Bucyrus As I understand it, the issue for sleep disorders in railroad employment is Shift Work Sleep Disorder (SWSD). To contract that disorder, one must work nights. It can be further complicated by working irregular shifts that include nights. It cannot be contracted by simply getting insufficient sleep during the time between work cycles. However, if one does contract SWSD by working nights, one symptom of SWSD can be the inability to sleep during the day. In the report on the Iowa crash, the NTSB says the engineer and conductor were never evaluated for sleep disorders such as SWSD. So I do not see how the NTSB can conclude that the engineer and conductor were suffering from SWSD. Therefore, NTSB appears to be engaging in SWSD activism in carrying the water for a movement in the context of an ostensibly fair and objective accident report. The appearance of the NTSB pushing an agenda of SWSD leads me to be skeptical of SWSD for the possibility of it being exaggerated to force the industry to pay for a costly remedy that will redound to the benefit of the special interests who will provide that remedy.
As I understand it, the issue for sleep disorders in railroad employment is Shift Work Sleep Disorder (SWSD). To contract that disorder, one must work nights. It can be further complicated by working irregular shifts that include nights. It cannot be contracted by simply getting insufficient sleep during the time between work cycles. However, if one does contract SWSD by working nights, one symptom of SWSD can be the inability to sleep during the day.
In the report on the Iowa crash, the NTSB says the engineer and conductor were never evaluated for sleep disorders such as SWSD. So I do not see how the NTSB can conclude that the engineer and conductor were suffering from SWSD.
Therefore, NTSB appears to be engaging in SWSD activism in carrying the water for a movement in the context of an ostensibly fair and objective accident report. The appearance of the NTSB pushing an agenda of SWSD leads me to be skeptical of SWSD for the possibility of it being exaggerated to force the industry to pay for a costly remedy that will redound to the benefit of the special interests who will provide that remedy.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Bucyrus Therefore, NTSB appears to be engaging in SWSD activism in carrying the water for a movement in the context of an ostensibly fair and objective accident report. The appearance of the NTSB pushing an agenda of SWSD leads me to be skeptical of SWSD for the possibility of it being exaggerated to force the industry to pay for a costly remedy that will redound to the benefit of the special interests who will provide that remedy.
Guess they want to sell those sleep hats.
Sorry - couldn't resist.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
jeffhergert Bucyrus They apparently conclude that both the engineer and conductor of the coal train had sleep disorders because they worked irregular hours. Maybe I am missing something, but that conclusion seems like an incredible reach. Not everybody who works irregular hours suffers from sleep disorders. How does the NTSB know that the engineer had simply not gotten sufficient sleep during his sleep cycle prior to going on duty? Maybe they are broadening the definition of what they consider to be a sleep disorder. So much that eventually anyone who doesn't get 8 hours of sleep between 10pm and 6am every night will be said to have a sleep disorder. Jeff
Bucyrus They apparently conclude that both the engineer and conductor of the coal train had sleep disorders because they worked irregular hours. Maybe I am missing something, but that conclusion seems like an incredible reach. Not everybody who works irregular hours suffers from sleep disorders. How does the NTSB know that the engineer had simply not gotten sufficient sleep during his sleep cycle prior to going on duty?
They apparently conclude that both the engineer and conductor of the coal train had sleep disorders because they worked irregular hours. Maybe I am missing something, but that conclusion seems like an incredible reach. Not everybody who works irregular hours suffers from sleep disorders. How does the NTSB know that the engineer had simply not gotten sufficient sleep during his sleep cycle prior to going on duty?
Maybe they are broadening the definition of what they consider to be a sleep disorder. So much that eventually anyone who doesn't get 8 hours of sleep between 10pm and 6am every night will be said to have a sleep disorder.
Jeff
Sounds like where it is headed.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Here is the final NTSB report on the BNSF Iowa crash. At the time I started last year’s first sleep disorder thread, the NTSB had only released their preliminary report. The preliminary report said that sleep disorders were part of the cause. This full report discusses that point in the conclusions.
The NTSB report also promotes the use of inward facing cameras that would have told them whether the engineer and conductor were sleeping.
