It's been a long-time coming, but what looks to be one of the most comprehensive and thoroughly researched tools to help with fatigue management has been launched.
Yesterday, the American Transportation Research Institute, along with government and industry partners, launched the North American Fatigue Management Program ( NAFMP), available online for easy access.
The American Trucking Associations' President and CEO Bill Graves applauded the launch. "ATA has long believed that looking holistically at alertness and fatigue management, rather than relying on a prescriptive Band-Aid approach provided by the current hours-of-service regulatory system, is the best way to address the complex issues of human alertness and fatigue."
It took 10 years of research and numerous testing, development and research phases before the program was ready for launch. ATRI worked with Transport Canada, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and numerous U.S. and Canadian-based trucking fleets. "This program is a great example of industry organizations and regulators stepping forward to identify, provide and promote real solutions to improving the safety of our nation's highways," Graves said.
All information is available online, and contains fatigue management modules developed for fleet executives, dispatchers, drivers and their families, safety managers, and even freight shippers and receivers.
For Graves, this is the way to tackle fatigue issues in the industry. "Last week, we saw yet another new set of even more prescriptive hours-of-service rules go into effect," he said. "Such rules originated in the 1930s and while their basis may represent the best thinking and analysis of that time, in light of the research and work that ATRI and others have done, it is clear that an hours-of-service approach is insufficient relative to the more progressive and comprehensive strategies laid out here to promote driver alertness."
