On the road to getting your HR licence, you will come across many hurdles, most of which are aimed to assess your eligibility to drive an HR vehicle safely and competently. These hurdles are usually very important; it is imperative that everyone who handles an HR vehicle is worthy of the licence because these trucks are quite heavy and can do a lot of damage when driven roughly. These aren’t obstacles you could circumvent simply by moving around them or trying to ignore them – it isn’t advisable, and it would make the roads a lot more dangerous in the long run.
One of these obstacles is the medical evaluation; an examination that is done on drivers to see if they are physically able to drive without any difficulties. When a child starts learning how to ride a bike, the first thing you make sure of is that they have the mental and physical coordination to ride it. This is the same principle, only more complex. At some point in getting your licence, you would be required to go through and pass a Vehicle Driver’s Standard Eyesight test, which would be administered at either the DVS centre, the DoT office, or the RTO. This test would determine whether you are able to see clearly on the road. It does not automatically bar people with visual impairments though. If you need visual aids to pass the test, you would be allowed to use them, and your licence would show that you need them to drive an HR vehicle.
Apart from the visual test, you would be required to declare any other medical conditions that may impair your ability on the road. We go through a few of these here; note that not all of these fully exempt you from being able to drive. You should however be aware of the consequences of being with these on the road, and take precautions to ensure that they do not constitute a problem at any time.
What A Proper Medical Evaluation Entails
When you drive an HR vehicle, there are four basic areas of health that are involved. A proper medical evaluation accesses each of these and judges the driver based on them. These four areas include;
Vision
This is the most important part of your driving experience. No driver can successfully drive if there is a full disability in this regard. The roads are much too unpredictable, much too unpatterned to actually allow drivers to rely on the other senses to drive safely. A vision test is therefore important for driving an HR vehicle. Depending on the specific impairment that my effect your HR We talk on the need to be hale and hearty to drive an HR vehicle and the medical conditions that might exempt you. Explore your health and your HR eligibility here., you could either correct it with visual aids (myopia and hypermetropia can be corrected with concave and convex lenses respectively). People with cataracts or glaucoma would considerably have more difficult things to worry about.
Hearing
Being on the road in a busy city requires that you have all your senses alert in case of emergencies. You may have to make last-second decisions on things you may not even be able to see. Your only other sensory function apart from your vision that would help you in such a scenario is your hearing – after all, there is a reason car manufacturers invented the horn all those decades ago. An impairment in hearing would prevent you from hearing signals from other drivers, and may even affect your spatial awareness on the road.
Cognition
Your cognition is a function of your intellectual and neurological abilities – not just your intelligence and ability to think and recognise road safety patterns and norms, but your mental stability and functionality on the road. Neurological processes are without a doubt, the most important processes in the way we interact with our environment, especially in stressful and unpredictable situations. Being of sound mind is a very important prerequisite for anyone who wants to drive an HR vehicle. Anything below that constitutes a hazard to oneself and to other drivers on the road. Note that impairments in this regard are not necessarily bodily disorders only. Frequent stimulant intake/ingestion would have to be sorted out before entering an HR vehicle.
General Health
Your general health also has to be evaluated if you want to be able to drive an HR vehicle safely. There might be signs you’ve ignored or symptoms you’ve missed that may be signals of a more chronic disorder. General tests include tests to determine musculoskeletal function and response, tests to determine the presence of certain microorganisms that may cause driving incompetence, assessment of predisposition to certain diseases and disorders (which might be due to age, gender, or other broad characteristics, etc). These tests usually do not uncover anything damning; any pathology that may be uncovered would most likely be easily treated and/or managed.
Why Medical Evaluation Is Necessary For HR Drivers
Medical evaluation is not, contrary to what some may feel, a draconian mandate that seeks to lessen the number of drivers in the force or punish people who have the propensity to commit to certain lifestyles. There are many sensible reasons why medical evaluation is needed for driving an HR vehicle. Some are listed below;
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Safety of the driver
Prime above all reasons, is the safety of the driver; YOU. Ensuring that you are hale and hearty before you are allowed to hit the road is the one way the powers that be can assure your safety on the road… well, that and the fact that there are road traffic rules you have to follow
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Safety of other drivers
You are in a heavy vehicle. Higher than 75% of the other drivers on the road are in relatively smaller cars. Your medical evaluation assesses the risks involved with allowing you to be on the road. If the risks are too much, you wouldn’t be allowed.
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Lowers your insurance
Insurance companies measure your risk before covering you and whatever vehicle you are driving. It is proven that drivers who go through a medical evaluation before driving are less likely to have accidents than other drivers who don’t. Because of this, companies insure the former group for a smaller premium than usual.
Core driving school is a school for truck drivers on the route to getting their HR licence in Sydney. We have a standardised curriculum that would be of benefit to you. Visit our site and contact us today for more information.