Like the mother whose little Jimmy causes her to wonder just how he learned all his nasty habits, government agencies, safety professionals and scientists think long and hard about why drivers behave the way they do.
The range of driver behavior being studied by experts generally falls into the category of driving and safety. Most recently, lifestyle patterns of eating, smoking, sleeping and stress management are also being studied.
Few studies focus on safe, healthy behavior. The most current trend is the research being done to see the longstanding problems in trucking as sociological or cultural problems. It is felt that solutions may come in the form of changing the culture of trucking. To the extent that truckers are citizens of this culture their behavior is a source of both the problems and solutions. To make positive changes in the culture there must be positive changes in the behavior of citizens; to make positive changes in the lives of citizens there must be changes in the culture. While one might wish drivers could be seen as role models, particularly for other drivers, research continues to focus on the negative.
Simply put, “Behavior is an observable act,” according to Larry Russell, manager of internal consulting at Behavioral Science Technology in Ojai, Calif. There are millions of observable behaviors, he says. Everything we do is a behavior. When scientists look at behavior, they chop it up into little segments for study. At BST the focus is on identifying what Russell calls “the critical few at-risk behaviors.” Russell says the term “at-risk” is used rather than “unsafe” because the word “unsafe” implies blame, and according to Russell, “A driver can have risk without causing it.” For instance, a driver can be involved in a crash without having caused an accident.
Nevertheless, the behavior of professional drivers is under constant scrutiny. It is under such intense study “because of the high mileage exposure of trucks and the oftentimes severe consequences of crashes,” according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Truckers who complain that all laws and law enforcement are directed at them often quote statistics showing that crash involvement is more often caused by the behavior of car drivers. While this is true, those who want to understand behavior as a means of making highways safer will continue to focus on trucks since “Total life cycle crash costs are more than four times greater for a combination-unit truck than for a passenger car,” according to FMCSA.
The first thing a professional driver must understand about his behavior is that it will continue to be the object of study, of enforcement and of the public’s opinion. Whatever a truck driver does, from calling himself “a stupid truck driver” to engaging in serious at-risk behavior on the highway, from maintaining personal hygiene to competing in the National Truck Driving Championships, makes a difference in the way trucking is seen by the rest of the country. Truck drivers are constantly in the public eye.
Given the research shift to a broader cultural focus, one might expect the definition of at-risk behavior to broaden also. Under this broader focus, at-risk behaviors might include poor dietary choices, chronic and acute fatigue, and an unwillingness to learn about stress, as well as behind-the-wheel behaviors like inattention, speeding and tailgating. This effort is only beginning. Recent reports in the trade press as well as in mainstream periodicals verify the need for this approach. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that truck driving is one of the most dangerous occupations. Certainly the American highway sees more fatalities than any other worksite. And there is educated speculation among many researchers that truck drivers face a life span 15 years shorter than the national average for males.
