Threats and violence towards urban bus drivers in Sweden': Drivers experiences and general recommendations to prevent violence and threats.

BACKGROUND: Approximately 30% of Swedish urban bus drivers report having been exposed to threats or violence. As 50% of drivers have voiced concerns about the occurrences, threats and violence also represent contributing factors to driver stress and fatigue. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to explore bus drivers' experience of threats and violence; how threats and violence manifests and how the problem is handled by drivers. Gaining understanding of the circumstances is important to reduce the number of threats and violent incidents to provide healthy and attractive working conditions for drivers. METHODS: This study is based on in-depth interviews with 12 urban bus drivers in the City of Malmö in Sweden. RESULTS: Urban bus drivers experience threats daily from passengers, although physical violence occurs less often. The most common situations resulting in threats involve asking passengers to show valid tickets, denying child carriages onboard and running late to a bus stop. The drivers have not received clear guidelines as to strategic handling of the invalid ticket situation. CONCLUSIONS: Recommendations include a clear policy and consensus with regard to handling invalid tickets, providing drivers with guidelines for appropriate procedures for passengers refusing to pay, improving reporting routines and establishing a strategy for the Public Transportation provider and operator to follow with regard to reports, in-vehicle surveillance cameras including informing passengers that they are being video recorded as well as harmonizing the location of alarm buttons on buses.

An on-road study of sleepiness in split shifts among city bus drivers.

Bus drivers often work irregular hours or split shifts and their work involves high levels of stress. These factors can lead to severe sleepiness and dangerous driving. This study examined how split shift working affects sleepiness and performance during afternoon driving. An experiment was conducted on a real road with a specially equipped regular bus driven by professional bus drivers. The study had a within-subject design and involved 18 professional bus drivers (9 males and 9 females) who drove on two afternoons; one on a day in which they had driven early in the morning (split shift situation) and one on a day when they had been off duty until the test (afternoon shift situation). The hypothesis tested was that split shifts contribute to sleepiness during afternoon, which can increase the safety risks. The overall results supported this hypothesis. In total, five of the 18 drivers reached levels of severe sleepiness (Karolinska Sleepiness Scale ≥8) with an average increase in KSS of 1.94 when driving in the afternoon after working a morning shift compared with being off duty in the morning. This increase corresponded to differences observed between shift workers starting and ending a night shift. The Psychomotor Vigilance Task showed significantly increased response time with split shift working (afternoon: 0.337s; split shift 0.347s), as did the EEG-based Karolinska Drowsiness Score mean/max. Blink duration also increased, although the difference was not significant. One driver fell asleep during the drive. In addition, 12 of the 18 bus drivers reported that in their daily work they have to fight to stay awake while driving at least 2-4 times per month. While there were strong individual differences, the study clearly showed that shift-working bus drivers struggle to stay awake and thus countermeasures are needed in order to guarantee safe driving with split shift schedules.

Split-shift work in relation to stress, health and psychosocial work factors among bus drivers.

BACKGROUND: Shift work has been associated with poor health, sleep and fatigue problems and low satisfaction with working hours. However, one type of shift working, namely split shifts, have received little attention. OBJECTIVE: This study examined stress, health and psychosocial aspects of split-shift schedules among bus drivers in urban transport. METHODS: A questionnaire was distributed to drivers working more than 70% of full time which 235 drivers in total answered. RESULTS: In general, drivers working split-shift schedules (n = 146) did not differ from drivers not working such shifts (n = 83) as regards any of the outcome variables that were studied. However, when individual perceptions towards split-shift schedules were taken into account, a different picture appeared. Bus drivers who reported problems working split shifts (36%) reported poorer health, higher perceived stress, working hours interfering with social life, lower sleep quality, more persistent fatigue and lower general work satisfaction than those who did not view split shifts as a problem. Moreover, drivers who reported problems with split shifts also perceived lower possibilities to influence working hours, indicating lower work time control. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that split shifts were not associated with increased stress, poorer health and adverse psychosocial work factors for the entire study sample. However, the results showed that individual differences were important and approximately one third of the drivers reported problems with split shifts, which in turn was associated with stress, poor health and negative psychosocial work conditions. More research is needed to understand the individual and organizational determinants of tolerance to split shifts.

Factors associated with self-reported driver sleepiness and incidents in city bus drivers.

Driver fatigue has received increased attention during recent years and is now considered to be a major contributor to approximately 15-30% of all crashes. However, little is known about fatigue in city bus drivers. It is hypothesized that city bus drivers suffer from sleepiness, which is due to a combination of working conditions, lack of health and reduced sleep quantity and quality. The overall aim with the current study is to investigate if severe driver sleepiness, as indicated by subjective reports of having to fight sleep while driving, is a problem for city based bus drivers in Sweden and if so, to identify the determinants related to working conditions, health and sleep which contribute towards this. The results indicate that driver sleepiness is a problem for city bus drivers, with 19% having to fight to stay awake while driving the bus 2-3 times each week or more and nearly half experiencing this at least 2-4 times per month. In conclusion, severe sleepiness, as indicated by having to fight sleep during driving, was common among the city bus drivers. Severe sleepiness correlated with fatigue related safety risks, such as near crashes.

Stakeholders' opinions on a future in-vehicle alcohol detection system for prevention of drunk driving.

INTRODUCTION: There is a common understanding that driving under the influence of alcohol is associated with higher risk of being involved in crashes with injuries and possible fatalities as the outcome. Various countermeasures have therefore from time to time been taken by the authorities to prevent drunk driving. One of them has been the alcohol interlock. Up to now, interlocks have mainly been used by previously convicted drunk drivers and in the commercial road transport sector, but not in private cars. OBJECTIVE AND METHOD: New technology has today reached a level where broader implementation might be possible. To our knowledge, however, little is known about different stakeholders' opinions of a broader implementation of such systems. In order to increase that knowledge, we conducted a focus group study to collect in-depth thoughts from different stakeholders on this topic. Eight focus groups representing a broad societal span were recruited and conducted for the purpose. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The results show that most stakeholders thought that an integrated system for alcohol detection in vehicles might be beneficial in lowering the number of drunk driving crashes. They said that the system would probably mainly prevent driving by people who unintentionally and unknowingly drive under the influence of alcohol. The groups did, however, not regard the system as a final solution to the drunk driving problem, and believed that certain groups, such as criminals and alcoholics, would most likely find a way around the system. Concerns were raised about the risk of increased sleepy driving and driving just under the legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit. The results also indicate that stakeholders preferred a system that provides information on the BAC up to the legal limit, but not for levels above the limit; for those, the system should simply prevent the car from starting. Acceptance of the system depended on the reliability of the system, on its ability to perform fast sampling, and on the analytical process, as well as the system's more or less inconspicuous placement and user-friendliness. The stakeholders thought that drivers would probably not voluntarily demand the system. So if broad implementation was desired, it would have to be made compulsory by legislation. As an incentive to increase demand, lower taxes and insurance premiums were suggested.