Allergy season and truckers

Spring is a time to rejoice and enjoy, unfortunately with the joy of Spring comes the annoyance of seasonal allergies! The problem with having allergies as a truck driver is that you are limited to what you can consume within the frame of trucking industry safety guidelines.

As many of you may know, according to the basics of trucking, safety is at the top of the list for truckers and their management. Not only does that mean using safe practices on the road, but it also means that certain medications for allergies are off the table.

So, it’s important for truckers to find other ways to combat these allergies without medication with certain ingredients and plan ahead for seasonal allergies.

Truckers should use these planning tips to keep their allergies at bay:

1. Keep your cab clean and tidy. It’s important to clean all mats and other surfaces that pollen could be hiding!
2. Reduce the pollen count in your cab by keeping your windows up.
3. Keep an eye on the local allergy count by getting the Weather Channel app!
4. If it’s possible, a shower in the morning and at night can help keep dust and allergens off your skin.
5. Visit your doctor’s office and get an allergy test done.

Stay away from allergy medications with diphenhydramine or antihistamines!

While medications like Benadryl and other allergy medications are okay to use for everyday usage, truckers should adhere from using these types of allergy medications! In some cases, the use of these allergy medications have caused drivers to be in an accident or have points put on their license for making mistakes during a DOT inspection.

That’s why it is important to know what is inside the medicine that could cause truckers to possibly make unsafe mistakes on the road. It’s medications like diphenhydramine and antihistamines that truckers should be beware of to stay in-line with trucking industry safety.

Some common side effects of diphenhydramine are:

• Drowsiness
• Dizziness
• Headache
• Irritability
• Blurred vision
• Decreased coordination

Similarly, antihistamines has some of the same effects and other are:

• Acting as if you were intoxicated
• Nausea and vomiting
• Restlessness or moodiness
• Trouble peeing or not being able to pee
• Confusion

As you might of guessed, none of these effects are a good thing to have if you are driving an 18-wheeler. That’s why finding other alternatives for allergy medications are important to trucking industry safety!

Instead, you should try this list of medications:

• Claritin
• Allegra
• Reactine

So, if you are going to use an allergy medicine, consult your doctor and make sure they know you are a trucker. Not only to make sure that you are staying safe while on the road, but also that you are curing your seasonal allergies with the most effective medication.

TransWood is committed to protecting the health, safety and security of our employees and independent contractors while minimizing the impact of our operations on the public and the environment where we operate. Please, contact TransWood so we can start serving your hauling freight needs.