Fatigue is a type of impairment that reduces a driver’s ability to notice, process, and correctly respond to driving-related hazards. That’s why it’s a contributing factor in so many crashes. Use our resources for employers and drivers to help assess and reduce fatigue risks.
Who’s at risk?
Everyone feels fatigued at some point and driving can make things worse. A warm vehicle and the soothing motion of the drive can make you drowsy and increase your crash risks.
Some drivers are behind the wheel for long periods of time and can become bored and inattentive. Others who drive for even short periods of time in high-stress situations can find themselves exhausted. In all cases, they’re at greater risk of making costly mistakes.
Fatigue can affect all drivers, but several groups are at greater risk. They include:
- Workers on night or rotating shifts
- Long-haul commercial vehicle drivers
- People taking prescribed and over-the-counter medications
- Young males (especially under age 26)
- People with sleep disorders
- People under the influence of alcohol or marijuana
Impacts, causes, and warning signs
When an employee is physically or mentally fatigued (or both), it affects their ability to safely perform their driving duties. Studies show fatigue is a factor in about 20% of crashes.
How fatigue impacts drivers
Physical fatigue is the result of activities that exhaust muscles. It may leave a driver unable to respond as quickly or effectively as they normally would. For example, a strenuous day of physical work may slow a driver’s reflexes and increase their reaction time. Mental fatigue is a more frequent concern. It often causes reduced alertness, lower attentiveness, less focus, and poor decision making. It impairs a driver’s ability to perform essential driving tasks.
Fatigue tends to hit in waves. At first, drivers may not be as alert and vigilant as usual. Then emotional capabilities are affected, leaving drivers anxious, short-tempered, or more impulsive. Then mental abilities suffer, making it hard to concentrate, remember things, or make sound decisions.
Drivers who are mentally and/or physically fatigued are:
- More likely to take risks
- More likely to forget or ignore normal checks or procedures
- Less able to absorb critical driving information and respond to it
- Less able to solve problems
- Less able to decide on the best actions to take to address a hazard, and execute the necessary responses
- Less able to judge distance, speed, and time
At any stage, fatigue can be the difference between avoiding an incident and being involved in a serious, costly crash.
Main causes of fatigue
Inadequate sleep is one of the leading causes of fatigue. It can impair the brain as much as drinking alcohol does. Research suggests being awake for 17 to 19 hours straight makes people drive like they have a blood alcohol level of .05. Most people need 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night. Getting less can create a sleep debt.
Losing one hour of sleep each night for 5 nights creates a sleep debt of 5 hours. The only way to “pay off” a sleep debt is to get an equal amount of restorative sleep to make up for it.
Review the following factors at work and in everyday life that can lead to driver fatigue.
Work tasks, environment, and schedule
Driving can leave anyone vulnerable to fatigue because it can involve:
- Concentrating for long hours.
- Repetitive, boring or complex tasks.
- Sedentary position.
- Warm or over-comfortable vehicle interior.
- High noise levels.
- Limited visibility due to weather or inadequate headlights.
- Vehicle vibration.
- Working at night. Humans are hard-wired to be awake during the day and asleep at night. Driving at night, during irregular hours, and for long shifts interrupts your natural sleep cycle and can create fatigue.
Medications and medical conditions
Some prescription and over-the-counter medicines contain caffeine or other stimulants that can make it difficult to sleep. Others can cause drowsiness. These include heart, blood pressure, and asthma drugs, as well as pain relievers, cold decongestants, antihistamines, and diet pills.
Sleep apnea, insomnia and other medical conditions can contribute to fatigue.
Stressful driving situations like heavy traffic, slippery roads, or being unfamiliar with the vehicle or the route can leave drivers frustrated, and exhausted. Stress from a driver’s personal life can also affect their driving performance.
Maintaining good health by making healthy lifestyle choices is a big part of avoiding fatigue. Drivers need to get regular exercise, maintain a healthy diet, drink enough water, and have regular checkups with their doctor.
Warning signs of fatigue
Fatigue has many common symptoms, but it can be difficult for drivers to notice them. Watch out for:
- Feeling sleepy, drowsy, or exhausted
- Yawning
- Sore, heavy, droopy, or blood-shot eyes
- Slower than normal reflexes and reaction times
- Impatience or irritability
- Aching, stiff, or sore muscles
- Muscle cramps
- Lack of motivation
- Indecisiveness
- Daydreaming, decreased ability to focus or concentrate
What employers can do
Fatigued drivers put themselves, their passengers, other road users, and their employers at risk. Your organization can take steps to prevent fatigue-related crashes as part of your road safety planning.
