The sleep apnea bill that was introduced two weeks ago in the House has been unanimously passed and is now waiting for approval from the Senate. The Senate this week introduced their own version of the bill which is being looked over by the Senate’s transportation committee.
The bill would prevent the FMCSA from being able to create any new regulations pertaining to drivers with sleep apnea – including testing and screening – without going through the proper legal channels. This would hopefully ensure that all necessary research would be performed before any new rules take effect and the rules would be open to challenge from both lawmakers and the public.
The bill is supported by OOIDA, the ATA, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and many other transportation groups.
“The best policy is for the [FMCSA] to use the rulemaking process already in place, rather than side-stepping it,” said OOIDA Executive Vice President Todd Spencer. “With the potential cost to trucking running north of $1 billion without the proven safety improvement, guidance is not a practice we can support.”
While the ruling can be seen as a victory for members of the transportation industry, it is by no means the end of regulation concerning sleep apnea by the FMCSA. The highly contested HOS changes technically require completed research and should be open to challenge by elected officials, members of the industry, and experts just as this bill proposes, but the FMCSA was still able to push ahead with their HOS rule changes despite unfinished research and vocal opposition from those same elected officials, members of the industry, and numerous experts.
Next Story: Driver Sleep Apnea Testing Bill Proposed in House
Source: overdrive
Image Source: drivingambition
T Owens says
Thank God for this ruling. Thank you OOIDA . Our lives are governed by enough rules, for the FMCSA to feel they can make decisions based upon guidance just boils my blood. Just like a DOT officer who tells me it’s up to officer discression on my inspection violations. Bullcrap!! Yeah like I could get away with my own discression or my personal interpretation of guidance and disregard their rules while performing my job as a truck driver.
steve says
This is the topic that has our lawmakers attention? !?! They have been scaring the public over shutting down the goverment over obama care for weeks in the mainstream media and this is more pressing. Glad to see they put FMCSA in check, but really?!?! All these regulations there wanting to heap on this industry is hurting nobody but people in this industry. Unfortunately until john q public gets hit with the bill nobody cares. Thank you OOIDA for being there. Every time I look I don’t see it, but I sware there’s a target on my back.
Kai says
This is crap! You know how many people suffers from one degree of sleep apnea to another? A staggering 90+%. This condition is so mislabeled it’s a joke. It’s a way to thin out the drivers, even those who have been driving for 10+ years and never had an accident. I will not submit myself to an ILLEGAL test when there is NO reason to perform the test. The FMCSA should also respect HIPPA laws.
Douglas Kirk says
I wonder what will be next- no purple socks? Green-eyed drivers can only work on Tuesday? Have to comb your hair a certain way? Time to park ALL trucks until the retards that make the rules figure out what game this is. All we ever get is fines and penalties for getting the job done, with little or no reward. Not even from our benevolent employers. I’ve been involved in this mess since 1977 and it’s getting harder to find a reason to stay.
Phil Rumrill says
more and more stupid dot laws that they just keep adding. Adding to laws just to add laws. It makes the idiots look like there doing something.most of the fools that write these laws have never driven a truck,so they don’t have a clue what it is like.
I have been driving for 30years now,accident free, and I think it’s time for a change. Maybe a nation wide shut down,if at all possible, or mabey it’s time to move on to something else. One thing is for sure,it’s not going to get any better for the drivers.
Thanks, vthobo
duane says
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
When will we get together as a team, and tell them to kiss off.
Me and my shotgun say,s I will drive when I want, sleep when I want, stop and rest if and when I want.
Why are we treated like little kids, who need to be watched, and told what to do?
When they tell you about taking a special test for this B.S., will you do it?
I refuse. and as far as wearing a mask while I sleep. yeah, just try it.
Waiting for the shooting to start.
p.s. I love those headlines
Angelo Diplacido says
After a hundred years of technology and this contraption is the best we can come up with to address sleep apnea? An array of hoses bungee corded to ones head while a pump drones on in the background. What about something simple like the mouth piece that keeps the airways clear? I am surprised how no one knows the benefits of Melatonin. Available at any drug store at a very cheap price. It is used for jet lag or to simply stabilize ones sleep schedule. It is harmless since it is naturally occurring in the human brain already. It has been used by astronauts for years. I’ve been using it for years and 8-10 hours of sleep is guaranteed. The only side effect is that you might feel like a teenager ager when trying to wake up. Nothing a cup of coffee won’t fix.
I’m in Canada so your pathetic government doesn’t affect me. Democrats are like our Liberals when picking low hanging fruit to give the impression of protecting its citizens while the financial issues get swept further down the road.
I believe that its simple not to eat before bed time so that your lungs have more room to breath and a melatonin tab under the tongue would pass any sleep apnea test. If your stomach spends the entire working and using the bodies energy to digest a meal and while your horizontal,I might add, your sleep will most certainly be compromised.
There are many disciplines to this profession that no one will teach you about in school and sleep and food are included in the list. It all depends on if you want this profession sustainable to serve you well for 4 decades. Most truckers don’t retire as truckers… They die before that or some health issue takes them out of the game. It’s the difference between treating the job with the respect of a profession or treating it by feeling like its just a job you ended up in. Look to the headliners here and you will find that another one has died behind the wheel. I’ve had 3 good friends die behind the wheel and my company loses a couple a year this way. How poetic that this machine would resemble some life support system to another loser who never bothered to be professional in every way.