Using New Technologies to Evaluate Existing Heavy Vehicle Driver Fatigue Laws

The presentation describes a NTC and Alertness CRC project to scientifically evaluate fatigue provisions in the Heavy Vehicle National Law. The two-year research project has an allocated $1 million budget, principally funded by the Commonwealth Government. The research is naturalistic and laboratory-based, utilising alertness monitoring and actigraphy devices to measure alertness and sleep quantity and quality of drivers undertaking maximum hours of work and minimum hours of rest. The presentation focuses on the challenges of evaluating in a laboratory setting the fatigue impact of so-called “nose-to-tail schedules” (whereby a driver works two 12-hour shifts with a seven hour rest break).