Letters: Safe Driving, Mileage Tax, Sleep Apnea
These Letters to the Editor appear in the May 11 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
Is My Driving Safe?
I agree wholeheartedly with op-ed writer Ryan McDonald’s opinion on the value of tail-ride checks, when they are performed by safety professionals (4-27, p. 7; click here for previous Opinion piece).
These on-the-road driver observations are an integral part of my company’s services to the Canadian transportation industry. However, I also quite often will report unsolicited — i.e., unpaid — positive or negative driver behavior to motor carriers either by phone or electronically.
Moreover, my past experience, while managing the safety department of a medium-sized less-than-truckload carrier, has shown that private, third-party reports of certain questionable driver actions were more likely to be genuine when the caller was willing to identify himself or herself to me.
On the other hand, I would tell my drivers to let me know immediately if traffic conditions force them to perform some sort of action that might generate an irate phone call. I found that having advance knowledge of a particular scenario would not put me on the defensive when that inevitable phone call occurred.
Although most “incognito” third-party reports can be taken with a grain of salt, one still should keep track of them, as they could nonetheless indicate a potential pattern of noncompliant driver behavior.
André Perret
Fleet Safety/Compliance Professional
The Road-Scholar
Hamilton, Ontario
Canada
Mileage Tax
Editor’s note: The Web site for Transport Topics’ sister publication, Light & Medium Truck — www.lmtruck.com — ran a story May 4 headlined “Lawmaker Urges ‘Mileage Tax’ Legislation.” (Click here for story.) The comments referred to in this letter are covered in that story.
Negative reinforcement to reduce vehicles on the road is not the method to use. Expanding public transportation and having more local businesses are more effective.
People live away from some of the rat race to recharge their batteries. Businesses have odd working hours that force employees to drive. Family life in the corporate world is secondary to work life.
Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) is reacting without thinking about family life. I do not want to make a choice of paying a mileage tax versus where I worship, educate, work, visit relatives, shop, donate or recreate. Politicians can do these activities via tax-payer funding.
You have to give to get.
Robert Chaplin
Owner
Concept & Consulting Services
Loganville, Ga.
Sleep Apnea Drivers
This letter is a response to the story headlined “Study Urges U.S. to Mandate Testing of All Truck Drivers for Sleep Apnea (4-13, p. 2; click here for previous subscriber-content article).
Without a doubt, the safest drivers on the roads are truckers — unless they have sleep apnea.
Most truck drivers do not have sleep apnea, so expensive testing of all drivers seems ridiculous. It seems very prudent, however, to do inexpensive education and screening of those with a high likelihood of having the disorder.
Studies have proven that treatment for those who have sleep apnea is financially smart. Schneider National has published results that health-care expenses can be reduced for those being treated for sleep apnea by more than $500 per month per driver. Liability and litigation also were reduced because of fewer accidents caused by those who received treatment.
Sleep apnea is like any other treatable chronic disorder, such as hypertension or diabetes — with proper treatment and management, a driver would be considered fit for duty.
Sleep apnea can lead to chronic fatigue syndrome and daytime sleepiness, and studies have shown that people with sleep apnea have the reaction time of someone with a blood alcohol level of 0.06 blood alcohol concentration.
[Editor’s note: According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 0.06 BAC is the level reached by a male who weighs between 180 and 220 pounds and has had three drinks, i.e., “driving level significantly affected; information processing altered.”]
Following proper treatment, a driver’s cognitive awareness and reaction time improves to normal levels.
Isn’t the bottom line for this issue really about accident re-duction and highway safety? The added benefit of increasing profits from lowered health-care costs and reducing liability risks would seem to make addressing this issue a slam dunk for everyone involved.
Why not be proactive instead of reactive? Take the bull by the horns and create a program protocol that solves the problem of dangerous drivers with sleep apnea. I’m sure American Trucking Associations would support a logical approach to this problem if it would benefit the entire industry.
I’m also sure the government will make a mess of this issue, so why wait for politicians to make this a bureaucratic monster that causes inefficiencies and unreasonable costs for the industry?
ATA should spearhead an effort that takes the decisions out of the politicians’ hands and gives it to trucking industry leaders such as Don Osterberg, ATA safety policy committee chairman and vice president of safety and driver training for Schneider National Inc.
Sleep apnea is an industrywide problem that needs to be addressed. We just have to find logical solutions.
James Berryhill
President
Occupational Sleep Apnea Solutions Inc.
Charlotte, N.C.
