Truck driver fatigue

Nearly 4,000 people die in large truck crashes each year and driver fatigue contributes to 40% of all large truck crashes.

Your mother was right: you need a good night sleep to perform well the next day—and in trucking terms, good night sleep is essential so drivers can drive their big rigs safely. It is undeniable that long work hours, without sufficient recovery time, lead to reduced sleep and chronic fatigue. Fatigue leads drivers to have slower reaction times and a reduced ability to assess situations quickly. One of the most dangerous elements of fatigue is how quickly it can sneak up on vehicle operators. Truck drivers (like most people) often cannot assess their own fatigue levels accurately and are unaware that their performance has degraded.  Too often, for example, fatigued drivers fail to notice that they are drifting between lanes.

Because the problem of fatigued driving is so dangerous, many laws to try to keep drivers alert and attentive have been put in place. For example:

• 1. Truck drivers may only drive a maximum of 11 hours (and work a total of 14 hours) after 10 consecutive hours of not driving or working.
• 2. Drivers may only drive for 60 total hours within 7 consecutive days or 70 total hours within 8 consecutive days.
• 3. Drivers must keep a logbook showing their on-duty and off-duty time.

In December of 2011, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which is in charge of regulating commercial vehicles and their drivers, issued a new rule to stop fatigued driving by making changes to the “hours of service” rules for truck drivers. The rule was complicated, but it basically boiled down to two updated requirements:

• 1. Drivers must take a 30-minute rest break within the first 8 hours of their shift so they can stay alert on the road.
• 2. Drivers may only utilize a 34-hour rest period, known as a “restart,” once every 7 days. Further, the restart period must now include at least 2 periods of rest between 1:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. In short, this update required that drivers have the opportunity to take a very real rest and catch up on sleep before working another very long week.

The net effect of these changes was to reduce the average maximum week a driver could work from 82 hours to 70 hours.

What is troubling is that even when drivers are following the rules, fatigue may still be a problem. The risk of a crash doubles from the 8th hour to the 10th hour of driving, and then doubles again from the 10th hour to the 11th hour.