Owner Operator Workers Compensation Coverage

I just retired (again) but wonder what American Owner Ops do for Workers Comp Coverage.

The following story was published after I broke my back 11 years ago.


I also was an injured Canadian:

The day his life changed forever
Lucien Bleau had loaded trailers with pipe a thousand times before. At 60, he was a pro. After all, he'd been driving trucks and working in the pipeline and oil field industry since he was 16 years old. Lucien Bleau had no reason to believe that on this clear, chilly morning in March something would go terribly wrong.

He was up on the trailer, standing on top of six tiers of drill pipe. Two square pipe racks were loaded on top of that and there was flare line on top of the racks. He was reaching for a steel cable when he heard someone yell his name. "I could see the flare line rolling towards me," he says. "I jumped."

He managed to jump far enough to avoid being crushed by the rolling pipe, but he landed on the frozen ground hitting his head and smashing his spine. As he lay on the ground in the bush in Lodgepole, Alberta waiting for an ambulance, Lucien was in shock and continued asking the guys to keep unloading his truck.

It was only hours later, laying in the neurotrauma unit at the University of Alberta Hospital that Lucien learned the extent of his physical injuries. His brain was bleeding in three places. One vertebra had been crushed. Another one was bruised. His left shoulder was bright purple and swollen.

The doctors say Lucien will never be able to drive a rig again. The pain is always there – some days are worse than others, but his attitude is inspiring. "I went through depression. I wondered why it happened to me. I just tell myself 'hey, I'm walking, I'm talking – things are good.'"


"How have I been treated by the WCB?
Fantastic."


As a self-employed trucker, Lucien had been paying insurance premiums to the Workers' Compensation Board for years. "I have always paid WCB and I've encouraged other owner/operators to exercise the option of personal coverage," he says. "How have I been treated by the WCB? Fantastic."

He says he doesn't have the added stress of worrying about finances now. The WCB covers all of his medical treatments and he has a case manager that "gives a ####."
"If there is such a thing as a guardian angel, my case manager is…a very compassionate, caring person. There are no short cuts for her."

Lucien's wife, Lynda, agrees. "Our life was in a shambles," she says. "My husband was in agony, he couldn't hear anything and he couldn't remember anything. Deb was just so good to us. One day I called her to thank her for all of her help and she said something I will never forget. 'It is my job, but it's your life.'"

"It was our life," Lynda says, "and if I had had to fight for things on top of everything that was going on, it would have been horrible. She (Deb) has got such a good attitude."

In light of everything that has happened, Lucien can't stress enough the importance of insurance coverage for people working in all aspects of the trucking industry. "To me the WCB is like any large company – there's good and there's bad. My belief is that there's more good than bad."

It's been nearly a year since Lucien Bleau's life changed forever. He suffers from
short-term memory loss due to his brain injury and he can't walk or sit for long periods of time. Even so, Lucien maintains a positive outlook. "I actually feel very fortunate," he beams. "It's that old saying that you've got to have something happen sometimes to realize how lucky you are."


And I went back to work driving, hell, I just retired again at the end of last month.

 

I had it posted on another site, here's the link.

I'll also get the story from my Hard Drive. The story is about myself.

I'm aka Pipeman on other sites.

http://www.truckstopcanada.ca/forum/showthread.php?5324-Injured-Canadian-Drivers-Denied-Medical-Care-By-Workers-Compensation&p=36917

 

Will this suffice???

The day his life changed forever

Lucien Bleau had loaded trailers with pipe a thousand times before. At 60, he was a pro. After all, he'd been driving trucks and working in the pipeline and oil field industry since he was 16 years old. Lucien Bleau had no reason to believe that on this clear, chilly morning in March something would go terribly wrong.
He was up on the trailer, standing on top of six tiers of drill pipe. Two square pipe racks were loaded on top of that and there was flare line on top of the racks. He was reaching for a steel cable when he heard someone yell his name. "I could see the flare line rolling towards me," he says. "I jumped."
He managed to jump far enough to avoid being crushed by the rolling pipe, but he landed on the frozen ground hitting his head and smashing his spine. As he lay on the ground in the bush in Lodgepole, Alberta waiting for an ambulance, Lucien was in shock and continued asking the guys to keep unloading his truck.
It was only hours later, laying in the neurotrauma unit at the University of Alberta Hospital that Lucien learned the extent of his physical injuries. His brain was bleeding in three places. One vertebra had been crushed. Another one was bruised. His left shoulder was bright purple and swollen.
The doctors say Lucien will never be able to drive a rig again. The pain is always there – some days are worse than others, but his attitude is inspiring. "I went through depression. I wondered why it happened to me. I just tell myself 'hey, I'm walking, I'm talking – things are good.'"



"How have I been treated by the WCB?
Fantastic."


As a self-employed trucker, Lucien had been paying insurance premiums to the Workers' Compensation Board for years. "I have always paid WCB and I've encouraged other owner/operators to exercise the option of personal coverage," he says. "How have I been treated by the WCB? Fantastic."
He says he doesn't have the added stress of worrying about finances now. The WCB covers all of his medical treatments and he has a case manager that "gives a ####."
"If there is such a thing as a guardian angel, my case manager is…a very compassionate, caring person. There are no short cuts for her."
Lucien's wife, Lynda, agrees. "Our life was in a shambles," she says. "My husband was in agony, he couldn't hear anything and he couldn't remember anything. Deb was just so good to us. One day I called her to thank her for all of her help and she said something I will never forget. 'It is my job, but it's your life.'"
"It was our life," Lynda says, "and if I had had to fight for things on top of everything that was going on, it would have been horrible. She (Deb) has got such a good attitude."
In light of everything that has happened, Lucien can't stress enough the importance of insurance coverage for people working in all aspects of the trucking industry. "To me the WCB is like any large company – there's good and there's bad. My belief is that there's more good than bad."
It's been nearly a year since Lucien Bleau's life changed forever. He suffers from
short-term memory loss due to his brain injury and he can't walk or sit for long periods of time. Even so, Lucien maintains a positive outlook. "I actually feel very fortunate," he beams. "It's that old saying that you've got to have something happen sometimes to realize how lucky you are."

 

Scroll to page 27. This is the Alberta Workers' Compensation Board Annual Report at the Annual General Meeting. I was the "Poster Boy" you might say.

http://www.wcb.ab.ca/pdfs/public/annual_report_2001.pdf

 

Rates in Alberta are $3.15 per $100.00 ro a maximum of $81,000. which would be $2551.50 per year if your earnibgs reached the $81,000.

If you were off work WCB kicks in the following day and on $81,000. your benefits would be about $81,000. less taxes etc. so that would be down to about $63,180. times 90 percent = $56,862.60 or $1,093.50 per week.