CVSA adopts North American Fatigue Management Program

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance has adopted the North American Fatigue Management Program.

CVSA was tasked by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to manage the program, which is aimed at “preventing fatigue-related risks and crashes.”

“Our goal at CVSA is to prevent crashes involving commercial motor vehicles,” CVSA President and South Dakota Highway Patrol Capt. John Broers said in a news release. “Offering the North American Fatigue Management Program as one of the Alliance’s driver-related educational programs helps us do our part to combat crashes caused by driver fatigue and exhaustion.”

According to the CVSA news release, the North American Fatigue Management Program was developed by medical and sleep scientists from Canada and the United States through a multiyear, four-phase process.

The program aims to prevent driver fatigue and eliminate fatigue-related crashes by:

• Offering easy-to-access online fatigue prevention training and education to commercial motor vehicle drivers, motor carrier executives and managers, freight shippers and receivers, dispatchers, driver managers, driver’s spouses and families, safety managers and trainers, etc.
• Encouraging a motor carrier safety culture that proactively considers situations that may continue to driver fatigue and fights to prevent it.
• Identifying sleep disorders and treatment options.
• Utilizing driver fatigue management technologies.

“FMCSA is excited for this additional opportunity to partner with CVSA to address driver fatigue,” Meera Joshi, the agency’s acting administrator, said in a news release. “FMCSA has supported the (North American Fatigue Management Program) since its inception and looks forward to CVSA continuing to provide this important program to educate the motor carrier industry on driver fatigue.”

According to studies cited by the North American Fatigue Management Program, a simulation found that drivers who were awake for 18 hours decreased their driving performance comparable to someone with a 0.05 blood-alcohol concentration, which is more than the legal limit for commercial drivers.

The program’s implementation manual can be found here.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association is a member of CVSA. Representatives from the Association have been closely watching the development of this program.

“We’re being told this program is for training purposes only and not for enforcement purposes,” OOIDA Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh said. “However, we will be keeping a close on it as the program is implemented.”

2019 Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts

The latest statistics released by the FMCSA show that truck driver fatigue is listed as being a factor in only 1.4% of the fatal crashes.

The OOIDA Foundation says the concept of fatigue is frequently misunderstood. In 2018, the OOIDA Foundation published a white paper titled, “The Truth About Fatigue.” LL