Managing fatigue in occupational settings

This report reviews fatigue management programmes in occupational settings – a promising and burgeoning approach to driver fatigue. Although the causes of fatigue transcend the driver’s home and work life, occupational programmes can contain elements that both minimize fatigue risk due to work-time activity and help the employee manage fatigue outside work. Common components of programmes to date, which mostly target the occupational driver, are schedule management, education, and sleep disorder screening and treatment. To date few programmes monitor fitness-for-duty, use employee incentives, promote an open reporting culture, or use competency-based selection and recruitment as part of the ongoing fatigue management attempt. While many programmes and official guidelines are research-based, more robust and independent evaluations are needed to assess their effect on fatigue-related incidents and accidents. This is important because fatigue management as part of normal HSE activity of organisations has the potential to reduce fatigue-related accidents involving professional and private drivers alike.