Aberrant Driving Behaviour, Risk Involvement, and Their Related Factors Among Taxi Drivers

Abstract

The current study aims to investigate the aberrant driving behaviour and risk involvement of Iranian taxi drivers. The sample comprised 405 Iranian taxi drivers, who were recruited with a cross-sectional design, using a self-completion questionnaire survey during October and November 2016. We contribute to the literature by understanding how and to what extent the socioeconomic, demographic, driving, and aberrant driving behaviours influence risk involvement (accident involvement and traffic tickets). The validated 27-item Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ) was applied to measure aberrant driving behaviour. The results from valid observations (n = 381) explored a four-factor solution (including errors, ordinary violations, lapses, and aggressive violations) of the DBQ. The results also showed that being a single driver, having a high annual driving mileage, and a high number of daily taxi trips were positively associated with accident involvement. Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between the more ordinary violations and aggressive violations and accident involvement. Establishing better training and qualification mechanisms for taxi drivers could be considered by traffic safety experts in order to reduce ordinary and aggressive violations.

The Influence of Organizational Factors on Road Transport Safety

“…As hypothesized (Hypothesis 1) findings supported the relationship between organizational learning and the occurrence of traffic accidents. These findings are consistent with sociotechnical approaches that emphasize the relevance of the organizational factors and its influence on safety [ 4 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Moreover, it is also congruent with previous research conducted in other complex systems (e.g., healthcare or construction) that suggest that organizational learning benefits safety [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ].…”

“…This study has a number of theoretical implications. Findings supported theoretical postulates on the need to take into account organizational factors such as organizational learning to better understand road safety [ 6 , 7 , 8 ]. In this sense, it encourages future studies to move toward more complex models of traffic accident occurrence in road transport organizations.…”

“…It implies that all the relevant actors must be taken into account. Moreover, reductionist approaches that attempt to understand traffic accidents and their causes based merely on local factors at the sharp end of system operation such as drivers’ behavior [ 6 , 7 ] are no longer valid [ 8 ]. The social environment in a broad sense (e.g., governmental policies and regulations, market economic and production pressures…) and organizational factors (e.g., organizational processes, human resources management policies…) must be taken into account to better understand safety in complex systems [ 9 ].…”

Predicting personal injury crash risk through working conditions, job strain, and risky driving behaviors among taxi drivers

“…81% of taxi drivers in Ankara, Turkey reported talking by using hand-held phone while driving [26]. On the other hand, many previous studies reported in the literature show that professional driver's crash involvement is significantly related to the sociodemographic factors, working conditions or risky driving behaviors [10,15,[27][28][29]; therefore, the proposed quantitative approach using all these possible contributory factors can be used to examine the potential crash risk for professional drivers (i.e., taxi, bus, coach, truck) in China, European countries and other areas in the world [15,30]. The findings of this study provide valuable data with important implications for worldwide decision-making in public health policy and traffic regulation for professional drivers.…”

Dimensions of aberrant driving behaviors and their association with road traffic injuries among drivers

“…A score higher than mean value indicated the highest driver errors and violations in driving behaviors. The validity of the DBQ has been validated in numerous studies conducted in Iran [26][27][28].…”