There are several stunning photos throughout the report that are high quality and vividly portray what happened.
http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/reports/2012/RAR1202.pdf
Murphy SidingWell, I guess, if we can agree that t the problem we're *fixing* has now drifted from *fixing* the problem, to simply being able to determine who is prone to have the problem, well then, yes- the problem has been solved. It kind of reminds me of the phase "that depends on what the definition of *is* is".
A company has a problem of an employee who comes to work drunk every day. They fire the employee, but he still gets drunk every day. Did the employer fix their problem? Yes. Did they fix the fired employee’s problem? No.
The problem I am talking about is clearly stated in the context of my prediction from a year ago. Nothing has drifted, as you say. It is indeed the problem of finding out who has SWSD and who does not. That is the railroad industry’s problem, and that is the problem I predicted would be solved by a technological device. I mentioned that once an employee is found to have SWSD, he or she can be either treated successfully or reassigned to non-hazardous duty. It is 100% clear what I was talking about a year ago if you look at a couple posts that go beyond simply using the word, “problem.”
Unlike the guy who shows up drunk every day, there is no way to eliminate people having SWSD because it shows no outward signs. The diagnosis is somewhat subjective and complex. The SmartCap replaces that complex diagnosis with a technological monitoring of drowsiness that can directly and objectively lead to a diagnosis.
Of course, it is not going to cure SWSD. I never said it would. I never once mentioned any method of curing SWSD or made any prediction about it. Both diagnosis and cure are problems. I was talking about the problem of diagnosis.
But you keep insisting that diagnosis is not a problem, and that the only problem is the cure. And because you believe that the only problem is finding the cure, you are forced to believe that when I predicted a solution to the problem, I had to be referring to curing SWSD.
Bucyrus Murphy Siding John WR Murphy Siding Knowing who has the problem isn't the fix to the problem. But knowing who has the problem makes fixing the problem possible. Yes it would, but developing the technology to know who has the problem is not the same thing as a technological breakthrough (within a year) to fix the problem as bucyrus has proposed. That is only true if you insist on changing the meaning of what I proposed by playing word games. Read my post second from the top. I can only explain it, but if you don't read the explanation, there is nothing I can do. From the second post above: "...the larger PROBLEM that I am referring to is the problem for the company to find out which employees engaged in dangerous work have shiftwork sleep disorder so they can take them out of service." Maybe you should read up on SWSD so you can understand what is at stake here. My prediction last year never said anything about eliminating shift work sleep disorder by a technological means or by any means.
Murphy Siding John WR Murphy Siding Knowing who has the problem isn't the fix to the problem. But knowing who has the problem makes fixing the problem possible. Yes it would, but developing the technology to know who has the problem is not the same thing as a technological breakthrough (within a year) to fix the problem as bucyrus has proposed.
John WR Murphy Siding Knowing who has the problem isn't the fix to the problem. But knowing who has the problem makes fixing the problem possible.
Murphy Siding Knowing who has the problem isn't the fix to the problem.
But knowing who has the problem makes fixing the problem possible.
That is only true if you insist on changing the meaning of what I proposed by playing word games. Read my post second from the top. I can only explain it, but if you don't read the explanation, there is nothing I can do.
From the second post above:
"...the larger PROBLEM that I am referring to is the problem for the company to find out which employees engaged in dangerous work have shiftwork sleep disorder so they can take them out of service."
Maybe you should read up on SWSD so you can understand what is at stake here. My prediction last year never said anything about eliminating shift work sleep disorder by a technological means or by any means.
I would opine that while sleep apnea is indeed a sleep disorder, it's not really a consideration in this discussion. Sleep apnea cuts across the general population, and unless there is something about the railroad occupation that contributes to the disorder (say, obesity, a known factor), it's not really the issue.
The problem that affects most railroaders has to do with irregular schedules - more in line with "conventional" shift workers.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
BaltACDIt is so amazing that all those that are not in the industry have all the answers - without knowing the questions.
As one who is not and never has been in the industry, Balt, I tried to learn about the problem. I went back to the original entry with the link provided and I think the second post talked about a CPAP machine. That is what I saw on the post when I read it. And I took it at face value. A CPAP machine is ordinarily used for sleep apnea.
I do appreciate that there are other sleep disorders and certainly shift work can lead to them.
Now as I say I have never worked for a railroad. But I am an old fashioned guy; when I have a medical problem I go to my doctor. And I will bet you dollars to doughnuts doctors treat people who work for railroads too.
