One job or two Truck driver work sleep

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 ms le b o r p s s e tn fi d n a What health ing? c fa s r e iv r d k c u tr g are lo How significant are these problems? ut it? o b a o d e w n a What c

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 • 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

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.

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)

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 6 hrs 17 min 3. 4 Tuesday 8: 15 PM 8: 37 PM 2: 54 AM 6 hrs 17 min 3. 6 Wednesday 8: 20 PM 8: 39 PM 2: 49 AM 6 hrs 16 min 3. 5 Thursday 8: 45 PM 9: 00 PM 3: 28 AM 6 hrs 31 min 3. 7 Friday 9: 45 PM 10: 15 PM 6: 40 AM 8 hrs 39 min 4. 1 Saturday 9: 02 PM 9: 33 PM 6: 17 AM 7 hrs 48 min 3. 7 Sunday 8: 08 PM 8: 37 PM 2: 55 AM 6 hrs 29 min 3. 5 * 1 = very bad, 5 = great

Findings Summary of Sleep diary results for week nights Generally recommended 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

Questionnaire results Comments from those who ranked Mondays or Tuesdays as times of high risk for tiredness, fatigue or loss of attention : er t f a just orning d a to d nm r o a H M nd e k e we Monday mo rning gettin g back to normal and fresh start t o week. after e m with p u s e Catch nd off e k e e w

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 2 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