Citation

Orris P, Buchanan S, Smiley AM, Davis D, Dinges D, Bergoffen G. CTBSSP Synth. Ser. 2005; (9): 203p.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Transportation Research Board)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This synthesis will be useful to commercial vehicle operators, federal and state agencies, and others interested in improving commercial vehicle safety. The report provides a review of literature relevant to health and fatigue issues associated with commercial vehicle driver hours of service. This literature review was specifically requested by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to provide information related to their issuance of Hours of Service regulations in January 2004. Soon after the issuance of these regulations, a lawsuit was filed challenging the regulations. As a result of this lawsuit, a federal court ordered the new regulations to stay in effect while the FMCSA reviewed the regulations and presented its case in support of the regulations and/or prepared a new set of agreed upon Hours of Service regulations. To assist the FMCSA in conducting its review, the CTBSSP was asked to conduct a two-part literature review of relevant material. Part I contains a general literature review of the health and fatigue issues associated with commercial vehicle driver hours of service. For fatigue issues, the focus is on research that occurred after the Hours of Service regulations were published, as a literature review was performed to support these regulations. The literature review relating to health issues is more extensive, and covers studies conducted from 1975 to the present. Part II contains a literature review of references that were cited in response to a related FMCSA Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. In both Parts I and II, the literature reviews summarize the literature without drawing any conclusions as to how they specifically relate to the FMCSA Hours of Service regulations. Any conclusions in this area are left to the FMCSA and others.