Truckers and fatigue
By: Drivers.com staff
Date: 1997-09-09
The July 26, 1997 issue of Status Reports from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) is entirely devoted to the question of U.S. rulemaking and the problem of truck driver fatigue. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is maneuvering to relax hours of service rules for truck drivers based on a flawed report of how hours of service influence driver fatigue, the IIHS fears. The Institute sees the FHWA as giving "efficiency" and "productivity" more weight in its decisions about regulations.
Currently, commercial vehicle drivers are not permitted to drive more than 10 hours or work more than 15 hours at a stretch without taking an 8-hour rest. Driver may not drive more than 60 hours during a 7-day period or 70 hours during an 8-day period, depending on whether their carrier operates 6 or 7 days a week.
The study in question was conducted by the FHWA and the American Trucking Associations' Trucking Research Institute. It concludes that the time of day when driving takes place is a more important factor than the number of driving hours in determining driver fatigue. However, the IIHS, and also a nine-member panel set up by the FHWA to review the study, have identified numerous weaknesses in it. Other studies, say the IIHS, have shown that the number of hours is critical regardless of the time of day.
The FHWA would like to abandon hours-of-service rules altogether in favor of technologies that can detect alertness, says the Status Reports article. But IIHS researchers have identified a variety of problems with the efficacy of these technologies. They have not been tested adequately, according to Institute senior research analyst Elisa R. Braver.
Trucking industry representatives want more flexibility in hours of service rules, saying that the "one size fits all" approach is inadequate. They would like safety records taken into account in determining restrictions. One proposal is that trucking companies with fatigue management systems in place could merit exemptions. The systems are supposed to educate drivers about fatigue recognition, problems of fatigue and how to manage it.
One of the biggest problems faced by safety regulators is that of enforcing regulations in the face of economic pressures on drivers to drive longer hours. One proposal is to pay drivers by the hour instead of by the mile. Another possible solution is the use of onboard computers which track driving hours. An estimated 200,000 computers are installed in commercial vehicles in the U.S., but most are not used to track driving hours. The cost of installing computers is less than $1,000 per truck.
The complete issue of Status Reports containing the report on fatigue and trucking can be found at this address. Follow the link to "Status Report online."
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