Schneider says sleep apnea screening, treatment program saves costs, cuts accidents

The Trucker News Services

10/23/2006

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Schneider National has published a white paper that reveals its sleep apnea screening and treatment program has generated a return on investment in the form of savings on medical costs, accident reduction, reduced turnover and increased productivity.

According to the newsletter of the Truckload Carriers Association, the report drew the following conclusions:

• Among 348 drivers diagnosed with Sleep Disordered Breathing (SDB) and who were treated, medical costs accrued were slashed in half per month.

• There was a 73 percent reduction in preventable driving accidents among a group of 225 SDB-diagnosed drivers treated with Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) devices, which are essentially breathing masks that use air pressure to ensure airways remain open during sleep.

• The driver retention rate of CPAP-treated individuals was 2.29 times greater than the total company driver population in 2004.

According to a July 2002 study released by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), 28.1 percent of CDL holders have mild, moderate or severe sleep apnea. Wendy Sullivan, Schneider's occupational health manager, said that Schneider had long been investigating ways to cost-effectively diagnose and treat sleep apnea. In the past three years, the truckload giant has "recognized a trend in those medical records that sleep apnea had a lot to do with fatigue and hypertension, heart disease and diabetes. With 15,000 drivers, we're scaling this effort and learning as we go. With this sort of return on investment we decided that we're going to pay for the cost of this study and CPAP," the TCA report noted.

— The Trucker News Services