Fatigue has been a problem in the trucking industry ever since its inception. Trucks drive 24 hours a day and whenever drivers have irregular schedules, the big challenge is fatigue. It’s a constant challenge that every trucking company should manage very carefully. I recently asked an audience of truck drivers how many had had a micro-nap while driving. 100% of the drivers put their hands up. That should give you an idea of how widespread the problem is.

Think of fatigue risk management systems as a part of safety management systems. But what you can’t do is look at fatigue with too broad a lens. There are many, many different types of fatigue. So you need to look systematically at all causes of fatigue. And if you do, you’ll definitely see benefits to your bottom line.

We’ve worked with companies to develop a comprehensive fatigue risk management program that have seen their accident rates drop by 75%, driver turnover reduced by half, health care costs by as much as $7,000 a year – so the benefits can be quite substantial. And this doesn’t even take into account the protection from punitive damages in litigation due to accidents.

The first thing a plaintiff’s attorney is going to ask for in discovery is your driver’s logs. If your company can show that their driver’s logs in order and they have an aggressive fatigue management program in place, then they’ve gone a long way towards showing the court that they’ve done everything in their power to limit the possibility of a driver working while fatigued. This, in turn, should limit damages in a negligence trial.