i've experienced microsleep: PLEASE PULL OVER WHEN YOU ARE SLEEPY

k

Happened to jack crews in blackdog when he was hauling a load out of atlanta on his 6th straight georgia run

 

Been there, done that! I’ve pulled into rest areas and truck stops for quick power naps as recently as last week. Only a fool drives when sleep is knocking on the door!

 

Screw my boss? That’s a dude, no thanks!

Screw the load? I haul cardboard and that wouldn’t feel good.

Screw the customer? I’ve had some good looking women unload my trailer, but my wife wouldn’t approve.

 

If you looked over the employment history I have and the companies that went out of business. The ones that were really bad were the ones you never got sleep at. You had a culture in which you sleep next week. Get the load delivered on time today, shake off that micro sleeping. (We called that white line fever back in the day) but sleeping with eyes awake? Been there done that and USED TO IT.

That does not mean I like it. I spend either nights or days sleeping, to catch up a lifetime of no sleep. Some people were killed and get to sleep for eternity.

This industry talked lip service to safety for decades. But in my experience it's all hooey. You have to be delivering on time sleep or not. Usually not. If you stopped to sleep, then they fired you so you can get your sleep at home. Give the load to some other young'un who will be ontime for a while until he or she too gets tired and is late again due to microsleep.

I can go on, but I already have. A percentage of my road stories are associated with no sleep and there you are almost dead because of it. One company in our annual safety awards dinner which is a pile of steaming.. anyhow they had a story shared with the whole fleet where a Attorney sued the whole outfit after being run off the roadway into the grass heading for a set of bridges where there is about a 20 foot drop off to the cross roads below. That lawyer managed to get stopped on grass before going over to a probable death.

That was me who ran that lawyer off, it was the second time that happened. Sleeping. Following that yellow line on the left. Traffic on the right hitting that Monon hill was too slow for my horses so I moved left and there went the lawyer. And the lawsuiting came along. Just another day. That was decades ago. They probably settled it and use the case as a cautionary story to the fleet who has been there done that. Eventually that company went out of business two years after I left. Second company that fired me for being late. Why? Due to sleeping why? Due to no sleep for a week until it catches up. Three logbooks and so on.

And you wonder sometimes why this industry is screwed up as bad as it has always been. You get your sleep next week. Port East in Baltimore with containers, I quit them which would be my first attempt at improving sleep safety. They asked what do I need as a driver? I told them, the owner in writing specifically that they need small sleepers on the tractors so I can stay in Norfolk waiting from 6 am arrival drop box off there until 6 pm that night on dispatch calling every hour for a box or chassis back to baltimore later that night 10 PM to go home and back to tractor to start a new day at 3 am back to Norfolk.

I was a young fella, did that for a few weeks. QUIT because of that. My next employer I did not care about wages, it's #### anyhow. What I cared about is did the tractors have sleepers. Yes. Good when Do I go to orientation? Next monday. And so it went from there. That's the one where we were dedicated to GM every morning in Baltimore from Lexington KY in winter regardless of sleep, and regardless of weather as a team. The other teammate was my trainer. And very good. Only because his spouse broke an arm and needed someone for a few months. They called me to fill in.

Let me tell you, that was a excellent winter. Snow and all. That sleeper? We used it when we had to. A few hours at a time. It's not for sleeping like most everyone does.

Microsleep? Roll your window down. Run the music, drink coffee, get out and make that snow angel in the snow. The cold will wake up fast. And stay awake for a while. It's the best hack ever. Just don't run the heater.

There is and never will be any catagory in Unemployment data when I show up there and they ask why did I quit. Because there is no sleep allowed. That is the truth. But there is no checking that one off. I have to say another reason why I quit that fits the pre-formatted reasons list why so and so quit or fired. It is easier to quit and say that you were not given enough work (Falsifying...) than it is to explain to a non trucker sitting at the desk 9-5 that you are not allowed to sleep. No one talks about it in this industry and never will.

People who do talk about it like myself are laughed out of the room like a crank, a silly crazy one best kept out of sight of many. Like that crazy relative no one talked about upstairs with a aide to be sure he or she stays up there.

