Page 1 of 26

Effects of driver sleepiness and fatigue on violations among truck drivers

in India

Recommended Citation
Mahajan, K., Velaga, N.R., Kumar, A., Choudhary, P., 2019. “Effects of driver sleepiness and
fatigue on violations among truck drivers in India”. Int. J. Inj. Contr. Saf. Promot. 1–11.
[Link]

Kirti Mahajan
Research student, Transportation Systems Engineering,
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay
Powai, Mumbai-400 076, India
E-mail: [Link]@[Link]

Nagendra R Velaga (Corresponding Author)

Associate Professor, Transportation Systems Engineering,
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay
Powai, Mumbai-400 076, India
Tel: +91-22-2576-7341; E-mail: [Link]@[Link]; velaga@[Link]

Akhilesh Kumar
Assistant Professor, Industrial and Systems Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, Kharagpur India - 721302
E-mail: akumar@[Link]

Pushpa Choudhary
Research student, Transportation Systems Engineering,
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay
Powai, Mumbai-400 076, India
E-mail: pushpa11choudhary@[Link]

Word Count: 5414 words + 5 tables + 3 figures

Page 2 of 26

Effects of driver sleepiness and fatigue on violations among truck drivers

in India

ABSTRACT
This study aims at capturing the influence of driver drowsiness on prevalence of traffic violations
among long-haul truck drivers. The study is based on a roadside survey of 453 long-haul truck
drivers, stopping at eateries and rest locations on highways connected to three Indian cities-
Mumbai, Indore and Nagpur. The survey questionnaire was categorized into three sections:
driver demographics, work-rest schedules and safety critical driver behavior (violations and
lapses) in the last five years. The questions regarding unsafe driving practices like speeding,
overtaking were combined to form a single factor ‘violations’ using Principal Component
Analysis (PCA). A generalized linear model using negative binomial regression predicted young
drivers (aged below 25 years), long working hours, insufficient sleeping hours, driving after mid-
night, sleepiness on the wheel and frequent traffic violations as significant contributors of
violations among the long-haul truck drivers.
Keywords: fatigue; sleepiness; traffic violations; truck drivers; India; negative binomial; factor
analysis.

