Working Conditions, Job Strain, and Traffic Safety among Three Groups of Public Transport Drivers

Abstract

BackgroundWorking conditions and psychosocial work factors have acquired an important role explaining the well-being and performance of professional drivers, including those working in the field of public transport. This study aimed to examine the association between job strain and the operational performance of public transport drivers and to compare the expositions with psychosocial risk at work of three different types of transport workers: taxi drivers, city bus drivers, and interurban bus drivers.MethodA sample of 780 professional drivers was drawn from three transport companies in Bogota (Colombia). The participants answered the Job Content Questionnaire and a set of sociodemographic and driving performance questions, including age, professional driving experience, work schedules, and accidents and penalties suffered in the last 2 years.ResultsAnalyses showed significant associations between measures of socio-labor variables and key performance indicators such road traffic accidents and penalties. Furthermore, multiple linear regression analysis contributed to explain significantly suffered accidents from key variables of the Job Demand-Control model, essentially from job strain. In addition, throughout post-hoc analyses, significant differences were found in terms of perceived social support, job strain, and job insecurity.ConclusionWork stress is an issue that compromises the safety of professional drivers. This research provides evidence supporting a significant effect of job strain on the professional driver's performance. Moreover, the statistically significant differences between taxi drivers, city bus drivers, and interurban bus drivers in their expositions to work-related stress suggest the need for tailored occupational safety interventions on each occupational group.

Associations between daily‐on‐the job hassles with perceived mental exertion and depression symptoms in taxi drivers

“…Job strain, iso‐strain and ERI are measures commonly used to evaluate psychosocial work factors. In one study of 195 taxi drivers from Bogota, Columbia, the mean job strain ratio for taxi drivers was 0.68 (±0.20), which was lower than city bus drivers and intercity bus drivers . In a prior analysis of psychosocial factors and low back pain using our sample of taxi drivers, job strain, iso‐strain and ERI were not associated with low back pain; the mean job strain ratio was 0.49 (±0.15).…”

“…In this study, perceived mental exertion and depression symptoms were found to be associated with job strain, iso‐strain, and ERI. Similarly, job strain was found to be significantly associated with depression in professional drivers, including taxi drivers, in Columbia . Persistent job demands were also explored by Evans both in focus groups (qualitative) and descriptive (quantitative) studies, using the JCQ, in Australian taxi drivers.…”

Job strain in public transport drivers: Data to assess the relationship between demand-control model indicators, traffic accidents and sanctions

“…The data contains 4 parts: descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations between the study variables, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Post-Hoc comparisons between drivers classified different quadrants of the JDC model. For further information, it is convenient to read the full article entitled “ Working conditions, job strain and traffic safety among three groups of public transport drivers ”, published in Safety and Health at Work (SHAW) [1] (Useche et al, 2018).…”

Relationships between Body Mass Index and Self-Reported Motorcycle Crashes in Vietnam

“…However, it can be argued that motorcycle taxi drivers working night shift tended to deal with a much less stressful environment with fewer conflicts and lighter traffic flow. The impact of work-related stress on traffic safety outcomes was evident in previous research [34]. Furthermore, street lighting is generally adequate in Hanoi's urban areas.…”

“…An understanding of associations between BMI and crashes among motorcycle taxi drivers will have important implications for the occupational health and safety of these taxi-riders as well as health and safety of the general road users. While occupational health and safety of professional drivers have been the subjects of a growing body of literature [2,[31][32][33][34], there is a lack of research examining associations between BMI and crashes, particularly injury crashes, among motorcycle taxi drivers, as discussed above.…”