As many of y'all know, I've been hauling on the Dollar General account for the past year or so. Before that, I was a grocery clerk at Kroger, where I unloaded, sorted, stocked, and ordered product. During that time, I'd talked to some of the drivers that delivered to that store and they seemed to agree that their jobs were pretty good, and that they'd be in need of drivers, due to some of them retiring. I talked to the safety director at Ruan Transportation at Kroger's Glenvar (Salem, VA) distribution center. He said "Get a year's experience and get back to me." Long story short, I did just that. He asked me a few questions about my experience and what tickets and accidents I had. He then gave me an application. I filled it out and went back to submit it.
After going back there a few more times to update it, as some of the forms had changed, he told me that I was approved for hire, but I had to take a 'fitness test' before I could start work. I didn't think this would be any problem, given the amount of work that the DG account entails. I did the tests, and thought I did pretty well on them. The only thing I couldn't do was lift 50lbs. from chest level above my head repeatedly. I didn't want to injure myself before I started that job. The therapist didn't tell me whether I'd passed or not, but said that they just passed the data to Ruan and they'd take it from there.
A couple days later, when I finally had the time and the cell phone signal to call Ruan, I did. I was expecting to make my next call to my dispatcher, giving my two weeks notice... WRONG! I was informed that I FAILED the fitness test. I asked him "How?" and never did get an answer. The only thing he mentioned was that "Very few people fail the fitness test." I'll admit that I'm not a bodybuilder by any means, but I'm in fairly decent shape. I am, however, still baffled as to how I failed this test, if that was indeed the case. Something just doesn't add up here...
That being said, I'm going to start looking for other jobs (preferably daycab jobs) in the greater Roanoke area, now that I can finally think straight again. This business of being home one day and a small piece of another each week isn't hittin' on much.

 

We have trucks dedicated to a grocery company and our drivers are not required to take any kind of fitness test(only us that are dumb enough to do the foodservice account are:lol:). You see some of our grocery account drivers, talk about needing slimfast:lol:.

In any case, there has got to be more to it. I have never heard of a grocery hauler requireing the drivers to past a fitness test unless they are also required to work the warehouse also.

 

We had to take a fitness test to do the DC Walmart account. More and more companies are doing this to weed out at risk drivers that might cost them down the road in doctors bill. The last 4 companies I worked for required a fitness test.

 

Hows this for an idea: Ask for a re-test in a month.
In the mean time, start hitting the gym, focus on bench press, military press and shoulder shrugs . Push ups, situps and pullups probably wouldn't hurt either.

Good luck, If you did those exercises for one month, I'm sure that you would pass.

 

If I felt that I were out-of-shape in any capacity, I'd do that. However, at this current job, I finish my days way too tired to even think about a gym. Pushing around 500-1000lb. rolltainers is NOT that easy, especially on a grade. Lately, I've been doing 5 loads a week, at an average of 41,000lbs. per load. Between the rolltainers and stacking the loose cases and totes, I now have more of a workout than I imagined, hence my befuddlement at the failure.

 

Maybe the reason you failed was that you did not want to lift the 50lbs. because it amounts to pressing 50 lbs. Any 15 year old kid could press 50 lbs., if you can do 5 to 10 pushups you could have lifted the 50lbs. 20 times. I don't know why you did not do it, have some faith in yourself; am I wrong fellows. I'm not being a smart a--, but am I wrong.

 

All you can do is retest and next time lift the 50lbs over your head. My first driving job was hauling construction supplies and I had to unload them with a piggyback forklift and move the rest by hand. Our physical test had us lift 100lbs off the ground, 75lbs overhead, 50lbs up steps, 25lbs up a ladder, 100lbs of pipe with a 200ft walk, most guys failed the physical test, the job sucked but it got my foot in the door to trucking at 20 years old. You should be able to lift 50lbs over your head once without risking injury, if you are worried about injury then you should stretch and build muscle. I've been lifting weights in my truck for years now. Good luck and try again.

 

I just hired on with Schneider, and they put you through a fitness test as well, a couple of guys heart rate went too high, boom they were gone, they are looking at how much you might cost them if something goes wrong down the road.