Background
Health and safety implications of truck drivers’ impaired health
UK [43] | |
In any working day the maximum amount of driving permitted is 10 h | |
In any working day the maximum amount of duty permitted is 11 h. A driver is exempt from the daily duty limit (11 h) on any working day when a driver does not drive. | |
EU [44] | |
A maximum amount of daily driving time of 9 h that can be extended to 10 h no more than twice a week. | |
A maximum amount of weekly driving time of 56 h. | |
A maximum total accumulated driving time during any two consecutive weeks of 90 h. | |
After driving for a period of 4.5 h, a driver must take an uninterrupted break of not less than 45 min, unless he takes a rest period. | |
A minimum daily rest of 11 h, which can be reduced to 9 h, no more than 3 times a week. | |
A regular weekly rest period of minimum 45 h and a reduced weekly rest period of a minimum of 24 h. | |
US [45] | |
May drive a maximum of 11 h after 10 consecutive hours off duty. | |
May not drive beyond the 14th consecutive hour after coming on duty, following 10 consecutive hours off duty. Off-duty time does not extend the 14-h period. | |
May drive only if 8 h or less have passed since end of driver’s last off-duty | |
May drive only if 8 h or less have passed since end of driver’s last off-duty or sleeper berth period of at least 30 min. | |
May not drive after 60/70 h on duty in 7/8 consecutive days. A driver may restart a 7/8 consecutive day period after taking 34 or more consecutive hours off duty. |
Workplace health, disease prevention and wellness programmes
The role of mobile health in health promotion for truck drivers
Goals
Methods
Study design
Recruitment and participants
Data collection
Data analysis and thematisation
Results
Characteristic | Statistics |
---|---|
Age (years), mean ± SD; range | 42.2 ± 7.8; [27–57] |
Sex, n (% male) | 34 (100) |
Driving experience (years), mean ± SD; range | 16.1 ± 9.9; [1–33] |
Vehicle type, n (%) | |
Long-haul HGVa
| 20 (58.8) |
Short-haul HGVa
| 7 (20.6) |
Both long-haul and short-haul | 7 (20.6) |
Perception of health, n (%) | |
Fair | 2 (5.9) |
Good | 20 (58.8) |
Very good | 12 (35.3) |
Perception of lifestyle, n (%) | |
Not very healthy | 2 (5.9) |
Fair | 14 (41.2) |
Healthy | 16 (47.1) |
Very healthy | 2 (5.9) |
Barriers to maintaining healthy lifestyle: the gap between awareness and reality
“We know it’s unhealthy for us but you’re stopping at greasy cafes and places at the moment because it’s the first thing you can eat”.“I think if you’d monitor our sleeping patterns you would be amazed! You would be absolutely amazed, some days we only get 3 h of sleep and then go to a 12 h shift.”“We now have the gym downstairs, but after working 12–15 h you won’t say, oh yes I need to go to the gym really.”
“I want to change my lifestyle, I would like to take more care of my health and wellbeing but in the current work environment it is hard to make a change in my lifestyle”.“It’s just getting the time and the education to change that, to change my lifestyle.”
Wearable devices as a means to close the gap between awareness and reality
“Don’t know what’s out there what I can use, because I don’t mind using it, because I want to improve my health and I understand it is going to be hard work”.“I am interested in how it works what it can tell you and how to obtain it? And obviously if it helps it will be a worthwhile investment”.“It shouldn’t be a quick fix, it should be something that really changes the perception of people’s lifestyle, not just a quick diet.”
“But if it would involve a lot, it’s going to last about two days. You know what I mean because at the end of the week you’re tired and full of stress… we might stop using it”.“Also the things that are available on the market right now take a regular 9–5 job person into account, but not a truck driver who usually has to go to bed at 5 in the afternoon and get up at 2 in the morning.”
Motivation for using wearable devices
“Rather than putting their head in the sand, use a piece of technology or telling you from day to day minute to minute how their lifestyle is. And if you changed it you can see it rather than being told or putting your head in the sand”.“Well ok, but I mean incorporating it into something like, it should have a sort of dietary aspect to it you know what I mean, what to eat what not to eat. I’m still sort of on the preventive side of things if you know what I mean”.“I’m just saying, if you went to your doctor …and someone could wear that for a week to monitor. They don’t have to put you on medication, but can see where you’re standing and prevent it. Medicine is moving anyway to preventive medicine, isn’t it?”
“Or when you know someone, like one of my best mates died of a heart attack and he was a HGV driver and that gave me a wake-up call““Heart attack…. Because if that thing happen it shocks you really. I don’t like it, but if I would have a heart problem or would be diabetic I would probably wear one, because then I have to know what is going on.”
The “Big brother”- the experience of being continuously monitored
“Talking about a perspective from the health of a company it gives the management a better idea if they saw what you are actually doing physically and mentally each day. Over the hours or period that you are working“.“If that’s monitoring your heart rate, your blood pressure and your cholesterol level what’s wrong with the company knowing that?
“I think at the end of the day you can go to your line manager or your boss or anything like that and they tell you a load of crap like you’re not doing that you’re not doing that mate. You can go, hang on a second, there’s your proof in your pudding. That’s my week at work, that’s when I was off, there’s your blood pressure everything sleep pattern, fine, that’s for two or three weeks go on and compare“.
“Yeah well, the sleeping patterns obviously because if your employer could somehow monitor it and your employer can see you only had two hours of sleep and sends you out to a twelve hour journey to London. You know what I mean? It can risk your job”.“Let’s say they can see you are stress and tired, do you really want them to see it?”
Who will benefit from wearable devices?
“I haven’t worked for anyone else who puts me on this much stuff about health and wellbeing”.“The company is doing more with health that it starts bringing it to the top of the chain”.
“They want people to work until they retire. It will save them money in the end”.“There is no young coming in, so they now have to look into keeping us lot healthy, because they want us to work until we retire and that’s why they are going to bother”.