An Overdrive report details the second listening session hosted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety and Federal Railroad Administration on sleep apnea.
Costs, both time and money, were big topics of conversation during the Federal Motor Carrier Safety and Federal Railroad administrations’ “fact-finding” listening session on sleep apnea/operator safety Tuesday, May 17.
“An owner-operator’s livelihood depends on his or her truck moving,” said Andrew King, a research analyst with the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association. “If an owner-operator misses work to be tested, that makes it hard to pay their bills.”
The FMCSA and FRA hosted this session, the second of three listening sessions scheduled this month, in Chicago with the third to be held May 25 in Los Angeles.
Truck drivers also echoed comments from last week’s session that basing a driver’s likelihood of having obstructive sleep apnea on body mass index and neck size isn’t a fair practice. “The decision to send a driver for a sleep study needs to be based on more than neck size and BMI,” truck driver Carla Williams said. “Basing a driver’s likelihood of having sleep apnea on two factors that are often not the best indicators of sleep apnea is poor practice.”
