Addressing truck driver fatigue

It’s said Australia would be at a standstill without its trucks, a key part of the transport sector connecting businesses, markets and supplies across the country. Their presence on the road is unavoidable, as well as being essential to the economy, and there are now more of them than ever before, placing more pressure on road and supply chain safety.

According to the 2015 Motor Vehicle Census, around 140,000 light rigid trucks are registered, up 3.7% from 2014–15. There are now over 330,000 heavy rigid vehicles, up slightly by 0.7%, and nearly 95,000 articulated trucks, up by 1.7%. Passenger vehicles, by comparison, were up 1.9% (now over 13.5 million registered) during this period.¹ With more vehicles on the road, driving continues to be a significant safety hazard, and for those that drive for a living, especially over long distances, the risk invariably increases with driver fatigue.

The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR), Australia’s independent regulator for all vehicles over 4.5 tonnes, said heavy vehicle drivers face significant pressure to perform safely on the road — from tight delivery time frames to sharing the highways with an increasing number of drivers.

“There are a multitude of facets which affect drivers and their ability to manage fatigue which can ultimately place them and other road users at risk,” said NHVR CEO Sal Petroccitto.

The main causes of fatigue are considered to be too little sleep, driving at times when you would normally be asleep or being awake for long hours at a time. The NHVR considers fatigue to be a major concern; however, the regulator says industry has shown commitment to comply with fatigue laws and guidelines through implementing fatigue management systems.

“These systems improve the safety of all road users but they can only work if drivers are able to manage their journey through having appropriate and timely access to designated heavy vehicle rest areas,” said Petroccitto.

While drivers are responsible for following fatigue management protocols to ensure their safety and that of other road users, he said when a ‘heavy vehicle only’ rest area is full of cars, heavy vehicle drivers are placed in a position where they can’t safely meet these requirements.

Fatigue management

Fatigue laws apply to drivers operating fatigue-regulated heavy vehicles (for example, those over 12 tonnes) and cover work and rest hours, the recording of those hours, fatigue management exemptions and chain of responsibility obligations.² A work diary is a big part of this process, a record of work and rest hours hand-written by the driver as evidence that their fatigue is being managed.

Under the Heavy Vehicle National Law Act (applicable to all states and territories except WA and NT), a driver must complete a work diary when driving over 100 kilometres — in a straight line — from their base location. They must also keep a diary when under fatigue management accreditation, such as the basic fatigue management (BFM) or advanced fatigue management (AFM) programs, or when they’re under a work and rest hours exemption. Workers may be fined and accumulate demerit points if found breaching a work diary, rest break or hours of driving requirements.

Operation Austrans is a yearly crack down across Australia and New Zealand where police target road safety issues amongst the heavy vehicle road transport sector. In 2015, around 75,000 heavy vehicles were inspected and, of the offences issued, there were more than 3000 work diary/log book breaches, including falsifying records and instances of exceeding work hours.

“Although heavy vehicles make up only a small percentage of the total vehicle fleet on Australian and New Zealand roads, they are over-represented in road crashes which often involve serious injury and death,” said Jon White, CEO of the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency (ANZPAA).

“These are worrying numbers, and what is most concerning is that a number of these figures show an upward trend from the previous year.”

The NHVR said that feedback received regarding fatigue management has highlighted how some changes brought in under the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) are still not well known or understood by sectors of the industry.³ 

Are digital systems the way forward?

Capitalising on digital technology to enhance safety and sharpen productivity is the reasoning behind a push towards an electronic system for recording work and rest hours. In 2013, a pilot for electronic work diaries (EWDs) found there were safety and productivity gains such as improved data accuracy and transparency, accessing real-time data remotely to respond to breaches and alerts to drivers for imminent breaches.⁴ The move towards EWDs has also gained momentum with the passing of the Heavy Vehicle National Law Amendment Bill 2015 in September. The NHVR says the Bill is an important milestone for a more streamlined recording process to reduce red tape for the industry, and the Transport Certification Australia (TCA) will lead the establishment of the EWD requirements for industry introduction in early 2017.

EWDs, however, will be a voluntary alternative to a paper-based system for the industry, which the Australian Trucking Association (ATA) welcomes. Despite the NHVR announcing estimates of preliminary productivity benefits to be upwards of $200 million in savings over five years, ATA CEO Christopher Melham said installing them would be an unnecessary cost for small operators and businesses that only operate heavy vehicles occasionally.

“The time periods in the existing paper work diaries are recorded in 15-minute blocks and are hand-written by the driver. The electronic diaries approved under this Bill automatically round to the nearest one-minute interval, with a tolerance for small work time breaches of eight minutes in a 24-hour period. There is no tolerance for errors in rest times,” said Melham.

The NHVR said, “There is still much more to do and further development, engagement and education is necessary to ensure its successful and staged rollout over the coming years.” However, with the increased number of trucks on our roads, an upward trend of compliance offences and industry feedback indicating changes brought in under the NVNL need to be better understood, it’s clear there is still more to be done to ensure safety processes are being followed for everyone’s safety on the road.

References

1. ABS, 3 August 2015, 9309.0 - Motor Vehicle Census, Australia, 31 Jan 2015, <<http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/9309.0>>,  Australian Bureau of Statistics.

2. NHVR, 2015, About fatigue management, <<https://www.nhvr.gov.au/safety-accreditation-compliance/fatigue-management/about-fatigue-management>>, National Heavy Vehicle Regulator.

3. NHVR, 14 October 2015, Industry update: National Driver Work Diary requirements, <<http://www.vision6.com.au/em/message/email/view.php?id=1133169&u=57453>>, National Heavy Vehicle Regulator.   

4. NHVR, 2015, Electronic Work Diaries, <<https://www.nhvr.gov.au/safety-accreditation-compliance/fatigue-management/work-diaries-and-record-keeping/electronic-work>>, National Heavy Vehicle Regulator.