How do you check for fatigue before a work drive?
Driver fatigue is best caught before the keys come out. Check how long you have been awake and how you have slept, plan long drives around rest, pull over when drowsiness starts, and report a drowsy close call so the schedule behind it gets a second look. The stakes are higher than they feel: OSHA reports estimates that 17 consecutive hours awake impairs a driver about as much as a blood alcohol content of .05, and 24 hours awake about as much as .10[1].
Why tired driving is a work hazard
OSHA describes drowsy driving as operating a vehicle "when too fatigued or sleepy to stay alert, making the driver less aware of their surroundings"[1]. NIOSH lists four effects of fatigue on any worker: slower reaction times, less attention or concentration, weaker short-term memory and poorer judgment[2]. While driving, OSHA adds the specifics: nodding off, drifting from the lane, brief sleep episodes of up to 30 seconds, and forgetting the last few miles driven[1].
Transportation incidents are also one of the main ways workers die on the job. OSHA, citing Bureau of Labor Statistics data, reports that on average 39% of all occupational fatalities are due to transportation incidents[5].
It is not only a truck driver's problem. OSHA notes that hours rules exist for vehicles that need a commercial driver's license, but "workers in many other jobs are at risk of driver fatigue"[1]. That includes the crew lead driving two hours to a job site, and the technician heading home after a long shift.
Check yourself before you drive
OSHA links driver fatigue to being awake for too many consecutive hours, not getting enough sleep over multiple days, monotonous tasks or long periods of inactivity, and health factors such as sleep disorders or medications that cause drowsiness[1]. NIOSH points to schedules: at work, fatigue is commonly associated with night shifts and extended hours that disrupt or shorten sleep[2].
That gives a short check before any work drive:
- How many hours have I been awake, and how many will I have been by the time I arrive?
- How have I slept the last few nights, not just last night?
- Is this drive at the end of a long or overnight shift?
- Am I taking anything that makes me drowsy?
The drive home deserves the same check as the drive out. OSHA cites a 2005 study of 2,737 medical residents in which every extended shift scheduled in a month raised the monthly risk of a motor vehicle crash on the commute home by 16.2%[6].
If drowsiness starts on the road, the safe answer is to stop somewhere safe and deal with it before going on. No schedule is worth a few seconds asleep at highway speed.
No schedule is worth a few seconds asleep at highway speed.
What workers can do
OSHA's worker fatigue guidance gives plain sleep suggestions[3]:
- Aim for a sleep period of 7 to 9 hours a day without disruptions.
- If you work evenings or nights, make sure you have slept within the 8 hours before going to work.
- If you nap before work, keep it under 45 minutes or over 2 hours, which OSHA says allows for a complete sleep/wake cycle.
- If you have trouble sleeping, keep a sleep diary and talk to your doctor.
What employers can do
OSHA says it "is incumbent upon employers and drivers to recognize and prevent excessive driving and work hours that contribute to drowsy driving"[1]. Its guidance for employers is written as recommendations. Employers should make sure workloads and schedules let employees drive at a safe speed and obey any applicable hours-of-service rules, and should cover drowsy driving in their written vehicle policies[4]. On fatigue more broadly, OSHA suggests looking at workload, work hours, understaffing and absences, and arranging schedules that allow rest breaks and nighttime sleep[3].
In practice, that often means asking an awkward question during planning: who is driving after the long pour, the night callout or the double shift, and is there another way to get them home?
Report the close calls, not only the crashes
OSHA recommends that every crash, regardless of severity, be reported to the employee's supervisor as soon as feasible and reviewed for its root cause and what would prevent it happening again[4]. A drowsy close call, such as drifting onto the shoulder or not remembering the last exit, is the same warning without the damage. Reported, it gives the team a chance to look upstream of the driver: the shift length, the start time or the distance to the job.
In Panora, the incident log includes a Near Miss type alongside Injury, Good Catch and Safety Event. Once safety findings are set up for a facility, a phone that scans that facility's QR code asks for the facility code the first time, then shows the account's forms, the safety finding form among them. A safety manager can then give a submitted finding an owner and a due date. A pattern of tired drives home is a fair thing to raise that way, so someone owns the schedule question and a date to answer it.
Sources
- OSHA: Motor Vehicle Safety - Drowsy Driving. Read .
- NIOSH (CDC): Fatigue and Work. Read .
- OSHA: Long Work Hours, Extended or Irregular Shifts, and Worker Fatigue - Prevention. Read .
- OSHA: Motor Vehicle Safety - Employers. Read .
- OSHA: Motor Vehicle Safety (overview). Read .
- OSHA: Long Work Hours, Extended or Irregular Shifts, and Worker Fatigue - Hazards. Read .