COMMERCIAL MOTOR VEHICLE DRIVER FATIGUE AND ALERTNESS STUDY: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Abstract

The Driver Fatigue and Alertness Study (DFAS) was the largest and most comprehensive over-the-road study ever conducted on commercial motor vehicle driver fatigue and alertness in North America. The data collection for this study involved eighty drivers in the United States and Canada who were monitored over a period of sixteen weeks. A number of work-related factors thought to influence the development of fatigue, loss of alertness, and degraded driving performance in commercial motor vehicle drivers was studied within an operational setting of real-life, revenue-generating trips. These included: the amount of time spent driving during a work period; the number of consecutive days of driving; the time of day when driving took place; and schedule regularity. In Section 1 of the Technical Summary, the reader is provided with some extracts from the technical literature on the involvement of fatigue in crashes, a historical summary of the U.S. Department of Transportation's focus on commercial motor vehicle driver fatigue and the background to this study. The study's overall objectives and the approach used in their attainment are also provided. Section 2 presents the conclusions drawn from the literature review conducted in preparation for this study and considered in the formulation of the study's own conclusions and recommendations. Section 3 presents the study's methodology and data collection methods, while Section 4 presents the study's results, conclusions, and recommendations. For the amount of sleep and the four to five days of driving observed for each driver in the study, it was found that the strongest and most consistent factor influencing driver fatigue and alertness was time of day; drowsiness, as observed in video recordings of the driver's face, was markedly greater during night driving than during daytime driving. The number of hours of driving (time-on-task) and cumulative number of days were not strong or consistent predictors of observed fatigue. Numerous other findings are provided relating to scientific methodologies and fatigue countermeasure concepts.

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