Exploring the occupational fatigue risk of short-haul truck drivers: Effects of sleep pattern, driving task, and time-on-task on driving behavior and eye-motion metrics

Field test for short-haul truck drivers was conducted to investigate the interaction effect of occupational fatigue factors on driving behavior and eye-motion metrics. Less than four hours of sleep between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. had the greatest impact on driver fatigue and correlated with the worst driving performance. Sleepiness is more uncovered during the inbound task due to the monotony and low workload of the driving process. Short-haul truck drivers who were sleep deprived exhibited short periods of protect driving behavior by exerting greater effort during the outbound task. The interaction of time-on-task and sleep pattern exacerbated driver fatigue more than the effects of any single factor alone. Applications include better fatigue management of short-haul truck drivers.