Commercial Motor Vehicle Driver Fatigue, Long-Term Health, and Highway Safety Research Needs (2016) / Chapter Skim
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2 The Trucking and Bus Industries
2 The Trucking and Bus Industries
Pages 27-42
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From page 27... ...
Considerable heterogeneity in the truck and bus industries stems from operational characteristics ranging from fleet size and employer type to work schedules and on-the-job activities. Given this diversity, it is difficult to make simple statements about the relationship of such factors as work hours and periods of rest to fatigue among commercial motor vehicle (CMV)
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From page 28... ...
. Any driver of a truck with a 26,001 or more lb gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR)
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From page 29... ...
3 10,001 to 14,000 Big pickup, delivery van Straight No 4 14,001 to 16,000 Delivery van Straight No 5 16,001 to 19,500 Small dump truck, Straight No medium van 6 19,501 to 26,000 Utility truck, home fuel Straight No oil delivery truck 7 26,001 to 33,000 Dump truck, big-box van, Mainly straights, Yes 2-axle tractor (used with two-axle tractors two 28.5-foot trailers) 8 33,001 and above 3-axle tractor, big dump Mainly tractors, Yes truck, concrete mixer, 3+-axle straights 3-axle straight van NOTES: GVWR = gross vehicle weight rating, the maximum operating weight of a vehicle, including the driver and the cargo, as specified by the manufacturer.
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From page 30... ...
Other private carriers use trucks incidental to their primary business, such as construction, landscape, or retail. Unlike the private carriers described above, for-hire carriers primarily provide freight transportation services for their customers; their business is not to transport their own freight.
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From page 31... ...
In these situations, drivers can have much less regular schedules and unpredictable routes. The driver picks up a load, delivers it, then checks in with the broker for the next load; overall this process can result in unpredictable and irregular schedules.3 In contrast, a defining feature of LTL service is that, as noted above, many small loads from a variety of shippers are consolidated into one load (at a terminal)
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From page 32... ...
Given the scope of this report, it is useful to describe the complexities of these influences from the perspective of hoursof-service (HOS) regulations and driver fatigue: • Regular versus irregular schedules -- LTL service typically entails more regular schedules, both for long-haul and package delivery operations.
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From page 33... ...
-- arge private carriers, such as the big retail companies, are L more likely to have long than shorter routes. -- maller private carriers are more likely to have local or S regional routes than longer routes.
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From page 34... ...
As different players operate differently, the impact of HOS regulations varies across the industry. The challenge FMCSA faces is devising HOS regulations that do not compromise either the economic feasibility of different-sized trucking operations or highway safety.
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From page 35... ...
aThe panel did not have comprehensive information on the work schedules of truck drivers; therefore, the information in this box should not be considered representative of the truck driver population. bTo ensure compliance with hours-of-service regulations, CMV drivers are required to fill out logs detailing their working hours, including time spent driving, on duty/not driving, off duty, and in a sleeper berth.
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From page 36... ...
Regardless of the compensa tion method, it is common practice not to pay for loading and unloading. The laborious nature of these activities contributes to driver fatigue, which may be exacerbated by the fact that rivers d may try to rush through them given that the time is unpaid.
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From page 37... ...
Types of Buses Types of buses driven in the United States include the following: • School buses are specifically designed to transport school students. • Motorcoaches are operated by bus companies running scheduled 7 If a shuttle bus is big enough (seating for nine or more occupants, including the driver)
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From page 38... ...
School bus drivers and special-client bus drivers are usually employed by a school district or private transportation company that contracts with a district to provide bus service. Some school bus services are provided by the local government. Size of Fleet As in the trucking industry, the firm size of bus carriers varies, from large intercity carriers that operate a fleet of buses to small charter/tour carriers operated as a family business.
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From page 39... ...
analyzed FARS data looking for fatal crashes in which bus drivers were involved during the period 19951999. The five cases they found that were attributed to bus driver fatigue occurred in 1997, 1998, and 1999.
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From page 40... ...
Big trucking fleets take proactive approaches to improve their safety figures by formulating various health and wellness programs based on internal research and evaluation. Regarding bus companies, G reyhound has a fatigue management initiative based on input received from focus groups made up of drivers, operations managers, and safety directors throughout the industry.
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From page 41... ...
The sample design randomly selected 1,670 truck drivers at randomly selected truck stops along randomly selected limited-access highway segments. Truck drivers were defined as people for whom truck driving was their main occupation.
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From page 42... ...
With regard to information on sleep received by truck and bus drivers, survey estimates are available from a poll of transportation workers conducted by the National Sleep Foundation in 2012 to understand their sleep habits and work performance. The poll was conducted among pilots, train operators, truck drivers, bus/limousine/taxi drivers, and a control group.
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