Bus driver fatigue: final report

Bus drivers are exposed to a wide range of occupational factors that potentially increase their vulnerability to fatigue, including prolonged driving conditions, 24-hour operations, variable shift patterns, and urban traffic congestion. The nature of the job also limits the degree of control that drivers have over the timing of breaks, their sleeping patterns, diet and opportunity to exercise, which can further exacerbate the risk of fatigue-related problems. Despite these risk factors there has been a lack of research investigating fatigue in city bus drivers. Across six research tasks the current work demonstrates that fatigue is a problem for London bus drivers. The contributing factors to fatigue are wide and at times complex. There is a lack of current policy and regulation pertaining to fatigue leading to inconsistencies between operators. Across all operators, drivers report feeling unable to discuss fatigue with their employer and employers face difficulties in knowing how best to manage fatigue. A series of potential solutions are proposed across five key areas (education, working conditions, schedules, open culture and health). The research reported here was commissioned by Transport for London (TfL) to understand the present situation with regard to fatigue and this report provides a roadmap to investigate solutions and to delve deeper into some of the observations made by the authors. This project sought to understand the extent and nature of fatigue, the contributing factors to fatigue, and what solutions could be implemented to address fatigue. The key components of this report are 1) a targeted literature review focusing on sleepiness and fatigue amongst bus drivers, and a broader review of fatigue prevention strategies, 2) a review of internal policy for managing fatigue, 3) focus groups with bus drivers, 4) interviews with managers, 5) a survey of bus drivers, 6) on-road observation study, and, 7) discussion of potential solutions.

• Record URL:
  http://content.tfl.gov.uk/bus-driver-fatigue-report.pdf
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  Transport for London

  London,   United Kingdom 
• Authors:
  • Filtness, A
  • ANUND, A
  • MAYNARD, S
  • MILLER, K
  • Pilkington-Cheney, F
  • Dahlman, A
  • Ihlström, J
• Publication Date: 2019-5

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 146p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bus drivers; Data collection; Fatigue (Physiological condition); Field studies; Focus groups; Health; Hours of labor; Policy, legislation and regulation
• Geographic Terms: London (England)
• ATRI Terms: Bus driver; Field study; Focus group; Health; Hours of work; Human fatigue; Interview; Transport regulation
• Subject Areas: Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01721079
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB Group Limited
• Files: ATRI
• Created Date: Oct 31 2019 10:55AM