FMCSA receives recommendations on sleep apnea, but drivers object

Hours of Service has been one of the overriding concerns in driver compliance for the trucking industry, with regulators worried that overworked and tired drivers pose a threat to public safety. But overworking is not the only way to end up with tired drivers, and now the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has turned its attention back to another common safety concern - sleep apnea.

More specifically known as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) the condition entails irregular breathing during sleep and the failure to draw in enough oxygen. Sleep apnea can leave people who suffer from it unusually fatigued for how much they sleep. OSA, as opposed to certain other kinds of apnea, is a common problem for people suffering from obesity, as well as disorders such as diabetes, but also simple body characteristics such as the shape of the neck and throat, according to the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute.

Sleep apnea can be fairly effectively treated through lifestyle changes, surgery or the use of certain sleep aids, such as continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines. However, such treatments can prove expensive or invasive, so many who may suffer from sleep apnea never investigate such options.

But if a new set of proposals from two of the FMCSA's advisory groups is implemented as a rule, they may not have much choice.

TodaysTrucking.com reports that the FMCSA's Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee and the agency's Medical Review Board met earlier this month around Washington, D.C., to discuss potential driver qualification regulations regarding sleep apnea.

After the meetings, the two groups issued a set of 11 recommendations, ranging from whether to test drivers for sleep apnea, under what circumstances and what courses of action would be required in order to retain their commercial driver's license.

The overarching sentiment among the two groups is that sleep apnea poses a serious enough risk for the trucking industry that it should receive specific regulation. This actually diverges from a 2004 study produced by the FMCSA's Office of Research and Technology, which failed to find a connection between sleep apnea and increased risk of crashes, except for in cases of severe sleep apnea and severe crashes. But numerous other studies lend greater support to the groups' conclusion.

Ultimately, the MCSAC and MRB suggested that the FMCSA require any commercial drivers with a body mass index (BMI) measurement of at least 35 to undergo a test for sleep apnea. Traditionally a BMI of 30 or higher has been considered to be obese, but the groups set the target number somewhat higher to reduce the burden on drivers who were less likely to suffer from sleep apnea.

Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), told Land Line Magazine that the OOIDA Foundation had estimated that more than 1.7 million out of the 3.5 million commercial truck drivers in the U.S. have a BMI of at least 30. Testing all of these drivers would cost around $5.25 billion, largely out of the pockets of the drivers themselves.

More importantly, however, Spencer suggested that the new recommendations fail to match the FMCSA's emphasis on driving safety.

"While there is plenty to indicate some commercial truck drivers have sleep apnea, we find virtually nothing to indicate that that is a factor in increased likelihood of crashes," Spencer told the news source. "That’s what motor carrier safety needs to be all about…When you throw out experienced drivers and you replace them with new ones, well, then safety becomes a real issue."

Drivers also object that the recommendations' only acceptable courses of treatment were CPAP or surgery, both of which can prove costly at the driver's expense.

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