ABSTRACT

This chapter identifies possible strategies to improve management of driver fatigue in the long-distance road transport industry. Most of the solutions advanced to overcome driver fatigue have concentrated on placing maximum limits on the number of driving and/or working hours and minimum limits on the number of hours of rest in a given time period. As an approach to managing driver fatigue, however, regulation of the driver’s hours of driving, working and rest has a number of critical shortcomings. Drivers in the sample were classified according to the type of operation driven on the last trip: single, staged or two-up. Drivers in the sample were classified on the basis of employment status into employee or owner-driver, and within the groups drivers were further classified according to their relationship with particular sized companies. In general terms, the methodology involves volunteer company drivers and owner-drivers driving their regular truck under normal operational conditions.