Prevalence of Driving Schedule Habits and Fatigue Among Occupational Heavy Truck Drivers

Abstract

During the cab design phase, a thorough understanding of the driver’s driving habits is a necessary foundation for the cab’s human-machine interface design and a guarantee of a good driving experience. However, in the domestic heavy truck cab design currently, the driver’s driving habits are not considered enough, which leads to poor cab design, worse user experience and road safety risk. This study investigated the prevalence of driving schedule habits, fatigue and the associated truck cab design factors influencing fatigue of occupational heavy truck drivers. The results show that 66% of the drivers usually drove more than 4 h without taking a break. About 19% of the drivers felt obvious fatigue before the single driving completed. The single driving duration in the night was significantly longer than in the daytime. A feature of “abler people do more work” was generalized, which meant the later the fatigue appeared, the longer the driving went. The primary reasons for cab design that influencing driving fatigue was seat belt and seat. The findings suggest that working conditions created significant features to occupational heavy truck driver group. The driver’s fatigue management and driving time interval management require targeted optimization. Policymakers to set up policy guidelines to match driving features and enforce compliance with heavy truck driving and rest time, and for cab designers to improve the cab ergonomics to make compliance with drivers’ anthropometry characteristics.