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 What health and fitness problems are log truck drivers facing? How significant are these problems? What can we do about it?

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’

Purpose: Describe the sleep patterns of log truck drivers Determine whether sleep patterns are likely to be contributors to early working week crash risk. Considerations and purpose

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 NightTime to bed (average) Time asleep (average) Time wake (average) Total Sleep duration (average) Rating of sleep (average)* Monday8:15 PM8:40 PM3:02 AM6hrs 17min3.4 Tuesday8:15 PM8:37 PM2:54 AM6hrs 17min3.6 Wednesday8:20 PM8:39 PM2:49 AM6hrs 16min3.5 Thursday8:45 PM9:00 PM3:28 AM6hrs 31min3.7 Friday9:45 PM10:15 PM6:40 AM8hrs 39min4.1 Saturday9:02 PM9:33 PM6:17 AM7hrs 48min3.7 Sunday8:08 PM8:37 PM2:55 AM6hrs 29min3.5 * 1 = very bad, 5 = great Summary of Sleep diary results for each night of the week

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 : Catches up with me after weekend off Monday morning getting back to normal and fresh start to week. Hard to adjust after weekend Mon morning

Questionnaire results What could be done to make tiredness or fatigue less of a problem for log truck drivers?: Solution mentionedCount Less hours12 Regular start times7 higher wages7 later start4 Eat well / stay healthy (+ provision)4 Take breaks4 More sleep4 Improve scheduling2 Awareness/encouragement1 Log book pressure1 Stimulants1 Education public1 Manage weekend1 Places to pull over and socialise1 longer breaks1 Better roads1

Conclusions Not enough sleep Work during risky hours Weekend/weekday transition problems? Current working hours related to many driver issues Work (14 hours, incl commuting) Sleep (8 hours) Life: exercise, eating recreation, chores, family, community (2 hours!!!?)

Thank you