THE RECENT FLURRY OF CHALLENGES TO THE NEW TRUCK
driver hours-of-service (HOS) rule has put the problem of driver
fatigue in the spotlight once again. And it’s left more than a few
industry players wondering what else they can do to address the
issue.
Fortunately for them, help is at hand. The U.S. Federal Motor
Carrier Safety Administration and the Canadian Ministry of
Transport recently released what they call the “North American
Fatigue Management Program.” Among other things, the program,
which is designed to disseminate information on reducing and
managing truck driver fatigue, provides suggestions on how shippers and receivers might help alleviate this
important problem.
As part of that effort, the agencies have made
available on the program’s website,
www.nafmp.com, 10 free training modules for
drivers, carrier executives and managers, dispatchers, drivers’ families, and shippers and
receivers. Each module covers a variety of subjects
that are tailored to the particular group for which
it was designed, but all focus on reducing driver
fatigue and eliminating fatigue-related accidents.
Working through each module takes anywhere from 30 minutes for the shipper and
receiver section to three hours for one of the driver programs. I
reviewed the shipper and receiver module and found it to be very
informative, although much of it consisted of basic business judgment. (Unfortunately, however, it is often judgment many choose
not to exercise.)
The overview of the fatigue management program provided
some interesting data that demonstrated why such an initiative is
worthwhile. For example:
▪ The total societal cost of a tractor-trailer crash is about $181,000.
The average for a driver fatigue crash is likely to be about $350,000.
▪ In a study of 182 crashes where the driver was killed, 31 percent were related to fatigue. In 2011, more than 500 drivers died
in crashes.
▪ The fatigue-related crashes usually involve a lone driver and a
single vehicle road departure occurring between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m.,
and are usually associated with lack of sleep or long work hours.
▪ Studies have shown that fatigue-related accidents increased
seven times when drivers drove beyond their legal limits.
Shippers and receivers share some of the blame, in that often
BY CLIFFORD F. LYNCH fastlane
Driver’s ed
there is limited access to parking and comfort-
able rest areas, pressure to meet schedules, and
unreasonable loading/unloading delays.
Facilities for drivers at some firms are substan-
dard at best, and facilities for women are almost
nonexistent. Loading and unloading delays are
common. In a recent Government
Accountability Office (GAO) study, 68 percent
of the drivers reported they had been delayed
more than two hours in the past month. Eighty
percent said it affected their HOS compliance,
and 65 percent said they lost
revenue due to the delays.
According to the Texas
Transportation Institute, the
true cost of a delay ranges
from $80 to $120 per hour.
Many shippers and
receivers view drivers’ hours
of service and driver fatigue
as carrier problems, and
from an operational perspec-
tive, they probably are. But as
users of carrier services, we
should do what we can to minimize them. You
might not think you have a dog in that hunt,
but in the final analysis, everyone shares in the
cost of driver delays and accidents. If you’re a
shipper and/or receiver, a visit to this website
would be 30 minutes well spent. As a statement
on the site noted, the vicarious liability doctrine
potentially “places responsibility with one per-
son for the failure of another with whom the
person has a special relationship …”
The elimination of driver fatigue is in every-
one’s best interest. ;
Clifford F. Lynch is principal of C.F. Lynch & Associates, a provider
of logistics management advisory services, and author of Logistics
Outsourcing – A Management Guide and co-author of The Role
of Transportation in the Supply Chain. He can be reached at
cliff@cflynch.com.