John
schlimm 1. It is in the current ICD-10-CM already, listed as " G47.26 Circadian rhythm sleep disorder, shift work type" It was even in the older (1993) ICD-10 as "F51.2, Nonorganic disorder of the sleep-wake cycle."
1. It is in the current ICD-10-CM already, listed as " G47.26 Circadian rhythm sleep disorder, shift work type" It was even in the older (1993) ICD-10 as "F51.2, Nonorganic disorder of the sleep-wake cycle."
Yes -- I meant the ICD-10 adoption in the United States, which I don't think has quite happened yet (for clinical coding). There is no real point in mentioning an older (1993) ICD-10 in the United States. Here (which is the principal location we're talking about for this particular subject) it does not matter what was in the earlier version, because it was not adopted here, even for mortality, until the late '90s. We've adopted the clinical coding revision very late here, largely due to ICD-9 being mandated for things like Government programs.
2. Why would anyone think it would end up in the CPT...
Precisely why I said NOT in capital letters. There was almost sure to be some wiseacre thinking the billing codes would be used as diagnostic codes. I wanted to nip that tendency in the bud. Glad you concur.
Overmod "NSSD" winds up in ICD-10 (and of course NOT in CPT) and becomes a pretext for 'reasonable business-related termination' or some similar thing instead.
2. Why would anyone think it would end up in the CPT (current procedural terminology) which is what all providers are required to use to code whatever lab tests, diagnostic procedures, surgical procedures, office visits, etc. are done in conjunction with a ICD-10-CM or DSM-IV-TR (for psychiatry and psychology) diagnostic code fro insurance.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
It is so amazing that all those that are not in the industry have all the answers - without knowing the questions.
Yeah, just pull all the extra list employees out of service. That'll work.
An honest question Bucyrus - were you ever a trainmaster?
bucyrusBut technologically, it won't be hard to fix. I'll bet you that we actually hear about this breakthrough development within a year.
Overmod "Inform" me of what? I worked for six years on developing non-intrusive SIDS monitors and can tell you far more than Wikipedia about the causes of central sleep apnea (which from the language in your reply are probably unknown to you in technical detail). The fact remains that sleep apnea can only be (meaningfully) detected or treated at home,
"Inform" me of what? I worked for six years on developing non-intrusive SIDS monitors and can tell you far more than Wikipedia about the causes of central sleep apnea (which from the language in your reply are probably unknown to you in technical detail).
The fact remains that sleep apnea can only be (meaningfully) detected or treated at home,
Sorry. I was simply informing you, using nonclinical language when possible, of the fact that there are two causes of sleep apnea, which also have different treatments. You mentioned only one of five sub-types of central, which overall is less common (5% of cases) and then you went on to discuss narcoplepsy, a very rare condition. Sleep apnea is clinically diagnosed with symptom reports, and depending on whether obstructive or central, a cardiology or neurological workup, and/or sleep studies (generally not performed at home).
You stated: "a condition that makes you wake up from sleep because of a triggering of the carbon-dioxide breathing reflex is going to keep you awake, albeit perhaps crotchety. The 'sleep' that triggers the apnea is the issue." this statement suggests you do not understand what the condition involves, regardless of your work experience with SIDS, a very different disorder. Sleep apnea is an interference with breathing and sleep that leaves the person tired, sleepy, inattentive, certainly not kept awake, during their normal waking hours. Sleep apnea is not what the cap is designed to monitor. The cap is designed to be triggered if the person is going into a state of consciousness with diminished beta-wave activity where he/she would possibly fall into a sleep stage and be inattentive to outside stimuli, regardless of the cause: sleep apnea, narcolepsy, or simple lack of sleep
Zugmann just rolls his eyes.
Zugmann is sorry zugmann asked. Maybe zugmann will have to work as a monk.
zugmannAnd zugmann thinks that the Lion is pretty funny when he says running an elevator is only marginally more difficult than running a train. Zugmann wonders if the Lion ran either.
Yes and yes. LION was building supt in a midtown office building that had a manual elevator that him had to run during lunch hour of regular elevator operator.
LION also operate R-4 subway are 1 mile at transit museum albeit with a motor instructor at elbow.
Of course LION knows that there is still yard work, local switching, way freights and hundreds of other applications around the railroad that require skilled locomotive engineers. The JOB is NOT going to go away, but these big oil and coal drags that run out here do not really need any crewmen on them.
