It’s no secret that truck drivers who are well-rested log more kilometers each day. Research suggests that drivers who get enough sleep drive about 10% more miles per week. This means a trucking fleet’s productivity will skyrocket, with benefits such as:
- On-time delivery performance is improved.
- There are fewer serious accidents.
- Retention rates that are higher
Sleep science is one of the most misunderstood topics in the trucking industry, but it’s also crucial when it comes to fleet utilization and driver productivity.
Half of a big truckload carrier’s driver population (n=1,765) was trained in the science of sleep during six-month research conducted by FleetRisk Advisors. They discovered the following:
- The number of accidents has decreased by 15%.
- The rate of serious accidents was 7.2 times lower.
- Drivers were 33% less likely to voluntarily quit their jobs.
Sleep-educated drivers also ran 10% more miles each tractor-week than the control group while remaining 100% compliant with hours of service requirements.
How can getting more sleep translate into more miles and money?
This is the equivalent of adding another 250 miles to a vehicle that travels 2,500 miles every week. With linehaul spot prices about $2.40/mile this week, it translates to an extra $600 in revenue every week — or around $30,000 per year. The education of drivers and dispatchers in the science of sleep and ensuring that drivers get the correct amount and quality of sleep is at the heart of these productivity benefits.
Summer is the perfect time to start your educational path, even though it may seem paradoxical. Summer is, in fact, one of the most challenging seasons of the year for accidents caused by lack of sleep. A lack of sleep causes more casualties, or to be more exact, a lack of sleep causes more accidents.
During July and August, the incidence of truckload accidents rises typically by roughly 12% over the previous three months in the spring and early summer.
Why are there more accidents in the summer?
We generally observe an increase in truck accidents as we work through the peak of summer, travel, and vacation. But it isn’t entirely because there are more people on the roadways.
Sunlight is one of the most undervalued components. In this case, there’s too much of it for this time of year. More sunlight, along with Daylight Saving Time, means more time to enjoy life after work. However, this implies that sleep is postponed in the evening.
The rising and lowering of the sun is the primary driver of the sleep-wake cycle. Melatonin, a hormone that governs our sleep-wake cycle, is created when the eyes get less light in the evening. This is an overly simplistic explanation of human physiology, but it does demonstrate how more daylight hours equate to fewer sleep hours.
Last winter, there were only nine hours of daylight in the day. The shortest day was December 21, when the sun rose at 8 a.m. and set about 5 p.m. in Omaha, NE, in the country’s middle. Their longest day, on the other hand, was six months later, on June 21. The sun rose just before 6 a.m. and set at 9 p.m., 15 hours later.
For 182 days, there will be six hours more daylight. ty(Research reveals that blue light has the most significant impact on the time of the circadian rhythm — the process that regulates our sleep-wake cycle — of all the colors in the visible light spectrum.) The driver may experience a six-hour delay in sleep onset if they do not utilize blue-light-blocking sunglasses and a darkened sleeper cab to fool the brain into thinking sunset has come earlier.
The timing of the sleep-wake cycle is determined by sunlight, regardless of how long a driver is on duty or what time of day they start working. In the summer, when sunset is later in the evening, research suggests that drivers who take a ten-hour break during the day get only 4.5 hours of sleep on average. In comparison, drivers get roughly 7.5 hours of high-quality sleep during 10-hour holidays at night.
Compared to their dayshift counterparts who sleep at night, truckers who sleep during the day get about 2.5 hours less sleep per day. And this is where prescriptive hours-of-service restrictions, which take a one-size-fits-all approach, present problems.
So, where do we go from here?
Brokers, carriers, and shippers should be asking how drivers are doing right now. Don’t presume the driver has gotten enough sleep because they had a 10-hour or more extended rest. In certain circumstances, none at all.
To get more high-quality sleep, drivers can follow these tips:
- If you plan to sleep in less than six hours, avoid caffeine-containing beverages after 3 p.m. or 3 a.m. Caffeine has a six-hour half-life and, depending on caffeine tolerance, might cause sleep disruption.
- 90-minute naps are recommended.
- Every seven days, try to get two nights of uninterrupted sleep. Count the number of sleep cycles (90 minutes) every 24-hours rather than the number of hours of sleep.
Drivers should strive for at least six hours of sleep or four sleep cycles each day, with carefully planned naps sprinkled throughout the day and week.
