Fatigue management conference kicks off; Canadian truckers take part

SEATTLE, — Transportation officials will join sleep experts from across the globe to discuss how to reduce fatigue-related crashes on highways.

Officials from 13 countries — including representatives from Transport Canada and the Canadian Trucking Alliance — are gathering in Seattle to exchange information on the latest fatigue management research, technologies and countermeasures.

The conference is part of a series of fatigue in transportation conferences that have taken place in Fremantle, Australia, since 1994, under the auspices of Murdoch University. Nearly 100 scientific papers will serve as the basis of discussion of various topics such as fatigue in transportation; fatigue indicators and monitoring devices; the impact of fatigue on performance, scheduling, sleep disorders screening and treatment and; fatigue management programs and countermeasures, education, training and evaluation.

Transport Canada and partners in the United States have jointly developed a North American fatigue management program designed to enhance the safety by providing drivers with innovative tools to prevent and manage fatigue.

Human Factors North Inc. of Toronto, together with SagaTech Electronics Inc. of Calgary, Circadian Health Improvements Inc. of Montreal, and Alertness Solutions of Cupertino, California will pilot-test the program with a number of motor carriers in Canada and the U.S. over the next two years. Once the pilot tests are completed, the program will be finalized and motor carriers will be provided with a best practices manual. The manual will include education and training materials; work and rest practices; sleep disorder screening and treatment guidelines; and applicable policies and procedures.

Pilot technologies and tools include:

The SleepWatch actigraph, which is worn like a watch and registers the number of hours of sleep over a specified time period and calculates the driver’s estimated need for sleep; PERCLOS, which consists of two small cameras that measure the extent of the driver’s eyelid closure; SafeTRAC, which is a microcomputer that analyses images captured by a camera that sweeps the road to detect unintentional lane changes; and the Howard Power Center Steering System, which reduces vehicle drift caused by crosswinds or road conditions to prevent the driver from having to continually correct the position of the truck.

Drivers participating in the study were positive about the potential contribution they may ultimately provide to fatigue management. The department will therefore further examine the devices and their potential impact on the performance of drivers.

Performance-based fatigue management programs, rather than one-size-fits-all regulations alone, could become the way of the future in determining safe and effective truck driver hours, says Canadian Trucking Alliance senior vice-president Graham Cooper, who is a session chair at the conference.

“Obviously, fatigue management programs as a supplement to prescriptive regulation won’t happen overnight,” he says. “There is still much research to be done before regulators, elected officials and the public will accept the notion of alternative approaches to managing transport operator fatigue.

“But it may well be the way of the future, as the science of sleep and fatigue, technology and training all come together over the next few years to offer a more effective solution to the fatigue question, over and above the regulation of working hours.”

CTA is a sponsor of the event, which comes as Canada prepares to finalize a modernized hours-of-service regime for commercial drivers. The U.S. recently published a court-ordered revision to its 2003 rule. The most dramatic change applies to the so-called split sleeper provision, which now requires drivers to take eight consecutive hours off as part of their 10-hour, off-duty time.

Details on the 2005 International Conference on Fatigue Management in Transportation Operations are available at www.engr.washington.edu/epp/fmto.