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Truck owners have a legal obligation and a civil duty to ensure their vehicles are roadworthy. This includes the employment of suitably qualified, physically fit drivers and properly secured loads. It's one thing for Joe Public to be stuck in a traffic jam because a truck has lost its load but quite another when his family is killed in a head-on collision with a truck whose driver has succumbed to fatigue and fallen asleep behind the wheel and careened into the oncoming lane.
Public enemy
With the local trucking industry already suffering a shoddy image in the eyes of the public, every effort needs to be made by operators to prevent further damage to their industry's reputation and the way things are, driver fatigue is not only a serious public enemy but it is threatening the sustainability of the transport industry itself.
Apart from the fact that qualified drivers are in short supply, consider the damage done to truck transport in general when the public reads reports like the following, published in the Daily News in December 2007:
"Drivers of heavy trucks, under immense pressure to deliver supplies during the festive season, are falling asleep at the wheel and endangering the lives of other motorists. Last week, more than 20 trucks were involved in serious accidents. One such crash last week involved a truck travelling on the N3 near the Tugela Toll Plaza going out of control and veering into oncoming traffic. The truck side-swiped a second truck, collided head-on with a third and then struck a fourth, which caught alight. Three people died and one was injured."
The culprits
The DoT statistics on fatal truck crashes in December 2007 show speeding as the most often cited cause of accidents. "We see truck drivers speeding to get more commission and this doesn't give them much time to rest," says Zinhle Mngomezulu, KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport spokesperson, in the same newspaper article.
In short, the practice of incentivising truck drivers on turn-around times/loads/kms needs to be outlawed. Operators must surely realize that pressurizing drivers both financially (low basic salaries and hard-to-attain commissions) and physically (dangerously long hours behind the wheel) not only threatens the life of the driver and other road users, but also the operation's bottom line? Even if an accident doesn't occur, speeding fines and excessive running costs will eventually shift the margins from black to red.
From a driver fatigue perspective, there are no specific laws governing driver hours and this allows money-hungry operators to compromise public safety with impunity. Of course, shippers also take full advantage of this by demanding of their transport service providers unrealistic - and therefore unsafe - trip times for deliveries.
Claudia Maldonado from the Wits School of Physiology has conducted extensive research into the causes and effects of fatigue on truck drivers in South Africa. "Three quarters of truck drivers are working at least 93 hours a week even though the SA Labour Relations Act restricts working to 71 hours a week," she says.
Road pilots
FleetWatch conducted a unique 'skills shootout' in 2005, where an airline pilot was asked to drive a 56 ton rig around the Gerotek vehicle testing facilities. He managed surprisingly well but admitted that the demands on truck drivers are more strenuous than airline pilots. Surprising then that while airline pilots are legally bound to mandatory rest/off hours, the law in South Africa turns a blind eye to truck driver hours? Nearly 200 people died in truck-related accidents in December 2007. Multiply that by a conservative annual factor of 10 and you're looking at 2000 truck-related deaths in a single year! Imagine if four SA 747s crashed every year killing all occupants? No more local airline industry, right?
But fatigue can be exacerbated by a host of other factors that impact on the driver while he or she is not behind the wheel and as such, every transport operation needs a comprehensive anti-fatigue strategy, targeting the causes of driver fatigue and combating them to make the task of driving a truck as safe, comfortable and non-taxing as possible.
Here are a few suggestions:
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Employ fit drivers and treat those suffering from HIV/AIDS symptoms, diabetes and high blood pressure.
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Incentive drivers on cost-savings - not per trip time/load/distance
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Educate drivers on healthy eating, sleeping and exercise
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Limit driving hours to legal durations and monitor rest periods using technologies such as ignition tags/Dallas Keys and other vehicle tracking devices.
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Ensure trucks are well maintained and serviced
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Employ co-drivers
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Ensure sleeper cabs are safe and soundproof and bunks are comfortable
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Provide drivers with truck stop vouchers/cards rather than cash
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Fit cabs with radio/CD players
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Consider using in-cab early warning technology like 'lane sensors' and cameras that help prevent drivers from falling asleep while driving
At the end of the day, driver fatigue is rooted in poor working conditions. Transport bosses need to address the issue urgently with better pay and better hours. It's that simple.
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