An Educational Intervention to Promote Safe Driving

An Educational Intervention to Promote Safe and Economic Truck Driving

The general aim of the study is to promote safe, economic, and environmental-friendly driving among long-haul truck drivers. To do this, the investigators will conduct an on-road study on i) the relationship of driver sleepiness and stress with driving behaviour and fuel consumption and ii) effectiveness of an educational intervention in mitigating sleepiness at the wheel. The educational intervention is designed to be employed by occupational health care professionals in the future. This solution clearly facilitates the implementation of the intervention into practice if it turns out to be effective.

The investigators specified research questions are the following:

• Do truck driver sleepiness and stress at the wheel reach levels that affect driving behaviour, fuel consumption and carbon emissions?
• What are the sources of sub-optimal arousal at the wheel in truck drivers?
• Can truck driver sleepiness be mitigated by an educational intervention, and if yes, does it improve driving behaviour and decrease fuel consumption and carbon emissions as well?

Inclusion Criteria:

• working as a truck driver at the moment of the study
• having both day and night trips
• having at least 2 years of experience in truck driving

Exclusion Criteria:

• not fluent in Finnish (the intervention is in Finnish)