The objective of this report was to provide a consensus report from an expert group on options for the medium term development of regulatory approaches to the management of fatigue in drivers of heavy vehicles. This report was commissioned jointly by the National Road Transport Commission of Australia, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau and the New Zealand Land Transport Safety Authority. The fatigue expert group comprised leading Australian and New Zealand experts in sleep, shiftwork and road safety who collaborated with the participating agencies and industry representatives to construct a set of evidence-based design principles for future fatigue regulatory options. The group considered that the management of driver fatigue is not a matter for operators and drivers alone, and emphasised the requirements and practices of others in the transport supply chain. The chain of responsibility provisions in road transport legislation are designed to highlight that on-road performance is closely related to the decisions made by customers, consignors and loaders. The expert group was conscious of the need to provide a flexible and practicable framework in which fatigue could be actively managed by all those who are part of the supply chain. The group agreed on the following principles for designing better regulations: • provision for minimum sleep periods, the opportunity for sleep and time of day influences • taking account of the cumulative nature of fatigue and sleep loss • taking account of the effect of night work on driving performance and both quality and quantity of sleep • taking account of duration of working time • provision for short breaks within working time. The group considered that any policy approach to the management of fatigue in drivers of heavy vehicles must address these factors and proposed a possible model for the application of these design principles. (A)
Samenvatting