Transportation
Providing education and programs for shiftworkers is an essential part of any fatigue management program. Shiftworkers must have the tools, policies and education to manage their daily work and home lives to ensure that they come to work alert and well rested, as well as return home safely. At the same time, employees must have the support of their managers and supervisors to be able to take full advantage of the alertness enhancing strategies. Situations where employees do not have this kind of support can negate any potential improvements. At a tank truck operation in the Southern United States, both employees and managers were trained on the methods for managing and minimizing fatigue. Particular attention was given to train and educate the dispatchers of the operation, who ultimately set the driver schedules and workload.
Over the course of several months, CIRCADIAN® provided education on managing fatigue and how to develop dispatches that would provide drivers with the best opportunity to minimize their fatigue. Using Circadian's proprietary software – the CIRCADIAN® Alertness System (CAS) - in combination with our consulting expertise the frequency and severity of accidents was greatly reduced.:
- Managers and dispatchers in the trucking operation were provided with monthly analyses of the fatigue scores for every driver
- Dispatchers were educated on how they could reduce CAS fatigue scores by adjusting the timing and duration of daily and weekly work and rest patterns
- Senior management implemented a policy that made every dispatcher and terminal manager personally accountable for the monthly CAS fatigue scores of the drivers who reported to them.
Results
- A reduction in CAS fatigue score correlated with a reduction in the number and severity of accidents.
- The total number of truck accidents dropped 23.3% from an average rate of 2.30/million miles for the three years prior to the intervention, to 1.76/million miles for the following year when CAS fatigue score management was instituted.
- The average cost per accident dropped 65.8% from $14,088 to $4,820.
- Severity accidents (over $20,000 cost) dropped 55% from an average rate of 0.20 /million miles to 0.09 / million miles.
- Average cost of the severity accidents dropped 66.7% from $152,384 + per accident to $50,809 per accident over the same time frame.
- The total cost for loss of attention accidents (defined as collisions, hit rear of another vehicle, loss of control) dropped 80.9% from $1,187,699/year to $226,627/year).
Moreover, driver retention was greatly reduced; turnover dropped from an unmanageable 107% to 69%. This was in large part due to a better relationship between drivers and dispatchers as well as a driver dispatch schedule that was much more manageable for the driver’s work and home life.
