In his third regular monthly column for SHP, Simon Turner at Driving for Better Business looks at driver fatigue and how employers can look to educate and ultimately prevent it in their fleet.
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Driver ‘fatigue’ is thought to contribute to 20% of collisions and up to 25% of all fatal and serious collisions.
There are two distinct forms and causes of driver tiredness.
Both conditions slow our mental processing and reaction times, and make decision-making more emotional than rational.
All organisations should address the risk of drivers lacking alertness when driving for work, and also when commuting home after long or night shifts.
What are the causes?
The need for sleep is the body’s response to being awake for an extended period.
However, other factors can also cause drowsiness, including:
After 16 hours’ wakefulness, or 12 hours’ work, the risk of accidents of any kind is considerably increased.
Research suggests that shifts performed after midnight and in the early morning both disrupt the sleep-wake cycle and it is difficult for workers to achieve sufficient restorative sleep during daytime hours.
Fatigue is caused by the monotony of repetitive tasks over an extended period of time. This means drivers will need to have regular breaks in which they exercise or engage in other mental or social tasks.
Sleep disorders
One third of the UK adult population will suffer insomnia at some point in their lives.
26% of the UK adult population is obese and a further 38% overweight. Obesity in particular increases the risk of sleep disorders, such as obstructive sleep apnoea.
Furthermore the Royal Society for Public Health says that 40% of adults are permanently sleep-deprived.
Stanley Coren’s famous study demonstrated that losing even one hour of sleep per night lead to drops in IQ; and also that driving one hour past a normal bedtime impaired reaction times by as much as twice the legal alcohol limit.
An employer’s duty
Health and safety (H&S) legislation imposes a duty of care on every employer to ensure the safety of employees and the public, which includes ensuring that a driver is fit to drive.
Professor John Groeger, researcher in driving safety and sleep at Nottingham Trent University and director of Sleep Wellbeing Science says: “Practically, employers must ask themselves two questions:
(a) does the shift schedule the driver follows allow them to have adequate sleep between drives, and
(b) does the driving required provide ample opportunity for intermittent breaks?”
Other best practice measures include ensuring that:
