The Federal Hours of Service Act of 1907, which regulates the US railroad industry, imposes both maximum work hours and minimum rest periods. However, this act does not limit employees' weekly or monthly work hours, restrict the irregularity or unpredictability of on-call work schedules, or restrict mandatory commuting distances without compensatory time off. Extensive night work, irregular work schedules, extended work period with few or no days off, and the policies, procedures, and agreements that encompass these work scheduling practices, all evolved within the limited provisions of this act. It is not clear, though, that broad changes in the hours of service laws are the answer to these problems. Consequently, the Office of Research and Development at the Federal Railroad Administration, with its Fatigue Research Program, has embarked upon a non-prescriptive approach to better manage fatigue in the railroad industry. This program includes the development and implementation of improved fatigue data collection methodologies, better measurement and evaluation tools and more effective fatigue countermeasure strategies. The North Americal Rail Alterness Partnership (NARAP) has become an important means for understanding the fatigue-related problems in various operational settings, and for identifying specific programmatic areas that will better meet the needs of the industry. The program goals of improving the feasibility, utility and cost effectiveness of fatigue management are to be realized with the cooperative efforts of the government, unions, and the railroad industry, particularly though NARAP, and by broadly disseminating important technical findings through journal publications and conference proceedings. (Author/publisher).
Abstract