United States Department of Transportation
i
Impact of Local/Short Haul Operations on Driver Fatigue [Report]
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2000-08-01
[PDF-11.88 MB]
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Abstract:Though they comprise the largest segment of the trucking industry, research involving local/short haul (L/SH) operations has been scant. In fact, little is known about the general safety issues in L/SH operations. As a precursor to the present research, Hanowski, Wierwille, Gellatly, Early, and Dingus (1998) conducted a series of focus groups in which L/SH drivers provided their perspective on safety issues, including fatigue, in their industry. As a follow-up to the Hanowski et al. work, the effort presented here consisted of an on-road field study where L/SH trucks were instrumented with data collection equipment. Two L/SH trucking companies and 42 L/SH drivers participated in this research. To the author's knowledge, this is the first in-situ data collection effort of its kind with L/SH drivers. The analyses focused on determining if fatigue is an issue in L/SH operations. Of primary interest were critical incidents (near-crashes) where drivers were judged to be at fault. The results of the analyses indicated that fatigue was present immediately prior to driver involvement in at-fault critical incidents. Though it is difficult to determine why fatigue was present, the results seem to indicate that much of the fatigue that the drivers’ experienced was brought with them to the job, rather than being caused by the job. The results of this research culminate in a set of guidelines to address fatigue and other safety issues in L/SH operations.
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