One third of lorry drivers report falling asleep at the wheel

Fatigue among professional drivers is now the norm on European roads, according to a new study by the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF), the first EU-wide study in 15 years on driver fatigue in passenger and freight road transport.

The report, based on a survey of around 3000 truck, bus and coach drivers found that:

• 60% of truck drivers and 66% of bus and coach drivers said they had to drive while fatigued on a regular basis;
• Nearly 800 drivers said they nearly crashed and caused a major road collision due to driver fatigue;
• Nearly 1/3 of truck drivers and 1/4 of coach drivers reported falling asleep at the wheel while driving
• 57% of bus and coach drivers and 52% of truck drivers reported wanting to pull over and take a break when feeling tired, but being unable to

The ETF is calling on policy makers and employers:

• to guarantee fair wages;
• to ensure that drivers are remunerated for all work-related tasks;
• to stop plans to make driving and rest time rules more flexible in freight and passenger transport;
• to put eliminating driver fatigue at the core of the EU road safety strategy;
• to ensure that professional drivers’ pay, working time and rest conditions are properly enforced;
• to ensure that derogations from rules are done ‘by the book’, and not to permanently extend driver hours.