Understand your legal responsibilities
As an employer you’re legally responsible for the safety of your employees whenever they drive for work or ride in a vehicle that’s being used for work. This applies regardless of how much driving they do and whether they’re using a company-owned or personal vehicle.
Review your legal obligations including when employees drive their own vehicle.
Employers, supervisors and employees should be familiar with Occupational Health and Safety Regulation Sections 4.19 and 4.20. The regulations explain specific requirements and things employers, supervisors, and employees must do to make sure no employee drives a work vehicle when impaired by fatigue or any other reason.
Have a strategy for reducing fatigue risks
Driving is a complex task. Adding any amount of fatigue increases the likelihood it will contribute to costly driving mistakes. Using a standard risk assessment approach will help you see which driving situations are the highest priority for action, and which ones offer the greatest opportunities for measures to reduce risks.
Step 1. Identify risks of driver fatigue
Make a list of the tasks your employees do that involve driving. Be specific because your next step is to rank those driving tasks in terms of how risks increase if the driver is fatigued.
Use the following examples from industry sectors, and our Inventory of Driving-Related Hazards (Excel) for ideas on what to add to your list.
Example: Municipal government
- Driving plow truck in winter
- Driving landscaping crew and equipment to site
- Clerk driving to pick up office supplies
Example: Delivery service
- Drivers delivering packages all day
- Driver delivering package one-time
- Supervisor driving overnight to regional office
Step 2. Assess risk level
Use basic risk assessment principles to identify the driving situations in which fatigue is most likely to generate the most injuries, losses, or other harm.
Review our Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Tool Kit to learn more about risk assessment principles and how to apply them.
If your organization doesn’t have a tool for assessing risks, use our simple matrix. The following scenario demonstrates how you can apply it.
Scenario: Assessing different types of driving
ABC Plumbing has determined it has 3 groups exposed to fatigued driving risks.
- Group 1: Individuals driving to job sites. Seven ABC plumbers drive their own one-ton service truck to job sites across the region.
- Group 2: Crews driving to client locations. ABC has a 4-person crew of HVAC specialists. Each day, they all travel in a half-ton pickup to service local customers.
- Group 3: Engineer driving to client meetings. ABC’s one engineer drives to meet with a client about once every 2 weeks.
Risk assessment
Risk ranking rationale
Group 1 involves 7 drivers in 7 vehicles driving to a wide variety of sites on highways and other roads. It’s quite likely that on any given day one or more of the drivers could start their shift tired or become fatigued as their workday wears on. Because of the size and value of the service trucks, the outcome of any crash will likely be more severe.
Group 2 involves one employee driving a familiar route. The ABC supervisor has to monitor just one driver for signs of fatigue. Plus, if any of the crew senses their driver is tired, one of them can take over. There’s a low probability that Group 2 will be involved in an incident due to fatigue. In terms of severity, there are 4 people in the pickup so there’s potentially 4 times the likelihood that someone will be injured in a crash. However, their half-ton pickup has a 5-star crash rating. And the local routes they travel all have a speed limit of 50 km/hr, further reducing severity compared with Group 1 drivers taking highways.
Group 3 involves just one employee driving an SUV to client meetings. They often travel in busy traffic on a highway so the potential severity of an incident is high. However, because the frequency of exposure is low, the probability of an incident is low.
Step 3. Eliminate fatigue risks whenever possible
The highest risk rankings from Step 2 identify your priorities for action. The next step is to find measures or controls that will eliminate or minimize fatigue risks. Use the Hierarchy of Controls to decide what measures will work best. Here are a few ideas, based on the scenario in Step 2.
Decide if driving is necessary
Use journey management to decide what driving is essential. Start by asking whether the trip is necessary. Each time you avoid unnecessary driving, you eliminate the risk of a fatigued driver getting behind the wheel.
ABC couldn’t eliminate driving for Group 1. To do their job, those technicians need to be onsite with their tools and service truck. But they realized their engineer (Group 3) could do some of their meetings online, so they were able to eliminate some of the driving tasks. ABC has also purchased technology that lets them monitor HVAC components. That means Group 2 employees will have to travel to client sites less often. Each time they eliminate a trip, ABC eliminates the associated risks.
Consider alternatives to driving
If travel is required, driving may not be the safest way to get there. For example, if you’re concerned drivers will become fatigued during a long, monotonous drive, can they fly instead?
