Changes coming to the DOT physical....

I agree.
Not sure if it's changed in CA, but when your medical expired your license was still valid for car and motorcycle, you just couldn't drive a CMV. If you updated your medical, you were good to drive a CMV.

Moreover, if you have a NV CDL and let your TSA background for your H/X endorsement expire, your entire license is suspended. Rarely pulling hazmat loads, I removed my H endorsement. Not sure if this state specific or a new Federal requirement.

 

Very true and thank you.

What causes OSA is the soft tissue of the soft pallet collapsing on the airway making it difficult to breathe. The muscles that hold that tissue up are not autonomic muscles. Therefore in order for them to retract and open the airway the person needs to be awake or at least awake enough to contract those muscles and open the airway.

 

I'm all for saving lives but at what cost? If we can save 20000+ lives a year don't you think that would be a good thing of course I do but putting thousands on top of thousands of hard-working individuals out of work that I don't believe anybody would want. The body count is not going to go down with these stupid ### self-driving vehicles because people are still going to text on their phone while they drive do their makeup while they drive, stuff their face while they drive, pay more attention to the kids in the backseat then what's happening on the road while they drive, search through the radio while they drive. Do you see where I'm going with this? Autonomous vehicles aren't going to save that many lives unfortunately. It's probably going to have the opposite effect like midnight said hijackers now have to physically climb into a truck but soon they'll be able to sit in the comfort of their surroundings thousands of miles away and hijack as many trucks and cars and whatever else the God #### government thinks is a good idea to have out there cruising around operated by computers and satellites boy Isis is going to have a field day with this. Now I've only been around for a short 40 years and I've seen some pretty dumb stuff in my lifetime. MC Hammer pants, Snuggies, the Macarena I thought the dumbest of all was those pajama jeans or whatever the hell they are stretchy pants for chicks they're supposed to look like jeans yeah that took the cake until this autonomous s@#% started up. I just really can't believe that there's so many people out there that think this dumb@#$ idea is a good idea..SMH...

 

Hell I think the government should pass law that autonomous commercial aircraft is all fine and dandy to have up flying the skies with passengers on board and why stop there we could get these oil ocean liners out there cruising the oceans.S@#% no point in stopping there why don't we make autonomous human beings will have autonomous doctors Our Lives will be in there aluminum hands oh no no point stopping there robots all around if you didn't pick up on it that's all sarcasm I just get really fired up about things that really piss me off and everybody out there is so excited because it's going to be so great to have all this wonderful technology and they don't think about who it's going to affect and how it's going to affect those families and government doesn't care they say they do but they don't as long as bags of money keep landing on their desks they're happy they don't care who they step on. And a lot of people out there don't care what's going to happen to the people that this is going to affect as long as it doesn't affect them they sleep easy well I'm sorry but it ####ing pissing me the #### off

 

Totally agree...a stress test would reduce the # of licensed drivers in a heartbeat.

 

I took a First Responder course in my former career. The instructor was a medical professional and briefly covered sleep apnea. He said it was mostly bovine excrement. Well, his opinion was it could be minimized by changing the tilt of the head and neck while sleeping. For example, sleeping on one pillow versus two or three. I would like to see the statistics on how this study has reduced crashes or other emergencies.

 

Agreed, and just about anyone who is married gets poked in the ribs regularly to roll over so you quit snoring. Position is very important.

FWIW, if anyone is interested, you can download any of a number of phone apps that do a pretty decent job of evaluating your sleep, including apnea.

 

This is true. You can Dr shop til one passes you. However I want to work for TMC. They will only accept the Iowa DoT card for a new trainee like myself. So in that case, I do not have a choice.

As it turns out my results are in and I do have a moderate case. So now I get to spend 90 days before I can go to back to training. It's maddening but I'll deal with it.


Ed

 

If you have health insurance MOST health insurance companies WILL PAY for the sleep apnea test and equipment. There should not be any or much out of pocket expenses on your part.

 

There are so many different policies this is not necessarily the case. For example my old policy with my previous company was one of those popular high deductible policies. I had to pay out $2000 to meet the deductible before the policy paid a cent. So in that case, no they wouldn't have covered it. Unless of course I had already spent the 2 grand on other health issues.

So the answer is...maybe. Depending on your policy.


Ed