The highway doctors

Every year, around 4,000 professional drivers call the health association’s hotline because they are in need of medical assistance on the road. One of them is Oliver.

The 43-year-old professional driver cut his leg slightly when loading his semitrailer. Just a scratch, he thought; could have been a lot worse. Oliver was driving for a northern German car manufacturer, and a doctor’s visit was not his schedule. He noticed shortly afterwards that it was not just a scratch after all. The wound, where he had been struck by a splinter, was throbbing. His leg hurt and started to swell more. Then came the fever. Oliver knew that there was no time to lose. He called the free DocStop hotline while he was still on the road.

I have known about the hotline for years from seeing stickers at car parks and petrol filling stations. I never thought for a moment that I would be dialling the number myself one day!

A hotline employee referred him to the nearest motorway service station – a DocStop location. There he immediately found a DocStop contact person who took him to the nearest hospital, and not a minute too early. Oliver had the onset of blood poisoning that soon would have become life-threatening.

However, with the help of the DocStop network, he was able to continue his journey after receiving treatment and the corresponding medication – at no additional cost: The medical services were settled in the normal way via the health insurance company. “DocStop really was a saviour in need for me. Getting to a local doctor with my semitrailer tractor would not have been an easy task; the car park is the first problem.”

A small team comprising just ten members is responsible for ensuring that everything runs smoothly at DocStop. It may be a small team, but it never stops: The members attend trade fairs and events, recruit doctors and inform truckers about what the health association does. Andrea Möller from the DocStop team tells us:

We get everywhere. The gratitude and delight we receive from the truckers that we meet give us the energy we need to continue. We want to be there for a career group that is, otherwise, without help.

The association has been providing comprehensive medical assistance for professional drivers on the road since 2007 – with growing success. Today, more than 700 doctors in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, the Netherlands and Denmark are active in the network to provide long-distance drivers with quick and easy assistance if they find themselves in acute illness situations. The DocStop hotline is available free of charge throughout Europe. There are no language barriers when making calls; interpreters can be brought to the phone where necessary.

You can also find all DocStop locations in standard smartphone apps such as the Fernfahrer Truck Stops app, the Fahrer app and the Truck Parking Europe app. Should the need ever arise.