ABC discovered that when their engineer must meet with a client in person, they can sometimes take the bus or walk. They also found they can usually avoid extended shifts for Group 1 drivers by having suppliers deliver to the ABC warehouse rather than ABC technicians driving to get those supplies.
Step 4: Minimize fatigue risks by changing how work gets done
Many of the measures available to reduce fatigue risks are administrative controls that reduce risks by improving how driving work is done. Here are some steps you may be able to take in your workplace.
Adjust and optimize driving schedules
Thinking about work tasks, environment, and schedule that contribute to fatigue, look for opportunities to reduce fatigue risks. These include:
- Adjust work schedules so they don’t include driving at night. Have employees drive during daylight hours when they are well rested.
- Avoid long shifts that require workers to drive back to the office or home when they are too tired to safely do that. Can another, less tired employee share those driving duties?
- Balance workloads so employees have enough time to sleep and recover between shifts.
- Re-arrange monotonous and tiring driving tasks. Make sure drivers takes breaks at least every 2 hours. Tell them to stop and get out, stretch their limbs, get some fresh air, and even have a quick nap.
- Avoid scheduling driving between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. Weekday crash frequency peaks during those hours. One reason is the natural mid-afternoon energy slump that often makes people feel tired or exhausted.
Develop fatigue policy and procedures
Download our Impairment Policy Template (Word) and edit it to suit your organization’s needs. It suggests a requirement for employees to report for work fit for duty. This means they’re physically, mentally, and emotionally able to work competently without compromising or threatening the safety or health of anyone.
Your policy could also include measures to specifically manage fatigue risks, such as:
- Educating supervisors and drivers about fatigue risks
- Limiting work hours and shift structure
- Explaining procedures for self-assessment and self-reporting
- Specifying what supervisors and/or co-workers will do when an employee looks too tired to drive
Provide training and education
Review the information in this tool kit with all your staff to make sure they know about fatigue and understand their role in reducing its risks.
- Educate drivers and supervisors so they understand the causes and signs of fatigue, how it negatively effects drivers, and what they are to do to minimize risks.
- Have supervisors interact frequently with drivers so they get to know who’s at risk of becoming fatigued and take steps to prevent them from driving while fatigued.
- Make sure supervisors and drivers understand and follow your fatigue policy.
- Encourage co-workers to be alert for fatigue symptoms, since drivers may not be self-aware.
- Train drivers to optimize their driving workplace. Help them understand how driving ergonomics and maximizing visibility can improve alertness and reduce fatigue.
- Ask for feedback on the steps you’re taking to address fatigue. Are they working?
Take advantage of technology
There is an increasing variety of technologies available to help employers and drivers monitor and manage fatigue risks. Here are a few examples:
- Smart watches can monitor heart rate variability to estimate stress and/or fatigue. Some track movement and heartbeat. They use algorithms to estimate sleep duration and quality, and alertness, during the workday.
- Dash-mounted devices measure eye closure, blink rates, and/or head movements to estimate fatigue. Depending on the device, it notifies the driver or a central monitor when measurements suggest the driver is becoming fatigued.
- Software packages use data collected by wearable and in-vehicle devices. They apply algorithms to predict driver alertness based on sleep quality, sleep quantity, and shift duration.
- A spreadsheet, Gantt chart, or work scheduling software can help you see where fatigue risks may be greatest. You can then proactively adjust schedules to reduce those risks.
These tools give drivers or supervisors useful information, but they don’t reduce fatigue risks unless the driver uses the information to prevent driving while fatigued.
Include fatigue in crash investigations
When you’re dealing with a crash or near miss, remember to assess the role fatigue may have played. Use our Crash Investigation Guide (PDF) to have a closer look.
Support employee health and wellness
Fatigue is generated by factors both inside and outside the workplace. You can’t control what happens when someone’s off duty, but you can influence their thinking and awareness of the importance of a healthy work/life balance to reduce fatigue.
Organizations that invest in employee wellness can see a return that’s more than double their investment. Here are some steps you can take:
- Provide information, guides, and even programs and incentives that encourage staff to make healthy diet, fitness, and lifestyle choices.
- Remind drivers to have regular medical checkups. Give them time to do that.
- Encourage drivers to ask their doctor and follow their advice about being tested if they have any medical conditions that can increase fatigue risks, such as sleep apnea.
- Remind drivers to get their eyes checked regularly and use driving glasses to reduce eye strain and fatigue.
