Brussels, Belgium: Nearly a third of truck drivers admitted falling asleep at the wheel while driving according to a new study by the European Transport Workers’ Federation.
The study is the first EU-wide investigation in 15 years on driver fatigue in passenger and freight road transport. Nearly 3.000 truck, bus and coach drivers in freight and passenger road transport responded to the ETF investigation.
Other highlights of the study include:
- 60% of truck drivers said they had to drive while fatigued on a regular basis
- 52% of truck drivers reported wanting to pull over and take a break when feeling tired, but being unable to
- 77% drivers (all types) said they nearly crashed and caused a major road accident due to driver fatigue
Authors of the study said: “While it is a well-known fact that driver fatigue poses a major risk to the road safety of all road users, measures taken among employers and at the European policy and legislative level to tackle this issue for professional drivers are insufficient.
“Long hours for low wages, unpredictable working time, virtually no real breaks, bad sleep and rest facilities, inadequately equipped vehicles, all while slaloming buses full of passengers and trucks filled to the brim with goods through heavy traffic.
“All this adds up to driver fatigue, endangering the safety of drivers and other road users, increasing the risk of accidents on EU roads.”
The ETF is calling for action from policy makers and employers:
- to guarantee fair wages – current extremely low wages force drivers to work longer hours to make a decent living
- to ensure that drivers are remunerated for all work-related tasks, which is not always the case
- to stop plans to make driving and rest time rules more flexible in freight and passenger transport
- to put eliminating driver fatigue at the core of the EU road safety strategies
- to ensure that professional drivers’ pay, working time and rest conditions are properly enforced
- to ensure that derogations from rules are done by the book, and not to permanently extend drivers’ hours, keep them away from home and worsen rest conditions.