The cab on road power should be like the bridge of a ship, with all of the modern navigation equipment that shows clearly the state of the whole railroad in front of the train. Instead of discovering a red homeball when you get to it, you should KNOW that so and such a train is entering the railroad at so and such a point.
GET ON THE BALL AND DESIGN A BETTER LOCOMOTIVE or somebody else will do it for you, and you might not like what they come up with!
RAOR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
I keep hearing "shift work." Outside of those with assigned yard, local freight, and some assigned thru jobs most rail freight TE&Y don't work set shifts. Shift work makes it sound like someone working regular defined hours, maybe even with some rotating shifts. Even then, most "normal" jobs that rotate between different defined shift start times usually have some predictability. That is a luxury most extra board and pool employees don't have.
While I don't doubt there are sleep disorders that cause problems for those that have normal (go to bed at the same time every day/night) sleep routines, I sometimes think it is being used as a scapegoat. Something to blame while overlooking the way transportation workers are "scheduled" to work because some of the proposals to mitigate that part of the problem is going to cost someone (railroad or worker) money. Much easier to say the employee has a problem than to say the railroad can't give a realistic train line-up so the employee has a good idea (pool boards usually, but not always, have a better idea at the Home terminal. AFHT all bets are off.) of when they will be going to work. The employee can't get proper rest because of a disorder, not because his/her schedule requires them to sleep at times when you aren't tired because you had an easy day/trip. (To me nothing is worse than getting a good night's sleep then working a morning deadhead or quick easy 4 or 5 hour trip, tie up and see you are going to go out right on your rest. One of the few times the line up can be believed. If you're really lucky, that trip home will be on a 12 hour POS junk train. You try going to bed when you aren't tired to prepare for a late night/early morning trip. My cats can sleep at the drop of a hat, but I can't. Laying in bed, about the time you are getting tired enough to sleep, the phone rings.)
Who knows, maybe all of this will eventually be the big reason used to automate most over the road operations. The railroads will say they can't find any human beings who can perform like a robot 100% of the time. Those in government regulatory positions, especially those that think 100% of risk must be eliminated from life, will agree and push for complete automation, too.
Something sort of related to this topic. A retired condr forwarded a news item to me that the KCS is going to start equipping their locomotives with inward facing cameras. It sounds like two in each cab. One directed towards the controls, the others with a view of the crew compartment. The BLET and UTU are fighting this and the KCS said they won't turn the cameras on until some legal action (sounded like it was initiated by KCS to head off the unions) is decided.
BucyrusBut, as I say, the larger task will be to record how fatigued an employee is, and every instance of falling asleep. Therefore, more than anything else, the SmartCap is a measuring tool that will be essential in solving the number one problem of discovering who is afflicted by nightshift sleep disorder.
Perhaps a better way to put this would be 'sensitive' rather than 'afflicted'. You might want to start a new thread directly focused on this point, because it is radically different from the in-cab monitoring I thought we were discussing.
A recent point I made is that railroads may use any 'recognition' of a 'night-shift sleep disorder' to disqualify people from engine service, especially if an 'excuse' is needed for some reason. I don't like even the idea of that. Some requirement for 'reasonable accommodation' for this kind of condition needs to be in collective bargaining or whatever before "NSSD" winds up in ICD-10 (and of course NOT in CPT) and becomes a pretext for 'reasonable business-related termination' or some similar thing instead.
Be interesting to see if the research done by USAF and SAC into effective sleep (which produced the 'power nap' system and the diagnostics behind implementing it correctly for individual crew members) would be applicable to help people susceptible to biorhythm upset.
RME
Murphy Siding Bucyrus"But technologically, it won't be hard to fix. I'll bet you that we actually hear about this breakthrough development within a year. It will be like a dead man control, but it will be far more sophisticated. It will be able to detect whether a person is sleeping, fatigued, exhausted, or tired. It is really not far fetched at all. I'll have to think of a good name for it. "The quote from the first post is written like there was an expectation that technology would provide a breakthrough development within a year- as in a *fix* for the problem. What you have referenced in the link to the night-cap thingy is simply a high tech way to know when there is a problem, but not a way to fix the problem.
