Our company had ask me and all the other drivers to do eyesight test. This was to stand at 20mtscandxread a board. We are then asked to sigh to say we had completed this. The person doing this has no medica training and is just a person who work in the office. I refused and was threatened with suspension. My question is can company insist I take this test also they are saying it in some legislative garb somewhere.
They can insist, it’ll be in your contract under the “any reasonable request” catchall. It is not unreasonable for them to carry out tests to ensure they don’t have blind drivers. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to administer the test as it is merely reading set sizes of letters at a set distance. Hell even the Police have the powers to stop you at the roadside and to read a vehicle numberplate at a set distance ahead.
Why did you refuse? Is it because you know you’ll fail to meet the minimum level?
Too many firms seem to think they are medical professionals these days,
My medical is up to date so that’s enough,if they have suspicions a driver is not fit then they pay to see a medical professional…
If a policeman asks me to do something i will do it but no way is “Dave” from the office standing there testing my eye sight…
Thankfully I work for a decent firm who would send me to a doctor if they thought something was wrong
deep breath to brace myself…im afraid CONOR IS ABSOLUTELY CORRECT IN THIS INSTANCE…!!!
breaths out,and sits down …
a polish dude at our place had to read one of them and he thought it was the name of his next door neighbour. 
Thats the equivalent of the basic eyesight test for a normal driving licence which is carried out by driving examiners , driving instructors and police officers .
Many companies are having similar introduced by their insurance providers .
You would be suprised at how many people fail basic sight tests .
Sight can and does degenerate over time and often ignored or not picked up until it is pretty poor .
We want to be treated as professionals, this is part of it .
Others have regular health questionnaires , licence checks , drugs and alcohol tests .
I had no problems with all of these provided that the office staff and management conducted themselves in a professional way too .
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We have annual driving assessments and the assessors have to do an eye sight check (read number plate from approximately 20 metres) on every candidate, before the we get in the truck.
Don’t see why you’d refuse!!
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nuffer1960:
My question is can company insist I take this test
No, but if you don’t they can kick you off site and tell you to never come back again.
As for why - because if you’re under 45, you don’t need an eye test again after the first medical. Could be 25 years easy.
Ours do it annually at least and its sometimes the forklift driver who does them. OMG he’s not a optician, got to sue the company!
If the Company is FORS accredited, part of their accreditation audit is that they have procedures in place to regularly check drivers eyesight.
yorkshire terrier:
Too many firms seem to think they are medical professionals these days,
My medical is up to date so that’s enough,
No it isn’t. Depending on how old you are it could be 27 years from one HGV medical to the next or 5 years if you’ve hit 45. Both those periods are long enough that you can experience sufficient degradation of your eyesight to make you unfit to drive. As for most people the onset is usually a slow long term one it is possible for your eyesight to degrade, even to the point of being below the legal limit, without you actually realising it had.
Thanks for the reply’s. My eyesight is fine I refused because he is not an eyesight professional. It just the principle of it.
nuffer1960:
Thanks for the reply’s. My eyesight is fine I refused because he is not an eyesight professional. It just the principle of it.
Thing is, they don’t need to be an eyesight professional.
All they are doing is a very simple test that you will either pass or fail, the criteria are all laid down by eyesight professionals.
They are not measuring your eyesight, just a simple pass or fail test.
The test itself could be administered by anybody without any previous experience, you can either read the letters at the prescribed distance, or you can’t.
I would imagine if you failed then your company will insist you go see an opticians to be properly tested as to allow you to drive if you fail is an obvious no-no for the company.
anyone who has dodgy eyes knows all the tricks to pass the test. iv seen a guy step one pace over the line and the examiners said "ok,but only 1 pace iv done that before " and i know another guy who took his grandson swimming and he wasnt sure which way up he was holding the lad in the pool
I didn’t have a problem doing it when asked.
But I wound up the pointy shoe holding the number plate by groping my way down the length of a semi trailer, turning through 90 degrees and then shouting where are you to nobody in particular.
You need to check the small print in your contract it probably says you have to agree to it.
And if you can’t read it in the small print. You will.fail the eye test anyway
nuffer1960:
Thanks for the reply’s. My eyesight is fine I refused because he is not an eyesight professional. It just the principle of it.
A policeman requesting you to do a roadside eyetest or breathtest isn’t a medical professional either but you would comply with him. I’m the last person you’d find who’d embrace yet more interference from the company, but at the end of the day it’s their train set and if you wanna play with it you need to acquiesce to their rules. Eyesight (or rather lack of) is a biggie with me as you only need to follow motorists down a dark and unlit country road to see how many are nearly bloody blind judging by their erratic driving if they find themselves in the lead vehicle.
nuffer1960:
Thanks for the reply’s. My eyesight is fine I refused because he is not an eyesight professional. It just the principle of it.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
what sort of medical qualifications would be required be to read a bunch of letters on an eye chart to confirm they are the same ones your reading ffs! 
dieseldog999:
nuffer1960:
Thanks for the reply’s. My eyesight is fine I refused because he is not an eyesight professional. It just the principle of it.^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
what sort of medical qualifications would be required be to read a bunch of letters on an eye chart to confirm they are the same ones your reading ffs!
I think his OP said that they were doing it at 20m, so presumably that was with a standard number plate. You are right that cannot need a lot of technique to administer, changing the letters around between tests and making sure the next candidate does not hear the one before read the letters out might be something to think about 
If the firm has a person with that level of logical thought then it’s difficult to say why he should not do it. Doing the test away from the view of other staff might be considered a considerate way to proceed also.
The snellen test has a bit more to it, the test should be done at 6m, lots of places (because they don’t have a room big enough) use a reduced chart at 3m. Some people, myself included, can read a lot more of the full size chart at 6m than the reduced one at 3m. The lighting is supposed to be “good” too. I believe there are other quirks with it too. Checking the person doing the test writes it down correctly too is a good idea as that was a problem I had with my doctor
nuffer1960:
Our company had ask me and all the other drivers to do eyesight test. This was to stand at 20mtscandxread a board. We are then asked to sigh to say we had completed this. The person doing this has no medica training and is just a person who work in the office. I refused and was threatened with suspension. My question is can company insist I take this test also they are saying it in some legislative garb somewhere.
Nothing medical about reading of a chart at a specified distance,same as doing a Driving Test.
Medical comes in when specialist equipment is required, as used by a qualified Optician.
Why you objected is what I cant understand,something with your eyes you have doubts about maybe :question: :question: If I was your Boss I would be showing concern in case theres some other reason you objected
I’d put up a stink about this which is what i do whenever the company sticks it’s nose into my medical affairs. I get a physical exam every year per regulations by qualified Doctors and if they pass me as fit then i don’t need to read a license plate held up by some twerp in the office. I’ve never had a Doctor come to work and want to see how i drive my truck, i guess it’s because it’s not their profession, that is it’s not what their trained in.
For people who say it’s ok i wonder if you would give your company a list of any medicines you take so they can check to make sure your taking them or take your blood pressure. Doing a random drug test is bad enough without any more medical intrusions.