who pays for the sleep study? when hiring on to a new company

swift does not do the sleep study. when answering questions always say no to snoring etc. as long as you are good on blood pressure you are ok at swift.

 

that is probably excellent advice.KUDOS there driver.as ya'lls favorite bill clinton and now barack hussein obama say "don't ask-don't tell" or loosely translated regarding being asked,"don't tell if asked".

 

If you meet Crete's qualifications, I would recommend applying there.

They pay for the sleep study and finance the CPAP machine through your paycheck.

Don't lie about apnea, doing so puts everybody around you at higher risk because you're not fully rested.

 

only about 4% of the population has it yet all these doctors seem to wan want to test for it. Its a scam.

 

Considering 80-90% of people who suffer with sleep apnea go undiagnosed, I don't see what strip of thin air you pull your 4% from.

Drowsy driving is just as dangerous as drunk driving, and sleep apnea contributes to drowsy driving. Like it or not, apnea testing is here to stay. Considering the danger we pose to others in our 80,000 lb trucks, I can't blame any company for wanting to minimize the risks of premature fatigue that is brought on by untreated apnea.

 

I have to agree to a certain extent, that the medical community has found yet another cash cow to milk. Sure, there are legitimate cases of apnea that need treated. But the treatment thing is not the money maker. They get their big money on the front end in the testing. Doesn't cost them squat, but they sure hit for it like it does. All it takes is some sensors hooked up to you and a tech sitting at a screen monitoring all those getting the study done at that time. Not really a major expense to the clinic, but they sure reap a high profit margin in doing it. It could be done much simpler and cheaper by having a candidate do the home study thing, and then they check the results. Oh no... couldn't do that, because that would eat into our bottom line.

And since it is a cash cow to milk, why not get the government on board to promote that the majority of truck driver have it! Fits nice and tidy in with their zero road death goal (which is totally unrealistic). Yep, get the government to promote what the public knows is only a minor issue at best.

It is no different than any other "the sky is falling" nonsense that gets served up to the public. No one gave this a minutes thought, back in the day, when all there was for a driver to sleep on was a board across the cab seat, a hammock hung under a trailer, etc. We have now the best creature comforts ever envisioned in trucks now, and they want to think that everyone has sleep apnea? We have the most restrictive HOS regulations ever that mandate more rest time than ever was in the past, yet everyone now has sleep apnea. We have the lowest fatality rates for trucks on the highway than has ever been since they started recording this stuff. But how can that be? After all, all the truckers have sleep apnea!

 

In my post, I never said it was not real. Just like with all things, there is a little truth tucked away. But the speed in which this all came to the forefront of everyone's attention, the rush by many to blanket test so many people, etc just exhibits that the medical community saw a cash cow, they new they could milk this with the regulatory folks in government that all of a sudden this is the greatest threat to the motoring public. And there is always carriers, for P.R. or whatever purposes that jump right in with both feet so that they can give the appearance of addressing the problem. Like Prime. They are so concerned about SA, but they just got whacked between the eyes by the Dept Of labor of blacklisting a driver who was ill. Some things never change.

SA is just the latest in a long chain of things that someone comes up with to scare people. First coffee is a killer, then it is found out that coffee can prevent certain cancers. Red Meat will kill you, then it is found out that red meat in one's diet is beneficial to their circulatory system. The FMCSA determines you need a full 10 hrs off to be rested, but recent studies have shown conclusively what many already knew, that shorter, more frequent rest periods actually are better for rest. For the kids, the creator of the drug, Ritalin recently died. At his last interview before his death, he stated categorically that the whole ADHD and hyper activity thing is kids was all a scam to sell a product... Ritalin. Now we have the sirens going off and light flashing over sleep apnea. OMG it is a prolific problem that must be tested for and addressed. And 20-30 years from now, we will again learn what we have in the past... that while there are a few cases here and there, it was no where near the problem everyone thought it was. And the medical community, by then, will have created a new cash cow.

 

First of all every company is different so it would pay to ask ahead of time..

as to the cost... I paid $365 for the whole sleep study then my company paid for all the equipment and supplies. I was not required to pay it back and it has been 3 years. You can purchase refurbished machines for as low as $300.

sleep apnea is very real and I am grateful I was diagnosed and treated for it. I rest better now and feel much better. They found that I would stop breathing 27 times a minute while sleeping.
as I have stated in another thread I had my wife to pass away in 1999 while sleeping. This was before the diagnosis of sleep apnea. The doctor at the er said she just stopped breathing in her sleep.
I have always wondered if she would have been treated for sleep apnea would she still be alive.

take this very seriously... dot physical or not