Contributing organizational factors to driver fatigue based on the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA 2010) Measurement System

Abstract

Fatigue is considered as one of the main causes of motor carrier crashes. To control this hazard, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) enforces prescriptive Hours-of-Service (HOS) regulation. Over the last decade, an emerging consensus has questioned the efficiency of this perspective regulation. Consequently, a comprehensive approach called Fatigue Risk Management System (FRMS) is becoming popular in the fatigue science. FRMS has transferred the focus of responsibility for safety away from the regulatory bodies towards companies and individuals.

On the other hand, motor carriers should be able to identify which of their organizational factors have contributed to their fatigue performance; thus, they will be able to enhance their fatigue performance by improving the contributed organizational factors to their fatigue performance.

This research project aimed to investigate the organizational factors and associated safety practices that have been contributed to fatigue performance. 134 motor carriers with acceptable and unacceptable fatigue performance were studied. The Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA 2010) measurement system was used to determine the motor carriers' fatigue performance. The organizational factors which were studied include: management commitment, schedule design, HOS management, and training system. Constructing elements for each of these organizational factors were identified by the literature review.

Based on the results of the study, it is suggested that safety budget (as a management commitment element), percentage of drivers with regular schedule (as a schedule design element), and utilization of electronic logbook (as an HOS management element) are contributing factors to fatigue performance among the motor carriers. Consequently, motor carriers that are looking for improving their fatigue performance may consider implementing best safety practices to improve their fatigue performance.