Abstract:A critical review was conducted of social, psychological, and health science literature on the array of health risks and morbidities of truckers. Multilevel worksite-induced strains (e.g., long work hours and fatigue, shift work and sleep deprivation, postural fatigue and exposure to noise and vibration, sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy diet, exposure to diesel exhaust fumes, and other occupational stressors) were categorized into six primary morbidities for truckers: (1) psychological and psychiatric disorders; (2) detriments resulting from disrupted biological cycles; (3) musculoskeletal disorders; (4) cancer and respiratory morbidities; (5) cardiovascular disease; and (6) risk-laden substance use and sexual practices. Elevated morbidity risks suggest the need for the design and implementation of systematic epidemiological research and environmental interventions in the transport sector.
While other research has shown that higher paid truck and bus drivers are safer, this is the first study showing why higher paid drivers are safer. We estimate the labour supply curve for long-haul truck drivers in the United States, applying two-stage least squares regression to a national survey of truck drivers. We start with the standard model of the labour supply curve and then develop two novel extensions of it, incorporating pay level and pay method, and testing the target earnings hypothesis. We distinguish between long-haul and short-haul jobs driving commercial motor vehicles. Truck and bus drivers choose between long-distance jobs requiring very long hours of work away from home and short-distance jobs generally requiring fewer hours. The labour supply curve exhibits a classic backward bending shape, reflecting drivers’ preference to work until they reach target earnings. Above target earnings, at a ‘safe rate’ for truck drivers, they trade labour for leisure, working fewer hours, leading to greater highway safety. Drivers work fewer hours at a higher pay rate and likely have less fatigue. Pay rates also have implications for driver health because worker health deteriorates as working time exceeds 40 hours. JEL Codes: I14, J28, J33, J88, L92, M55
This paper explores the safety consequences of increasing truck driver pay. The test case the authors examine involves a large over-the-road truckload firm that on February 25, 1997, raised wages an average of 39.1%. An analysis that controls for demographic and operational factors, including prior driving experience and experience acquired on the job, suggests that for drivers employed during the lower pay regime and retained in the higher pay regime, crash incidence fell. A higher pay rate also led to lower separation probability, but this indirect effect only translated into fewer crashes by increasing the retention of older, more experienced drivers. These findings suggest that human capital characteristics are important predictors of driver safety, but that motivational and incentive factors also are influential. Trucking safety has become an increas ingly important transportation policy concern in recent years. This concern was heightened by sizeable increases in truck ing activity following economic deregula tion of the interstate trucking industry in 1980, deregulation of the intrastate truck ing industry in 1995, and the enactment of NAFTA (Wilson 2001). Despite growing awareness of the complexity of firms' oper ating environments and the stochastic na ture of crashes, studies of large truck safety
Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine how the transportation environment triggers, exacerbates and sustains truckers' risks for obesity and associated morbidities. Design/methodology/approach -An extensive literature review of PubMed Central and TRANSPORT databases was conducted on truckers' obesity risks and 120 journal articles were identified for closer evaluation. From these, populations, exposures, and relevant outcomes were evaluated within the framework of the broad transportation environment. Findings -Connections between the transportation environment and truckers' risks for obesityassociated comorbidities were delineated, and an original conceptual framework was developed to illustrate links between the two. This framework addresses links not only between the transportation environment and trucker obesity risks but also with other health strains -applicable to other transport occupational segments. Moreover, it provides direction for preliminary environmental-scale interventions to curb trucker obesity. The utilization of this framework further underscores the need for: an appraisal of the health parameters of trucking worksites; assessment of truckers' obesityrisk trajectories, and examination of potential causality between the transportation environment, inactivity and diet-related morbidities; and the development, implementation and evaluation of interventions to mitigate trucker obesity. While there is a geographic emphasis on North America, data and assertions of this paper are applicable to trucking sectors of many industrialized nations. Originality/value -The paper brings to light the influences of the transportation environment on trucker obesity-associated morbidity risks.
The role of human capital and occupational factors in influencing driver safety has gained increased attention from trucking firms and policy makers. The influence of these factors, along with demographic factors, on the crash frequency of truck drivers is examined. A unique driver-level data set from a large truckload company collected over 26 months was used for estimating regression models of crash counts. On the basis of estimates from a zero-inflation Poisson regression model, results suggest that human capital and occupational factors, such as pay, job tenure, and percentage of miles driven during winter months, have a significantly better explanatory power of crash frequency than demographic factors. Relative to the zero-inflation and count models, results suggest that higher pay rates and pay increases are related to lower expected crash counts and to a higher probability of no crashes, all else held equal. Although the data come from one company, the evidence provided is a first step in examining the structural causes of unsafe driving behavior, such as driver compensation. These results may motivate other companies to modify operations and driver hiring practices. Also, the need for a comprehensive study of the relationship between driver compensation and driver safety is demonstrated.
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