can feel a moment all over you. Then absolute quiet.

At that point you will be given a headset or big audio speaker of the finest quality on the planet and a button. The room is already mic'ed so you will be heard.

First they run tones into you. Your button will tell them if you heard it or not. They will go from 250 hertz all the way to 20K to find your limits and then work on the Db values. In DOT Trucking you need 250, 500 and 1000 hertz at 40 db or lower which is essentially conversational voice.

Really good audiologists will divide your chart four or more ways to define right ear, left ear and then work across anywhere from perfect line all the way down to profound. Which means you hear nothing.

Run through a bunch of words. The words sequence means nothing to you, but they will gain a idea if you are deaf in a different way when you miss words.

Finally comes a bone conduction. They will put a special knocker on your skull. If there is no problem then there is no problem. If there IS a problem that will be the tool that knocked it out of the park so to speak and reveal it.

Hearing aids. My last pair which your basic in ears that have survived trucking all my life is about 1200 a pair. If you are oversold a bunch of BS hearing aids with wireless, blue tooth, casting and so called quack medicine sound sourcing or aiming etc... its possible you will pay 8000 dollars for a pair.

You do need a doctors order to signed prescribing hearing aids otherwise you will be imposed a additional tax for medical devices. I think my last pair was 3800 and the tax pushed it close to 5K realm. I did not have to pay the tax.

FDA requires that ONCE a hearing aid is INSERTED INTO YOUR ear, (Implanted into body) its yours forever. No good to be sold back or whatever. There you have it. All yours. Bye bye.
 
The dangerous part is if they try to sell a cochlear. You are at that point profound across the board, they generally run 120,000 and drill a dollar coin sized hole to your brain for the magnet to operate it off of. Per ear. Takes weeks to physically heal the interface then some more weeks to learn the new sounds provided to you by computer machine.

OR. You can visit walmart pay 70 dollars for a pair of 16 hour boosters behind the ear that operate between 250 hertz to 3500 hertz with a 30db boost over and above input sound to you. They are NOT hearing aids. Just boosters. When they burn out in a few months, years you throw them away and get another.

Do not let the audiologist play on your fears. Or possible unkown complexes. Big fat hearing aids? You bet. But if you are vain and want teeny tiny hidy ones then you are about to sell camelot and hand over a small fortune. Trust me, people dont see ::shit:: on your ears unless you pointed it out to them.

DO NOT... whatever you do buy any hearing aid that relies on a tube to carry sound from behind the ear to your in ear mold. You deal with humidity, rain etc and body fluids getting into it. Then you will shuttle back and forth every 4 to 6 months for the rich and richer doc to snip and put in a new tube. Snip snip snip goes your wallet. There is a reason we gave those up across the board. A maintaince headache.

Finally but not last. There is NO analog hearing aid anywhere in the Nation. That format was stopped two decades ago. Its all Digital now. And worse able to connect to smart phones and other things for a bunch of more money. I recall zinc air batteries in trucking being all gone in 4 days and three nights, sooner if cold. As in -40 cold. If you get knocked on the head and smash the hearing aid, you get to buy a replacement out of your pocket.
 
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iron eagle said:
If you’ve worked here for several years you probably have hearing loss and don’t know it. Get your hearing checked and file a workers comp claim. I’m in the process and they are fighting me but I know working the dock is the reason for my hearing loss. Good luck
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You too huh ? Tinnitus from all those bells and whistles in the tractors ? I'm gonna add raised blood pressure levels and anxiety.
 
Diggger86 said:
Prolly won’t get a dime since they provide ear plugs. If you want them.
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Maybe ten years ago working the dock with ear plugs in one of the whiz kids dropped a movable dock plate from about 4 feet off the ground. A lot louder than a gunshot in the same proximity. Next morning is DOT physical time. Put me in the booth where I could hear almost nothing. Everyone is puzzled, have you been exposed to any gunshots in the last 24 hours? No but had a dockplate dropped right next to me last night, a serious loud sound. Ok that explains it, come back next week for your hearing test. I said, I had earplugs in though, they're supposed to protect your hearing from these noises. Three medical professionals, 1 Dr and 2 nurses replied in unison, those earplugs are useless! More comforting thoughts from 20 some years of dealing with the wonderful mgmt of FDXF.
 
I am on the banned persona non grata from Covenant specifically from 1996. They tried to do a whisper hearing test in a room with 50+ Orientation arrivals being processed all at once in that large echoing space. There was simply no way.

I considered taking them to court and getting a judgement, however the Lawyer after careful checking discovered that FMCSA allows all trucking companies to be MORE STRICTER in their standards and exclude anyone who needs glasses, hearing aids and all that to drive a 18 wheeler regardless of mountains of recent documentation from any doctors of medicine that says this person is indeed qualified. They would just burn it all.

The only reason thats relevant is because Covenant and 15 other Trucking companies maintain a private version of DAC. (Hire right) among themselves so being banned from Covenant for Life also automatically banned from 14 other companies for the rest of my natural life. Since this was way back in 1996, they can go jump off the stack of DOT regulations with that badly botched and bungled situation. I have no love for them at all.

Now I simply dont give a damn. Its not a point of stress anymore.
 
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