Marten Transport sneeks sleep study on Drivers at Orientation/Lies to Driver re: pay

And? The trucking industry doesn't work like that due to the liability issues. You could walk in the door with a brand new Medical Card from Dr. Benjamin Dover. who certifies that you are a 100% healthy animal.. it's irrelevant to what YOUR doctor thinks as the carrier is on the hook if you turn out to be a fraud. So they use their doctors as is their right. It's your right to do whatever it is that you're going to do and its your right to visit a complete snake oil salesmen.. that doesn't give you any right or any leg to stand on with the carriers. They have their rules to limit their liability and to meet the standards of their insurance company AND the regulations that they are preparing for.

Well, according to these same sources you are fully qualified and prepared to drive a tractor-trailer.. so these companies ought to just stop training programs because the FMCSA and the DOT has such low standards of what "basic" means? I doubt that I'd ever see the FMCSR and the DOT placed in the lawsuits or aid the companies being sued for the liabilities after an accident either.

And they encourage this why? If they were discouraging it.. you might have a point.. they also encourage compliance of the HOS and several other things that "real truckers" have decided they are all wet on.. strange bedfellows are created when the other fellow's ox is getting gored.

Nope, you do not.. you also have no right to work for them.. you know what opinions are like right? The companies face all the liability of the problems and aftermath of what happens if they do NOT cover their bases. This is self-protection and smart from a business and industry perspective.

They are roped into nothing, the numbers of drivers who come into orientations (even self-proclaimed veterans) completely ignorant of things that have been happening in the industry for a long time is staggering.. anyone who walks into a company and does not expect that the sleep apnea issue could be an issue is either innocently or selectively completely ignorant.

 

The sleep study for new driver for them. They must pay! Its a scam!!! Maybe they offer the freebie test to the drivers that been with them for a while....but in the end they get scammed!

Whats next. A driver has bladder problems and has to wake up in the middle of the night to urinate!! That night interfere with his sleep. Since this post already spoke to a few martin drivers. They claim they were sold a CPAP and money got taken out of their check to help pay for it. The companies are already getting grants and funding from the government to pay for this. Scam Sauce!

Any company needs to be up front with the drivers about their scam errrr I mean policy about the sleep studies and the potential cost involved!!!

New drivers dont make crap to begin with....now we want to further throw them in the hole with more nickle and dime BS. As usual....lets blame it on the driver and rape his wallet.

PS. Try and tell your dispatcher you wont pick up a load or make a job site on time because you are tired and want to sleep!!

See how that works for the "oh so concerned about sleep apnea" companies LOL

You will be sent home

 

All I hear from you MOGLAR is nothing but a crying #####! No driver will ever pay for a CPAP machine that Marten Transport pays for and Marten also pays for the sleep study done yes in a motel room and the results are sent to a qualified doctor who reads the results and determines if that driver suffers from sleep apena. You know nothing about this company except what you hear from ex drivers who quit or were fired from Marten. You might want to verify what I'm saying by talking to whoever your recruiter was and find out the CORRECT answer before you keep shooting your mouth off with lies

 

I will end this debate accordingly.

The entire "sleep study" scam does not address the root cause for driver fatigue. You know it and I know it.

While waiting at the customer to be loaded or unloaded, most drivers log that time in the sleeper berth. Basically, as soon as they show the sleeper berth in their logbook, they are on their “break.” Once 10 hours of break time has been reached, they are able to drive again. But as stated before, shippers and receivers can often take 4 hours or more to finish loading or unloading. So that 10 hour break normally reserved for sleeping, quickly turns into 6 hours. Add on another hour to find a parking spot, another 30 minutes to grab a shower, and maybe if there’s time, another 30 minutes to grab a meal. Where did that 10 hour break go? Four hours of sleep is sometimes all you get!!

END DEBATE!!

 

And since the drivers all along had the power to keep all this from happening.. they decided that they'd rather do their masters bidding and then drag the media into in which drug the people into it which drug the government into and we get more regulations which proves that the deregulation of the trucking industry was a huge mistake and the industry is simply being RE-regulated. the throat cutters are out of luck and out of time and soon hopefully out of jobs.. this is going to cause a huge shake up and will end up coming back to a profession .. once the lifestyle truckers are gotten rid of.. maybe this will become a profession again.

 

How is it taking an hour to find a parking spot without interuppting the 10 hour break?

 

He can use off duty personal conveyance if empty .

 

How did people do it before? What has changed? Before it was finding a place to be before your ten hours was up.. now it's 11 and apparently this has become like some sort of advanced Chinese quadratic equation solving.

 

Sadly, a scam is exactly what SA testing is at many companies, including my own (Crete). As I have posted several times before, I originally got my SOSA (Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea) diagnosis through a company that Schneider was using (my employer at the time). Now, knowing my family history and the fact my father (a physician) had been on CPAP for over a decade at the time I was tested, I went in fully expecting to be told to use one. I was, and I will say that for me, it has been a Godsend. The problem is indeed real.

However, some companies, Crete included, are using this as an additional cash cow. In Crete's case, I've heard from perhaps a half-dozen drivers that even though their test showed them falling on the "do not need" side of the line, they were forced to purchase a machine to the tune of $900. No filing on insurance. Payment through payroll deduction only. I made it clear when I hired on that I would not take part in their program. They eventually told me I would not need to go through their sleep study, but rather just provide a readout of my usage annually at the time of my DOT physical renewal. In other words, they caved because I told them more about SA then most of their people knew themselves (I've been a CPAP user for six years this October).

Unfortunately, the desire of some companies to "stay ahead of the regulations curve" sometimes results in ripping drivers off, pure and simple. And even more sad is the fact that this is by design by these companies.

I am thankful to Schneider for their program. It has made an unbelievable difference in my life. But again....I had one of the most severe cases of SOSA my technician had ever seen, so it's not surprising the improvement in my well-being was quick and significant. It's the far less severe cases and even the borderline cases as I described earlier that really piss me off. These instances do absolutely nothing for the greater good of the industry, and that is what the goal should be.

 

I will only add that while at the root this is true, Sleep Apnea is real, is a real problem for some, and does need to be dealt with. That part of the debate is not over and will not be over for a very long time in spite of your declaration.