What is fatigue?
Fatigue is tiredness, weariness, or exhaustion. You don’t have to be falling asleep at the wheel to be dangerously fatigued, any amount of tiredness increases your chances of having a crash. Being an alert driver is an essential part of being a safe driver. When you add fatigue to the mix, you’ll get slowed reflexes, lessened ability to concentrate and you’re less likely to make good decisions, like decisions about the speed you're travelling.
Driving with fatigue is extremely dangerous, because your reactions are much slower and your ability to concentrate is reduced. This means that you respond much more slowly to what is going on around you. The crucial skills of risk assessment and risk management are also impaired, which research shows are vital skills to being safe on the road. You’ll take longer to make judgements of risks, and you’ll be much slower in interpreting and understanding traffic situations. Fatigued drivers also tend to crash at full speed - and we know from statistics, that the higher the speed, the higher the risk of death or injury in a crash.
The most common effects of fatigue on driving include: difficulty keeping your car within a lane, drifting off the road entirely, less smooth driving (more frequent and unnecessary changes in speed) more frequent yawning, forgetting having driven a stretch of road, and not reacting in time to avoid a dangerous situation.
All of these things lead to significantly increased number and severity of crashes, especially the kind that can be avoided, like single vehicle crashes into stationary objects like a tree or pole.
How could fatigue affect my business?
Occupational Health and Safety legislation in New Zealand says an employer must “provide or maintain so far as is reasonably practicable a safe and healthy working environment for their employees”. It further defines a vehicle to be a “place of work” and that employees who are mobile are covered by the Health and Safety in Employment Act.
This means that you are responsible for ensuring that your employees are as safe as possible while on the road, and that includes managing risk of fatigue.
Crashes are expensive too – the social and moral cost aside, the financial cost of crashes is staggering. Last year in New Zealand, 569 serious crashes were due to fatigue. That’s a whopping 6% of the overall total. And experts acknowledge that fatigue is hard to report as a factor, and so it’s likely to be under reported. Fatigue is an expensive and entirely preventable factor, and it’s your responsibility to do something to manage it.
What can I do?
If you’re a company owner, director or fleet manager:
You need to be aware that both you personally, and your company can be liable for risk affecting your drivers. Fatigue is taken very seriously in the commercial vehicle industry, and you need to be sure you are doing all you can to combat this risk factor. As a company, you need to be encouraging and ensuring best practice to prevent fatigue becoming an issue. Some tips can be found in the next section. You need to be sure you are encouraging (requiring) these behaviours, and discouraging (prohibiting) any that are likely to contribute to fatigue as a factor. Things like rest schedules, up to date logbooks, and a culture of no-tolerance for speeding and overtime while on the road, are all essential.
Driver training programmes like Fleetcoach help teach drivers of the importance of being more responsible on the road, and help them to know what they should be doing. Fleetcoach will also be able to be used as a driver management system so you can easily see what your staff are doing, and log information against their profiles. The extra benefit is that you have a digital record of your efforts in the risk prevention space, so you can show that you are proactively doing all that you can.
If you’re a driver:
The best thing you can do, is decide to do all you can to never let fatigue affect your driving. There is a lot you can do to make sure you’re safe from this killer, so make a call right now, that driving tired is something you’ll never do.
The first step is to learn to recognise when you’re fatigued. Ideally, you’d pick it up before it gets to that stage, so you get good at noticing when your tiredness is starting to get worse. Remember, everyone’s different, so even if you’ve had a full night’s sleep, doesn’t mean you’ll be completely alert all day. Learn to read your own body, and don’t let anyone convince you out of concern you may have.
You may be suffering from driver fatigue if you…
- have trouble focusing, keeping your eyes open or holding your head up
- are daydreaming, having wandering or disconnected thoughts, loss of memory
- are yawning or rubbing your eyes repeatedly
- are drifting from your lane, tailgating and missing signs or exits
- are feeling restless and irritable
- have recently undertaken long distance air travel.
So what can you do? Turns out, plenty. Here are some tips:
- The only cure for fatigue is quality sleep.
- Get a good night's sleep before driving, preferably eight hours.
- Schedule plenty of time for breaks, and have a sleep if you are starting to feel tired. It’s not always easy to do so when you’re driving for work, but a good employer won't put you at risk.
- Avoid driving during the hours when you would normally be sleeping. For most people, this will be between 10 pm and 6 am. If you normally have a mid-afternoon nap, then you should avoid driving at that time.
- Make sure you are fully awake before driving following a period of sleep.
- Share the driving when possible. Can you share with a colleague?
- Don't drink even small amounts of alcohol. It will make the effects of fatigue much worse.
- When taking long trips, plan your journey to include rest breaks.
- Ensure you get plenty of fresh air.
- Snack on light, fresh foods. Avoid consuming fatty, sugary or carbohydrate-filled foods, which can make you feel tired.
- Conversation, music, and other environmental stimulation can help you stay awake but they’re only short-term solutions.
- Caffeine can help in the short-term too, but takes time to be effective. Research shows that drinking a caffeinated drink followed by a short nap can help improve temporary alertness.
- If you’ve recently travelled internationally, be aware that jetlag can creep up on you and you may not even feel tired.
- If you’re taking medication that makes you drowsy, be aware of when you can and can’t safely be on the road. If you’re unsure, ask your doctor.
- You’ll know your own triggers – if you’re always very sleepy at around 3pm, try not to drive then.
- Keep your logbook up to date, and know what’s expected of you at work.
- Talk to your employer if you have any concerns
- Driver training programmes such as Fleetcoach will teach you about fatigue. They’ll also get your visual search and hazard perception up to scratch so you’re more likely to use these skills, whether tired or not.
Main takeaway points:
- Fatigue injures, it kills, it makes for dangerous drivers
- Fatigue is expensive - severe accidents are frequently caused by fatigue
- There are things you can do to manage the risk of fatigue, both as a driver and a director
- A driver training and management system will help you to keep on top of your requirements, and help educate your drivers on what they need to do to stay safe on the road.
