An Oregon trucker has won a lawsuit after his company suspended him, claiming his weight interfered with his ability to do his job.

John McDuffy, who stands 6-feet-tall and weighs about 550 pounds, had been employed for 14 months by Interstate Distributor Co. in Tacoma, WA, when the company assigned him to a new truck in May 2004.

Unlike his usual truck cab, this new one was smaller, with a broken steering wheel adjuster, which prevented him from fitting inside the truck. After McDuffy reported the problem to the company, he was suspended from his job without pay until further notice, according to The Associated Press.

McDuffy was allowed back and given a bigger truck later that month, but was again suspended 10 days later until he found a doctor who would declare him fit to work. A doctor found that McDuffy was morbidly obese and did have some limited abilities, but was still able to drive a truck. However, the company did not allow him to return to work.

McDuffy sued, and was awarded $109,000 on Oct. 5, after video evidence showed him adequately performing his work duties.

“I could see them suspending me if I did something wrong, or if I couldn’t do my job,” McDuffy told The AP. “But I’d been there 14 months. I’d always done my job. I did whatever I was asked to do.”

Obesity is not uncommon in the trucking industry, according to research from the OOIDA Foundation. In a 2004 survey, researchers found that the average OOIDA member was 5’10” tall and weighed 216 pounds – a 31 percent body mass index (BMI) number, or 1 percent over what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers obese.

In an earlier 2001 survey, the OOIDA Foundation found that roughly 87 percent of truckers polled were either overweight or obese.