Working Conditions, Job Strain, and Traffic Safety among Three Groups of Public Transport Drivers

Useche, Sergio A.; Ortíz, Viviola Gómez; Cendales, Boris; Alonso, Francisco · 2018 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1016/j.shaw.2018.01.003

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Summary

This study investigates the relationship between psychosocial work factors, specifically job strain, and the operational performance of professional public transport drivers. Motivated by the high economic and health costs associated with road accidents and the insufficient evidence linking the Job Demand-Control (JDC) model to driving performance, the research aims to examine how working conditions influence traffic safety. It further seeks to compare exposure to psychosocial risks across three distinct occupational groups: taxi drivers, city bus drivers, and interurban bus drivers. The researchers conducted a cross-sectional study involving a sample of 780 professional drivers from three transport companies in Bogotá, Colombia. The sample consisted of 448 city bus drivers, 195 taxi drivers, and 137 interurban bus drivers; women were excluded due to their underrepresentation in the sector. Participants completed the Colombian version of the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ), which measured six scales: support from supervisors, peer support, skill discretion, decision authority, psychological demands, and job insecurity. Job strain was calculated as the ratio of psychological demands to decision latitude. Additionally, participants provided sociodemographic data and reported the number of traffic accidents and penalties incurred in the preceding two years. Statistical analyses included correlation tests, hierarchical multiple linear regression to predict accidents, and one-way analysis of variance with post-hoc Tukey tests to compare groups. The results demonstrated significant associations between socio-labor variables and key performance indicators, including road traffic accidents and penalties. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that job strain significantly predicted the number of accidents suffered by drivers, even after controlling for demographic and work schedule variables. Furthermore, post-hoc analyses identified statistically significant differences among the three driver groups regarding perceived social support, job strain, and job insecurity. These findings indicate that different types of public transport drivers experience varying levels of psychosocial risk at work. The study concludes that work stress, particularly job strain, compromises the safety of professional drivers by negatively affecting their operational performance. The evidence supports a significant effect of job strain on driving outcomes, highlighting the importance of psychosocial factors in road safety. The observed differences in stress exposure among taxi, city bus, and interurban bus drivers suggest that occupational safety interventions should not be uniform but rather tailored to the specific working conditions and psychosocial risks inherent to each occupational group. This research fills a gap in the literature by providing empirical evidence linking the JDC model to driving performance across diverse professional driver populations.

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• stress driving
• shift work driving
• bus coach

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• Empirical Findings: physiological data
• Theoretical Contribution: theory or model