As the new saying goes, “There’s an app for that.”

Here some apps we’ve heard about that are designed for truckers. Maybe some of you are using them. If so, drop us a line and tell us what you think.
                 
Truxster
Truxster contains information on truck stops, rest areas, and Walmart locations throughout the country. Search for truck stops close to you that offer your desired amenities, find the cheapest diesel prices, locate weigh stations, and view nearby Walmart stores. Truck Stops is the perfect all-in-one app for OTR truck drivers. 
                                 
Allstays Truck Stops & Travel Plazas                                               
Allstays' Truck Stops and Travel Plazas app lists the truck stops in the closest proximity to your current location. It provides information on weigh stations, CAT scales, truck washes, area Walmarts, parking lot size, food options, showers, and more. Advanced filters help you search for truck stops with the specific amenities you’re looking for. Everything you need is at your fingertips with Allstays Truck Stops and Travel Plazas’ app. 
                                 
BigRoad: Free Trucker Log App
BigRoad is an app for Android devices that allows truckers to keep track of their daily driver logs. Find truck stops, weigh scales, and traffic directions, and send documents and photos to your company straight from your phone! Push button technology makes it super simple to keep track of when you're on duty, off duty, and driving.
                                  
TRANSFLO Now                             
Transflo Now is a scanning app that speeds up document delivery. Take photos of your delivery documents, submit them to your fleet, and take off on your next load! Transflo’s same-day access allows fleets and drivers to get paid faster. To register, drivers need an ID, provided by your fleet.

Driving with Sleep Apnea
Derek Hinton - www.DOTJobHistory.com

Heard about the new corduroy pillows and sleeper sheets for drivers? No?
They're making headlines everywhere.

I typically write about DAC Reports, MVRs, PSP reports, FMCSA rules regulations, the need to be proactive with your career by knowing, correcting, securely storing your information and using your information to ensure against a workless times or, get a better job.

The last couple of articles have dealt with sleep—how it is crucial to decision-making, how OTR driving is a career that makes it hard to get good sleep, and then discussing sleep apnea and my personal experiences with it.

In other words, for the past few articles I’ve been writing about sleep instead of the usual putting you to sleep.

The articles did result in me being contacted by Bob Stanton an over the road driver who has been on CPAP since 2002.

Bob offered some great advice on living with your CPAP in a truck. I appreciate Bob Stanton offering the following advice.

POWER SUPPLY ISSUES

CPAP machines have been engineered for use in a home setting. Some newer CPAP can be run directly from 12-V cigar plug outlets. Be careful about running CPAP in optimized idle equipped trucks. Voltage drop during the starting cycle will scramble compliance data. Operating on battery alone can also scramble compliance data with drained batteries in cold weather.

If a 12-V power cord is not available, you will need to use a 12-V DC – 110V AC power inverter. Check with the CPAP manufacturer about pure versus modified sine wave power. Most inverters sold at truck stops create modified sine wave power. Pure sine wave power inverters are available for running electronics in 12-V systems. The number one CPAP failure problem encountered with truck drivers is improper power supply to the CPAP.

Wattage needs for inverters will vary with pressure and amount of humidification. Use a wattage capacity inverters and battery capacity for a worst case scenario. Inverters are more efficient when not run at or near their wattage capacity. In general a 400 Watt inverter properly wired directly to the truck’s battery with a low voltage cut out is the best way to go.

HEAT AND HUMIDIFICATION

Using heat and humidity greatly changes the electrical requirements. Some drivers on CPAPs do not need heated humidified air and others do. While pass over humidification can help, most drivers find they need heated humidified air to tolerate CPAP on a long terms basis. There are prepackaged sterile saline nasal sprays that you can use. Large volume nasal irrigation is not practical in an over the road situation. Without heated humidified air it feels like someone took a bottle cleaning brush and ran it up and down through your nose.

Turning the heat-humidification up too high can cause condensation to form in the CPAP hose. Called “rain out” getting a slug of water blown up your nose in the middle of the night is not pleasant. You can insulate the supply hose with either homemade or commercial insulating sleeves

Learning to balance enough heat-humidification to not get “bottle brush nose” with not having too much and causing “rain out” is part of learning to adjust to long term CPAP use.

REASONABLE CLIMATE CONTROL IN THE CAB

Even with heat and humidity you can get a large amount of cold air blown directly into your lungs. This quantity of air can overwhelm your body’s ability to preheat the air. I have woken up shivering uncontrollably with hypothermia when trying to sleep in an unheated cab on a CPAP.  Using a CPAP in an unheated sleeper below 55 degrees risks CPAP induced hypothermia.

