Aero Flow Industrial Clinics Blog

Trucking company owners should know that having employees with sleep apnea diminishes their fleet driver safety and puts more than just the driver at risk. They need to have their employees with suspected sleep issues evaluated by a medical professional. If they get the treatment they need there won’t be liability risks for you. Treatment requires an individualized program that focuses on the needs of the person experiencing sleep apnea. When it comes to fleet driver safety there needs to be a complete medical history, physical examination and specific testing done in order to have it treated.

Behavioral and lifestyle changes could be mandated in the treatment of sleep apnea in truck drivers in order to ensure fleet driver safety. Those with mild cases respond well to adjustments as simple as adjusting their sleep position. Losing weight is also an option recommended to those who are overweight. Sleep apnea episodes can often be reduced by using devices that help to keep individuals on their side during sleep.

The most widely used and effective treatment method for more serious cases of sleep apnea is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment. The patient sleeps with a CPAP mask while continuous air is forced through the nasal passages into the airways. This prevents the throat from collapsing during sleep. Doctors sometimes prescribe dental appliances for the patient to wear to control sleep apnea.

According to a study on highway deaths, the number of drivers involved in fatal accidents directly contributed to distracted driving rose 42% from 2005 to 2008, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that more than 5,000 people died in 2008 in crashes involving a distracted or inattentive driver. Driver distraction is increasing because drivers are multitasking while driving which puts fleet driver safety at risk.

Fleet operators have traditionally accepted a 20% annual accident rate as a natural byproduct of their industry. Some experts though, such as Eric Strom, maintenance and safety product manager for GE Capital Solutions Fleet Services believe a manufacturing analogy is appropriate here and says that any fleet-related accident should be viewed as a “defect.”

What other industry would view a 20% or more defect rate as acceptable? None! Even more disconcerting is that these “defects” — fleet accidents — are often preventable since they are almost always the result of driver negligence and distraction.

Many companies offer products and testing that combat distracted or inattentive driving, working to modify driver behavior through various means to improve fleet driver safety. These products are generally GPS-based vehicle tracking and monitoring systems that allow managers to set speed limits and map out safety zones beyond which drivers should not venture. There are also testing procedures to eliminate any chance of a driver having undiagnosed sleep apnea.

If 40% of your accidents are preventable, this represents a huge opportunity to reduce fleet costs by just improving fleet driver safety. Industry studies show that accidents represent over 14% of a fleet’s total expenses, although it is considered higher since these studies do not take into account soft costs such as downtime, lost employee productivity, etc.

Although fleet monitoring can increase fleet driver safety and reduce fixed fleet costs, the more important reason to make fleet safety a top priority is because peoples’ lives are in the balance. As good employers, it is our obligation as fleet managers to ensure the safety of not only our employees, but also the public with whom they interact on the roads every day.