Transcript The health and fitness of log truck drivers

One job or two?
Truck driver work, sleep,
alertness and performance
Hamish Mackie
Work
(14 hours, incl
commuting)
Sleep
(8 hours)
Life: exercise, eating
recreation, chores,
family, community
(2 hours!!!?)
Problem / Questions
Study design
Initial meetings with operators and day with
driver to scope issues and task demands
Questionnaire (225 drivers, 16% of pop)
Anonymous information from operators used to
validate some variables (weight, hearing etc)
‘In cab’ half-day driver interviews (15 drivers)
Industry focus group for recommendations
Key Findings
Obesity: Nutrition/exercise
Workplace injuries
Work/life balance (incl working
hours and fatigue)
Drowsy drivers
50
45
40
% of drivers
35
30
25
drowsy now
and then
20
drowsy at
least "fairly
regularly"
15
10
5
0
4
5
6
7
8
9 or more
Hours of sleep per night
• 25% of drivers report getting 4-5 hours
sleep per night
• 15% of drivers report feeling drowsy while
truck driving on a frequent basis
Log truck driver
sleep, alertness and performance
Loss of control log truck ‘roll-overs’ 2001-2009
55
50
45
40
No. of Crashes
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Day of Week
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Considerations and purpose
Purpose:
Describe the sleep patterns of log truck drivers
Determine whether sleep patterns are likely to be
contributors to early working week crash risk.
7:22:00
8:01:00
8:40:00
9:19:00
9:58:00
10:37:00
11:16:00
11:55:00
12:34:00
13:13:00
13:52:00
14:31:00
15:10:00
15:49:00
16:28:00
17:07:00
17:46:00
18:25:00
19:04:00
19:43:00
20:22:00
21:01:00
21:40:00
22:19:00
22:58:00
23:37:00
0:16:00
0:55:00
1:34:00
2:13:00
2:52:00
3:31:00
4:10:00
4:49:00
5:28:00
6:07:00
6:46:00
Activity counts
Study method
Two main stages of data collection:
1) Validation of a sleep diary using activity monitors (12
drivers, both sleep diary and activity monitor for 1 week)
2) A survey of drivers (45 drivers, 7-day sleep diary only plus
questions)
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
Time
Findings
Summary of Sleep diary results for each night of the week
Night
Time to
bed
(average)
Time asleep
(average)
Time wake
(average)
Total Sleep
duration
(average)
Rating of
sleep
(average)*
Monday
8:15 PM
8:40 PM
3:02 AM
6hrs 17min
3.4
Tuesday
8:15 PM
8:37 PM
2:54 AM
6hrs 17min
3.6
Wednesday
8:20 PM
8:39 PM
2:49 AM
6hrs 16min
3.5
Thursday
8:45 PM
9:00 PM
3:28 AM
6hrs 31min
3.7
Friday
9:45 PM
10:15 PM
6:40 AM
8hrs 39min
4.1
Saturday
9:02 PM
9:33 PM
6:17 AM
7hrs 48min
3.7
Sunday
8:08 PM
8:37 PM
2:55 AM
6hrs 29min
3.5
* 1 = very bad, 5 = great
Findings
Number of weekday
driver nights
Summary of Sleep diary results for week nights
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Generally
recommended hours
sleep per night
Hours sleep (per night)
Belenky et al. (2003), J Sleep Res, 12, 1-12
Questionnaire results
Times of the week (Monday am, Monday pm, Tuesday am etc) drivers felt
they were at most risk of tiredness, fatigue or loss of attention
75
70
tiredness risk
65
60
55
50
45
40
Mon
am
Mon
pm
Tues
am
Tues
pm
Wed
am
Wed
pm
Thurs Thurs Fri am Fri pm
am
pm
Questionnaire results
Comments from those who ranked Mondays or Tuesdays as times of
high risk for tiredness, fatigue or loss of attention :
Questionnaire results
What could be done to make tiredness or fatigue less of a problem
for log truck drivers?:
Solution mentioned
Less hours
Regular start times
higher wages
later start
Eat well / stay healthy (+ provision)
Take breaks
More sleep
Improve scheduling
Awareness/encouragement
Log book pressure
Stimulants
Education public
Manage weekend
Places to pull over and socialise
longer breaks
Better roads
Count
12
7
7
4
4
4
4
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Conclusions
Not enough sleep
Work during risky hours
Weekend/weekday transition problems?
Current working hours related to many driver issues
Sleep
Work
(14 hours, incl (8 hours)
commuting)
Life: exercise, eating
recreation, chores,
family, community
(2 hours!!!?)
Thank you