In a move that’s being called “a victory for trucker nostalgia,” paper medical certificates have earned yet another lease on life – and a spot on the shelf next to Elvis cassette tapes and flip phones.
Despite multiple pushes toward modernization, drivers across the country are still proudly holding onto their tri-folded DOT cards like rare baseball memorabilia. Some have even started trading them at truck stops: laminated versions fetching higher value, especially if signed by a grumpy clinic nurse.
Collectors are already driving up prices for vintage med cards from the early 2000s, with one dog-eared copy reportedly auctioned off for a set of chrome lug nut covers and a 12-pack of Mountain Dew.
Meanwhile, a new wave of entrepreneurs is emerging with services to “grade and frame” medical cards for posterity. One company now offers gold-leaf certificate holders and will even burn the edges slightly for an “authentic glove box aesthetic.”
“I don’t trust anything I can’t spill coffee on,” said one long-hauler from Indiana, delicately unfolding his 2015 card stored behind a sun visor. “You think a QR code can survive a week in a Peterbilt cupholder? I don’t.”
Digital systems may still be on the roadmap, but for now, paper reigns supreme – at least until someone figures out how to digitize the proud tradition of forgetting where you put it right before a scale house stop.
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