Reversing Poor Safety Records: Identifying Best Practices to Improve Fleet Safety

Commercial motor vehicle safety is of utmost importance, as crashes involving commercial motor vehicles often result in significant property damage, injuries, fatalities, and financial loss for fleets. However, fleet managers are often unsure what strategies other fleets have used to successfully improve safety. To identify best practices, researchers completed case studies with nine commercial motor vehicle fleets that successfully improved their safety performance. A content analysis was performed, and the successful strategies were organized into the Haddon Matrix. Results showed that there was no one single strategy that fleets used to improve safety. Instead, fleets relied on a comprehensive approach focusing on pre-crash countermeasures, including addressing hiring practices, driver training, fleet safety culture, safety technologies, scheduling, and maintenance. However, an enhanced safety culture and advanced safety technology were identified as critical components to their safety improvement. Results from this study may help fleets understand what their peers have used to successfully improve safety and which strategies may not be as helpful.

Structural Equation Model of Work Situation and Work–Family Conflict on Depression and Work Engagement in Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) Drivers

The shortage and aging of drivers are not problems limited to the truck industry, but are common in the broader commercial motor vehicle (CMV) industry of Korea. This study investigates the relationships between work situation, work–family conflict, depression, and work engagement of taxi, bus, and truck drivers. We extracted 512 CMV drivers from the 5th Korea Working Conditions Survey. A structural equation model (SEM) was used to investigate the impact of a work situation or work–family conflict on depression and work engagement. Results showed that 38.9% of all respondents had symptoms of depression. In the SEM, a poor work situation (standardized path coefficient = 0.250) and work–family conflict (0.117) significantly affected depression. ‘Enough time’ and ‘feeling well’ were influential variables of work situation. ‘Responsibility’ and ‘concentration’ were influential variables of work–family conflict. Additionally, depression affected work engagement (0.524). ‘Vigor’ and ‘dedication’ were influential variables of work engagement. These results show that the relationships between work situation, work–family conflict, depression, and work engagement of CMV drivers are intricately linked.

Attitudes towards Safety Regulation and Job Satisfaction in Commercial Motor Vehicle Drivers

This paper presents a study about the relationship between attitudes toward safety regulations and job satisfaction among commercial motor vehicle operators in Chile. 318 truck drivers were recruited during 2012. Results show that the principal predictor of attitudes toward safety regulations is job satisfaction, after time driving in this occupation. These findings suggest that trust in work safety is relevant for a risky profession, as the studied.

Prevalence and clusters of modifiable cardiovascular disease risk factors among intra- city commercial motor vehicle drivers in a Nigerian metropolitan city

Background: Commercial motor vehicle drivers (CMVDs) have worst health profiles among different occupations, yet the presence of clusters of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in this group have not been described in a resource-limited setting.Objectives: The prevalence of CVD risk factors and the clusters among CMVDs was evaluated.Design: A cross-sectional descriptive study.Setting: Four motor parks in three local government areas of Ibadan city, Nigeria.Participants: Consented and conveniently sampled 152 intra-city CMVDs aged ≥ 18 years. Main outcome measures: Prevalence of CVD risk factors (hypertension, diabetes, high triglyceride, low HDLc, high waist-hip ratio, central obesity, physical inactivity, smoking, alcohol, and overweight/obesity) and their clusters were determined.Results: All participants were male from 20 – 77 years old. Most of the CMVDs were physically inactive (80, 52.6%), take alcohol (78, 51.3%), and few smokes (35, 12.4%). The prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, hypertriglyceridemia,obesity, and central obesity were 36.2%, 5.9%, 23.7%, 4.6%, and 5.3%, respectively. Four clusters of CVD risk factors in the CMVDs with the prevalence of 36.2%. 33.5%, 17.1% and 13.2% were identified with significant differences (p<0.05) in the risk factors.Conclusion: The prevalence of diabetes, obesity, central obesity, and smoking was low while the prevalence of hypertension and hypertriglyceridemia was moderate among the CMVDs, but the prevalence of alcohol intake and physical inactivity were high. Four distinct clusters of CVD risk factors were observed among the drivers.Keywords: Cardiovascular diseases, Risk factors, Motor vehicles, Commercial vehicle drivers, Nigeria.Funding: The study was self-funded.