Foster a positive safety culture
Risk reduction measures can help manage fatigue risks. But they will be much more effective if you implemented them within a safety culture that:
- Knows fatigue is a frequent risk factor
- Recognizes there are opportunities to reduce risks
- Encourages management, supervisors, and drivers to take timely and appropriate actions
Build these steps and measures into your safety system. Integrate them into your daily operations. Learn more in our Driving Toward a Stronger Road Safety Culture Webinar.
Review the North American Fatigue Management Program
The North American Fatigue Management Program is a free, web-based educational and training program. It was developed to explain factors contributing to fatigue and their impact on human performance. It’s aimed at the transport industry but its principles and practices can work just as well for other drivers.
The program provides education on:
- Developing a corporate safety culture that actively combats driver fatigue
- Educating drivers, their families, executives and managers, shippers/receivers, and dispatchers on fatigue management
- Sleep disorders screening and treatment
- Driver and trip scheduling practices
- Fatigue management technologies
What drivers can do
No matter how much or how little you drive for work, fatigue can put you at risk. It can affect all drivers regardless of age, skill level, or experience.
Know and follow your employer’s safe driving procedures. Always arrive at work fit for duty so you can safely perform your work tasks. If you feel too fatigued to drive safely, report it to your supervisor immediately.
Take these important steps to help prevent fatigue.
Make sure you get enough sleep. Aim for 7 to 9 hours each night.
Avoid creating a sleep debt, which is the difference between how much sleep you need and how much you actually get. Make sure you consistently get the sleep you need. If you start accumulating a sleep debt, pay it off as soon as you can by getting extra sleep.
A nap is a terrific way to improve alertness. Here are tips for effective naps:
- Schedule it to suit you. Many people experience low energy from 1 to 3 p.m. but you may find a different time of day works best for you.
- Nap for no more than 20 to 30 minutes. Research suggests this is the optimal nap duration to ensure you feel rested but not groggy.
- Take a few minutes to wake up completely before you resume driving.
Plan and manage your trips to minimize the likelihood you’ll become fatigued along the way. Use these tips.
- Ask yourself if you really need to drive. Can you accomplish the task with a phone call or virtual meeting?
- Check road conditions with DriveBC. Listen to weather reports. If the drive ahead sounds more exhausting than you’re ready to tackle, delay the trip or have someone else drive.
- Plan trips with enough time to obey speed limits and drive at a speed that’s appropriate for the conditions. Allow time to take a break every 2 hours. Stop and get out, stretch your limbs, and get some fresh air. Maybe even have a quick nap.
- Choose the safest, least stressful route. Even though it may take a little longer, avoiding stressful traffic and dangerous intersections helps reduce fatigue risks.
- Think about the safest times to be on the road, taking into account your sleep-wake cycle.
- Don’t leave a difficult drive until the end of the workday when you’re bound to be tired.
- Share the driving with your passengers or a co-worker.
Optimize your workplace on wheels
Learn how proper driving ergonomics can help prevent fatigue. Prepare your vehicle to create a driving position that gives you the best view of the road and the ability to operate controls efficiently. Use the tips below to reduce your fatigue risks.
Making sure you get enough sleep is an important start. You can also minimize your fatigue risks by making choices that support your own well-being.
- Do 20 to 30 minutes of physical activity every day.
- Stay hydrated. Take enough water with you when you drive. Avoid sugary or caffeinated beverages.
- Choose high protein snacks over fatty foods like fries.
- Don’t rely on coffee. It takes about 20 minutes to kick into our system and its effects are temporary, lasting only about 5 hours at most.
- Take advantage of information, programs, and incentives available to you at work. If your employer can’t offer what you need, check out your local community centre or gym.
- Get regular vision and medical checkups. Ask your doctor about medical conditions that increase fatigue risks. For example, if you’re snoring loudly or waking up frequently during the night, you may be experiencing sleep apnea. Ask for a diagnosis and treatment plan.
- Be realistic and proactive. Everyone is prone to fatigue. Be aware of circumstances when you might be too tired to drive safely. Make plans so that you won’t need to drive in those circumstances.
- If you’re starting to feel drowsy, you’re already fatigued. Pull over before its too late.
Resources
Template
Employers need to reduce the risk of impaired driving on the job. Customize this template to build an impairment policy that’s right for you and your employees.
Webinar
Fatigue creates a serious safety risk for drivers. It’s one of the leading contributors to crashes in BC. Learn what your organization and employees can do to manage fatigue behind the wheel.
Webinar
A strong road safety culture is vital to the success of your road safety program. Learn what every person in your organization can do to help strengthen your culture and improve outcomes.