Bucyrus"But technologically, it won't be hard to fix. I'll bet you that we actually hear about this breakthrough development within a year. It will be like a dead man control, but it will be far more sophisticated. It will be able to detect whether a person is sleeping, fatigued, exhausted, or tired. It is really not far fetched at all. I'll have to think of a good name for it. "
When you say it does not solve the problem, it indicates that you do not understand the problem. Although perhaps it is fair to say there is more than one problem.
The “problem” I am referring to is not that an employee falls asleep, although that is a problem. But the larger PROBLEM that I am referring to is the problem for the company to find out which employees engaged in dangerous work have shiftwork sleep disorder so they can take them out of service.
The industry must accomplish this task in view of the latest implications of nightshift sleep disorder. This is because, under the terms of this syndrome, the company is directly responsible for an employee causing a wreck due to falling asleep. This combination of the syndrome and the shift in liability is relatively new. This is not the old problem of being tired at night because of not getting enough sleep during the daytime.
The SmartCap can also serve as a wakeup alarm far more effectively than the deadman pedal or the current alter systems. But, as I say, the larger task will be to record how fatigued an employee is, and every instance of falling asleep. Therefore, more than anything else, the SmartCap is a measuring tool that will be essential in solving the number one problem of discovering who is afflicted by nightshift sleep disorder.
Zugmann regularly gets to help switch around 60-80 inbounds at his current job. Zugmann doesn't think a GPS or microchip is going to replace that anytime soon.
And zugmann thinks that the Lion is pretty funny when he says running an elevator is only marginally more difficult than running a train. Zugmann wonders if the Lion ran either.
zugmannC'mon... I can barely count to 60. I'll worry about that when the time comes.
LION is 65. Him is always sleepy. Maybe that is due to being a cat. Him can sleep day and night, but especially in church. Maybe that is not bad for a locomotive engineer to sleep in church, but for a monk? That's like sleeping through a red homeball.
LION had all of the answers, but they seem to have evaporated. RAILROAD of LION is fully automated, it does not matter if the LPPs in the cab are awake or asleep. Running a train is only marginally more difficult than operating an elevator, and automatic train control is only marginally more complicated.
STAY awake, or you could be replaced by a GPS and a microchip.
At least you cannot replace a monk with a microchip.
ROAR
schlimm Overmod"Sleep apnea" has nothing whatsoever to do with monitoring on a locomotive. It may cause lack of restful sleep BEFORE going on duty... but let's use common sense here, a condition that makes you wake up from sleep because of a triggering of the carbon-dioxide breathing reflex is going to keep you awake, albeit perhaps crotchety. The 'sleep' that triggers the apnea is the issue. Allow me to inform you.
Overmod"Sleep apnea" has nothing whatsoever to do with monitoring on a locomotive. It may cause lack of restful sleep BEFORE going on duty... but let's use common sense here, a condition that makes you wake up from sleep because of a triggering of the carbon-dioxide breathing reflex is going to keep you awake, albeit perhaps crotchety. The 'sleep' that triggers the apnea is the issue.
Allow me to inform you.
The fact remains that sleep apnea can only be (meaningfully) detected or treated at home, or during times of FRA-mandated away-from-home 'rest'. The magic cap, or any other detection device on the locomotive or at work, has no connection with 'sleep apnea' other than that the person concerned may be sleepy -- which of course is fairly obvious.
I thoroughly agree that some form of detection and, if possible, treatment of the sleep apnea is valuable, and further that railroads might well agree to compensate workers for testing and therapy for the condition. In the 'bad old days' railroads might have treated a propensity to sleep apnea much the same as they did deuteranopia... perhaps they still might. But it is an excuse to think that sleep apnea as a syndrome has anything to do, other than circumstantially, with the topic of this thread, which is monitoring and detection of the 'sleepy' condition, regardless of its etiology.
The point you make about the actual point of measuring brain wave activity, done correctly, is imho correct. But we both agreed on that from the start. What I tried to introduce into the discussion is that there are other ways of gauging operational competence that do not involve direct EEG. (And the situation with brainwave monitoring is a complex one in this context -- it's not just alpha v. theta or whatever, and probably would require considerably more work than 'symptom detection' approaches...)
I disagree. Knowing who has the problem isn't the fix to the problem. It is only knowing who has the problem. In fact, it is only knowing who has the problem who didn't already know they had the problem. Knowing who has TB doesn't fix the problem any more than knowing who has sleep disorders fixes that problem.