The same problem happens with using a CPAP in very hot cab conditions. The larger than normal quantities of hot air blown down your airway can overwhelm your body’s ability to cool itself.

WHERE TO PLACE THE CPAP

You need to keep the CPAP water chamber below the level of your head. A rare but possible complication is drowning when the CPAP is placed higher than your head and it is accidentally pulled over. With team drivers the situation of the water sloshing in the humidification chamber while your partner drives is also an issue.  Water in the chamber can be forced into the supply tube, blown down your lungs causing drowning.

Setting up a loop in the hose with some bungee cords to prevent this is a simple but common sense precaution.

MAINTANENCE, CLEANING, AND SPARE PARTS

There will be a filter on the air intake for the blower. This filter needs to be replaced or cleaned on a regular basis. Be ready to “fight” with your durable medical equipment provider (the people you get your CPAP from) if they are not used to over the road truckers. You will go through many more filters than a normal CPAP user. Clean and replace the filters on your trucks HVAC system on a more frequent schedule and do your best to practice good housekeeping to keep down dust in the cab

Use distilled water in the humidification chamber. Dump out any water remaining in the humidification chamber in the morning. Tap water will over time leave mineral build ups in the humidification chamber. It also can result in excess bacteriological growth in the humidification chamber water. Normal tap water may have a couple of little “bugs” swimming around in it. Our bodies can tolerate this. But taking tap water, putting it in a jug, letting it sit in a truck for a couple of days, then putting it in a nice warm humidification chamber that is not hot enough to kill off the little bugs is just looking for trouble.

You also need to regularly clean your mask and supply tube. Check the manufacturer’s information on the methods and types of cleaning products they suggest. I take my CPAP mask and supply tube into the shower with me. I have a rig not unlike a shotgun cleaning kit to swab out the inside of the mask and supply tube. If you don’t clean your mask and tube regularly you will find “funky” things growing inside them.

Plan to carry an extension cord, spare mask, supply tube, filters, and humidification chamber. Checking into a motel on the road and finding the only plug is on the wall opposite the bed is a nightmare.

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Trucker Buddy Driver of the Month
May 2013
Matt Slovak

Denise Cross, a 3rd grade teacher at Lincoln Irving School in Moline, IL and her class have nominated Matt Slovak, a driver for Don Hummer Trucking. Slovak has been a long time Trucker Buddy and Scout leader as well as being awarded the Gary King Memorial Show Truck Winner at the 2012 Iowa 80 Jamboree. Ms. Cross had this to say about Mr. Slovak.

"I would like to nominate Mr. Matt Slovak for Trucker Buddy of the month. This is the first year that I have been Trucker Buddies with Mr. Slovak.  I inherited him from my dear friend Linda Ford when she retired at the end of the 2012 school year. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but Mr. Slovak completely blew me and my students away with what all he did for us this year.

At the end of the 2012 Mr. Slovak participated in a retirement “bouquet” for his current buddy teacher, Mrs. Linda Ford. Since she was retiring we asked him to be a part of a countdown for her last days. He came and presented her with a “bouquet” of trucker sayings and a float that was
made for her honor with a truck on top of a highway. After the presentation was done he came to my room to introduce himself to me and asked me if I was going to “adopt” him for the following year. He left a book with pictures of him and his truck, for my upcoming class to look at before they began the pen pal relationship.

The following August we began writing back and forth to Mr. Slovak. We prepared a map with the saying “Where in the U.S. is Mr. Slovak?" and then as we received his postcards from various places he traveled we would put the card up and discuss that place.

All throughout the year we would write back and forth to Mr. Slovak. He continued to send postcards and occasionally would make a phone call to our room from the road. Mr. Slovak had
the OOIDA send the whole class individual maps of the United States. These maps were a wonderful teaching tool.

In May of this year we culminated our pen pal relationship with our Trucker Buddy by going on a field trip to the I-80 Trucker Museum in Walcott Iowa. While there Mr. Slovak led us on a
very interesting tour of the Museum and adjoining truck stop. My students and I learned so much more about the trucking industry that day.

Mr. Slovak has gone above and beyond with this Trucker Buddy program.  He is a dedicated trucker who takes what he does seriously and imparts that care and concern to students with
integrity and humor.

Mr. Slovak is a dedicated family man and avid Boy Scout leader as well. It is my hope that you will honor him with the Trucker Buddy of the Month award."

The results of the TruckDriver.com Viewer Survey have just been released.

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Watch for the sequel, Son of the Truckdriver.com Viewer Survey, coming soon!

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