What Does The Data And Technology Say About Driving Fatigue?
In over 10 years of working with the transport industry in my role as national manager of a telematics company, I have spoken to many transport operators about driver fatigue management. I have heard many stories...some lucky, some frustrating and some very sad. Since becoming a leading Agent for Guardian by Seeing Machines, I have realised, from the data captured by the technology, that there are many misconceptions about fatigue which we now can dispel. These misconceptions are dangerous, and driver education on fatigue in the industry is critical.
These are the three misconceptions
"My drivers will pull over when they are tired"
Sleep science is clear that you are not aware when you slip into a microsleep, and your ability to recognise that you are slipping into level 3 fatigue, is highly compromised at a cognitive level. Most of my clients love the fact their drivers get notified in real time when they are microsleeping. I do not know of many drivers that do not want to know when they are driving at 100km/hr with their eyes shut!
"We only do short trips, so fatigue does not impact us"
The highest spike we seen in fatigue events is in the first 30-90 minutes of any route. Multiply this by 10 if the driver is coming off a break. It is the first part of the trip that is the most dangerous, and this supported by insurance and accident data. You do not need to be driving long trips to experience fatigue while driving. I have a client that has seen a fatigue event in a vehicle after only 11 minutes of driving...11 minutes!
"We do not drive at night, so we do not have fatigue problem"
Collating millions of verified events captured by the Guardian by Seeing Machines technology across the globe, it shows that fatigue events happen evenly across the day. There are as many fatigue events captured at 2am as there are at 10am or 2pm. Fatigue is not solely a night-time challenge.
Watch the video about Guardian by Seeing Machines here!
Listen to sleep scientist Matt Walker here!
Be Aware And Be Safe.
- Michael Carter,
20th of November, 2020