Murphy Siding Bucyrus "But technologically, it won't be hard to fix. I'll bet you that we actually hear about this breakthrough development within a year. It will be like a dead man control, but it will be far more sophisticated. It will be able to detect whether a person is sleeping, fatigued, exhausted, or tired. It is really not far fetched at all. I'll have to think of a good name for it. " The quote from the first post is written like there was an expectation that technology would provide a breakthrough development within a year- as in a *fix* for the problem. What you have referenced in the link to the night-cap thingy is simply a high tech way to know when there is a problem, but not a way to fix the problem.
Bucyrus "But technologically, it won't be hard to fix. I'll bet you that we actually hear about this breakthrough development within a year. It will be like a dead man control, but it will be far more sophisticated. It will be able to detect whether a person is sleeping, fatigued, exhausted, or tired. It is really not far fetched at all. I'll have to think of a good name for it. "
"But technologically, it won't be hard to fix. I'll bet you that we actually hear about this breakthrough development within a year. It will be like a dead man control, but it will be far more sophisticated. It will be able to detect whether a person is sleeping, fatigued, exhausted, or tired. It is really not far fetched at all. I'll have to think of a good name for it. "
It is precisely a technological breakthrough development within a year as a fix, as I predicted one year ago. Knowing who has the problem is the fix to the problem. I predicted a technological fix as opposed to the current testing and interview diagnosis, which is subjective and unwieldy. The technological fix has arrived as I predicted.
Murphy Siding The quote from the first post is written like there was an expectation that technology would provide a breakthrough development within a year- as in a *fix* for the problem. What you have referenced in the link to the night-cap thingy is simply a high tech way to know when there is a problem, but not a way to fix the problem.
The quote from the first post is written like there was an expectation that technology would provide a breakthrough development within a year- as in a *fix* for the problem. What you have referenced in the link to the night-cap thingy is simply a high tech way to know when there is a problem, but not a way to fix the problem.
Exactly. This is not a silver bullet. A silver bullet solves a certain type of problem (like warewolves). This, at best, is a silver radar detector. It lets you know of a problem, but that problem is already known.
I've been on the railroad for 36 years, 2 in train service and the last 34 as an engineer. Most of this time has been in road freight service, a great deal in unassigned pool service. My experience has been that most of my sleep problems have occurred at home. As TREE68 stated, personal life trumps sleep needs, families require time which often directly interferes with rest requirements. As I've gotten older, I find that the sleep monster is not as potent a foe as in my early railroad days, but it's still there. We have some factors which have definitely been stacked against us over the years. Freight crew runs have doubled and more over the traditional 100 mile day. Crew size has been whittled down to two. And, the engine cabs are much quieter and more comfortable. Some of the newer GE's, my favorites being the ES40DC's ride like a limo and can be as quiet as a library. My employer has allowed us a napping policy, when stopped at a stop signal. This is to be an agreed upon arrangement between crew members, one at a time, no more than 15mins. It helps a lot, though it only sanctions what we had been doing for years in violation of the rules. One problem that sometimes arises is that there are some employees who consistently make no effort to stay awake, whether you're moving or standing still. This tends to manifest itself more among the younger guys, but I've also had a few old heads who nodded down the road, trip after trip. In these cases, one is truly alone. If you've been caught short, this can make for a miserable trip. I have found the best situation is to have both crew members aware and considerate of each others condition. Two heads are always better than one. I fear that any kind of "magic hat" would be just one more distraction and possibly only provide warning after a lapse has occurred. I have no doubt that such technology would be viewed by the carriers as a perfect case for removing that "useless" second body from the cab! We are currently being bombarded by information requests by "trip optimizer" which I view as an annoying distraction. PTC technology promises to give us a wonderful display of stuff we already know, and the current FRA rest policy guarantees us copious amounts of rest at our away from home terminals, so that we sleep our way out of the rest cycle and arrive home bushed, but still needing to plow through the things that being a husband/dad/human require. So, just look out for each other. Make the best effort you can to get enough rest. Please don't provide any more invasive technology for my own good. I'm already pretty certain that ERAD has the capability of giving me a thorough prostate exam, I sure don't want something monitoring my brain waves. Examining my head will get you nothing!
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.