Motor carrier scheduling practices

NHTSA · 1999 · ROSA P / United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

Get this paper ↗ (full text — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

This document is an interim technical brief describing a research project initiated in September 1997 by the Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Motor Carrier and Highway Safety. The study aims to evaluate the role of motor carrier scheduling practices in interstate commercial motor vehicle (CMV) driver fatigue. The research is motivated by the need to understand operational scheduling requirements to improve government safety policies and regulations. Specifically, the study seeks to assess scheduling factors affecting driver fatigue and identify carrier practices that positively impact safety performance. The focus is on management processes and driving environments rather than existing hours-of-service regulations. The methodology follows a five-step process: model development, survey development, data collection, data analysis, and interpretation. Researchers conducted an extensive literature review, carrier site visits, and interviews with drivers, dispatchers, safety directors, and management. These efforts informed the development of the Commercial Motor Vehicle Driver Fatigue Model, which categorizes influencing factors into CMV driving environments (regularity of time, quality of rest, trip control), economic pressures (scheduling demands, driver and carrier factors), and support for driving safety. Focus groups identified unanticipated trip delays as a primary cause of fatigue and stress. Site visits to 13 CMV operators further validated these findings. Survey instruments were developed for truck and bus operators, with separate versions for drivers, dispatchers, safety directors, and top-level managers. These surveys underwent rigorous review, pre-testing, and approval by the Office of Management and Budget. The data collection phase involves randomly selecting 500 interstate motor carriers with existing safety performance data. Each participating company receives multiple surveys distributed among its personnel to allow for comparative analysis of perceptions and to determine response validity. The data analysis objectives include determining key factors influencing driver fatigue, defining typologies of driving environments, and identifying scheduling practices that affect safety. Following analysis, the project team will convene a symposium of experts to review findings and develop recommendations for scheduling best practices. The final report, incorporating symposium input, was scheduled for release in Fall 2000. The study is conducted by the Trucking Research Institute and Iowa State University in collaboration with the National Private Truck Council and Daecher Consulting Group. This interim update serves to inform stakeholders of the study's progress and methodology prior to the final publication.

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (8 acquisition events logged).

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-15; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• truck driver fatigue
• shift work driving
• bus coach
• hours of service