Anyway. I get to spend the rest of my life sleeping as much or as little as I feel like it. No one can tell me I was late for anything.

But if you have that load that has to be 2000 miles across the USA two days ago, you know who you will be giving that one to... ME... It will be there 2000 miles away in a couple of days and nights. Easy. It's what I do best.

 

Some tips on how to remain alert while driving:

• Get enough sleep.
• Do most of your driving when you feel the best, which may be at the start of your day or during daylight.
• Divide your driving into manageable portions. For example, 6 hrs, 3 hrs, and 1.75 hrs.
• Work fast throughout the day, so you won’t be driving too late at night or at the end of your 14-hr clock. You can drive all your 11 within 12 hrs.
• Drink coffee (or energy drinks) on the portion of driving that you will be feeling tired. Don’t exceed 400 mg of caffeine in a day, especially at the end of your driving as caffeine can affect your sleep quality.
• Chewing gum, jolly ranchers, and sunflower seeds can help you stay awake, but ONLY use them for alertness. They lose their effectiveness if you overuse them. The same goes for coffee.
• Keep your sleeper berth as dark as possible. If sleeping during the day, wear a sleeping mask.
• Stay away from heavy meals, as they can cause you to feel tired and sleepy.

 

You forgot one important tip.

Document your HOS situation and sleep time taken and especially write down anyone in your company who make objection to your taking that time to sleep. Date, time, day of week, where, when and so on. Names in particular and what was said to you.

Take that information to Safety.

If the company is any good, the Operations Manager will review the situation and usually support your legal sleep requirement on HOS. But you cannot count on that person to support your position when your appointment time is running late. Getting legal sleep will make you even later.

That's where you call dispatch and make sure you have that appointment time made to account for your trip planning to include necessary sleep periods for the week on your entire trip from shipper to customer. That way you can go ahead and take your 8 hours sleep without stress or being yelled at for being late.

If your company consistently refuses to work with you to make legal appointments to what is possible vs your HOS hours etc then you document that. For your unemployment office in case they do fire you for actually getting your legally required sleep per HOS and are late because of it.

Nothing will change in this industry until the drivers all change it, each and every one. Appointments for a load of student notebooks and binders for the school year is NOT. THAT. CRITICAL. We are not at war and we are not hauling mission navy seal critical bs loads. No appointments needed. Just a delivery day to arrive in a window of time.

 

We all have a 'body clock', the time we are mostly awake and most sleepy. Basically there are 2 types of people, rooster (early riser go to bed early) and night owl (stay up late wake up late). I'm a night owl and from 7pm to 1am is the time I'm most awake, from 2pm til 5pm is the time I'm most sleepy. The HOS (hour of service) wreaks havoc my body clock making me LESS safe and unproductive, who is in the best judgement to drive or not to drive? The driver, so please petition to get rid of this unreasonable HOS.

 

This is good advice, however it does not apply to the drivers in the LTL line haul world. They don't have a choice of what time of day to drive, their trips are based on gate out times and planned to use a specific amount of time to get from point A to B, often with schedules meet points or other exact time limits they must meet throughout their shift. There is no dividing up the trip or working fast, schedules are to be met.

The dark sleeping environment is great advice, studies have shown that even a pinpoint of light will cause restless sleep.

That said, there is usually enough time built in for a quick nap, which has always been most effective for me when working the overnight shifts.

Planning sleep time to accommodate the natural rhythm of 45-90 minute sleep cycles is also very effective, this way you do not wake up in the middle of a deep sleep cycle. Sometimes it is better to wake up half hour earlier than the maximum time you have available to sleep if it means you will be waking up on a 45 or 90 minute interval from when you fell asleep. I use this method when deciding what time to set my alarm for in the morning, not based on when I need to be up and in the shower, but rather based on the closest 45 minute interval from what time I expect to actually be asleep.

 

Having the window down for fresh air also helps. Along with stopping for a walk around.

Then theirs the jamming out loud to your favorite music.

Those 3 tricks always worked for me.