INTRODUCTION
Trucks contribute to the large proportion of fatalities due to road crashes in India (Mohan,
Tiwari, & Bhalla, 2015). Heavy vehicle crashes involve high economic costs and relatively
greater injury severity compared to smaller vehicles (such as passenger cars). Thus, there are
continuous efforts to improve the safety of commercial vehicles around the world (Blower,
Green, & Matteson, 2010; Cantor, Corsi, Grimm, & Ozpolat, 2010; Guang X. Chen et al., 2015;
Häkkänen & Summala, 2001; C. Tseng, Yeh, Tseng, Liu, & Lee, 2016). Human error due to
inattention, violations and sleepiness is a major factor responsible for more than 90% road traffic
injuries worldwide (NHTSA, 2011; The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA),
2017). Atombo et al. (2016) state that the condition of traffic safety is far worse in developing
countries due to lack of understanding of contributing factors to crashes. 65% of the total freight
transportation is carried by Indian trucks(Asian Institute of Transport Development (AITD),
2015). Indian truck drivers travel an average of 250-300km/day at low speeds of 20-40km/h
given poor conditions of Indian roads (Medvedev et al., 2014). This results in long continuous
hours of driving and insufficient rest. National AIDS Control Organization (2006) report
recorded 3-3.5 million long-haul truckers in India (helper and drivers assumed in equal
proportion). According to the report by National Crime Record Bureau of India, 19.4% of road
accident fatalities involved commercial trucks (National Crime Records Bureau, 2015). A cause-
wise analysis in this report revealed that about 41% fatalities were due to traffic violations like
over-speeding and another 32% were owed to inattention, careless-driving or risky driving.
Reason et al. (1990) defined ‘violations’ as the deviations from required safe operations while
driving on the road. Inattention, fatigue and violating behaviors have been largely found to be
associated with safety-critical incidences among truck drivers (Moghaddam et al., 2017; Reason
et al., 1990; Sullman, Meadows, & Pajo, 2002).
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Reduced cognitive efficiency is one of significant factor influencing the accidents due to
violations among drivers (Reason et al., 1990). The driving habits like working long hours,
insufficient sleep, lead to attentional lapses due to fatigue which is defined as loss of mental and
physical alertness. Current study follows the definition of lapses and violations as per standard
and validated Driver Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ), frequently used in previous studies
(Atombo et al., 2016; Bener, Crundall, Haigney, Bensiali, & Al-Falasi, 2007; Mohamed & Lotfi,
2016; Oppenheim et al., 2016; Reason et al., 1990; Stephens & Fitzharris, 2016; Sullman et al.,
2002; Useche et al., 2017, 2017; Williamson et al., 2011). Fatigue due to work strain among
drivers causes reduction in cognitive efficiency which is one of the possible reasons for risky
driving behavior (Useche et al., 2017). Chen et al. (2015) and Mahajan et al. (2019) reported that Formatted: Not Highlight
despite the existing hours of service rules, noncompliance of drivers with the restricted working Formatted: Not Highlight
hours and hence compromising their rest requirements is one of the significant safety issues.
According to Lemke et al. (2016), nearly half of the truck drivers in their study mentioned that
sleepiness impacts their performance and concentration at least once a week while driving. Tseng
et al. (2016) found that drivers’ poor sleep quality and night-time driving were signifiacntly
linked with speeding offences among large-truck drivers. Therefore, this study hypothesizes that
such factors namely insufficient rest or symptoms of fatigue and sleepiness on the wheel causing
accidents and risky driving behavior may also be related with violations. There are different
types of violations, standard Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ) classified them as- Formatted: Default Paragraph Font
unintentional, deliberate, aggressive etc. (Cordazzo et al., 2016; Reason et al., 1990). A few
violations such as driving under the influence of alcohol are known to cause fatigue and signs of
drowsiness among drivers (Mahajan et al., 2019; Tzamalouka, Papadakaki, & Chliaoutakis, Field Code Changed
2005) on the other hand, other violations might be unintentional or influenced by driver
alertness. For instance, scheduled arrival windows might lead to time pressure and fatigue among
the commercial drivers (Nævestad, Phillips, & Elvebakk, 2015; Vardaman, Gondo, & Allen,
2014) and can motivate drivers to adopt risky driving practices such as ignoring traffic lights,
speeding over limits etc.
There are different factors that motivate the traffic violating behavior among drivers (Atombo et Formatted: Space After: 0 pt, Tab stops: 14.9 cm, Left
al., 2016). For instance, Atombo et al. (2016) found that smooth road surface is an important
motivational factor associated with the overtaking violation. Income and economic status
determined the rate of involvement in speeding offences and seat-belt violations (Di Milia et al.,
2011; Mahajan et al., 2019; Shinar, 1993; Shinar, Schechtman, & Compton, 2001). Similarly the
motivational factors for the truck drivers may be related with financial outcomes. The working
hours of drivers may get influenced if they are provided payment and incentives based on the
duration or length of trips (Mahajan et al., 2019). Time windows to complete a trip or
productivity driven incentives induce wok strain causing erroneous and risky driving (Vardaman
et al., 2014). Thus, the economic factors such as payment and incentives may influence the
driving performance of commercial vehicle drivers (Thompson, Newnam, & Stevenson, 2015;
Thompson & Stevenson, 2014; Williamson & Friswell, 2013). The regulations to curb traffic
violations such as maintaining a log-book in compliance with Hours of Service (HOS) rules,
mandatory education, following speed limits etc. are not very stringent in India (Urie, Velaga, &
Maji, 2016). Alver et al. (2014) found that crash rate increases for repetitive offenders. Formatted: Font: 12 pt
Therefore, inefficiency of the existing legislations in curbing violations might even lead to Formatted: Font: 12 pt
repetitive traffic offences among drivers. Further, as per previous studies fatigue and drowsiness
can impair the cognitive abilities of long haul truck drivers and persistence of such conditions
might result in repetitive driving errors and violations.
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Erroneous or risky driving practices such as violations are influenced by the different
demographic factors like age, gender, education, experience etc. Young and novice drivers are
associated with frequent instances of traffic violations (Møller & Haustein, 2014; Newnam,
Mamo, & Tulu, 2014; G. Zhang, Yau, & Chen, 2013). Moller and Haustein (2014) reported in
their study that younger drivers (aged between 18 and 28) are easily influenced by the peer
pressure and hence commonly tend to involve in risky driving practices like over-speeding,
overtaking etc. On the contrary, Chevalier et al. (2016) found that older drivers report less
involvement in violations like speeding or risky overtaking maneuvers unless they are well
acquainted or ‘experienced’ with the route. However, the role of experience in this study was
found to be opposite to the common notion of associating higher experience with safer driving
practices. Few other studies have also reported experienced drivers to be frequent violators of
traffic rules (Oppenheim et al., 2016; C. Tseng et al., 2016; G. Zhang et al., 2013). Interestingly,
Rosenbloom & Perlman (2016) found that drivers with passengers avoided traffic violations
irrespective of age or experience. Newnam et al. (2014) conducted a study in Ethiopia and found
that older and more educated drivers relied on their belief in God for their safety leading to
prevalence of unsafe driving practices. This study also specified that adequate education level,
however, helped the young drivers to understand modern safety training programs which led
them to drive cautiously. Based on the positive impact of education on driving behavior
illustrated in literature, this study might provide evidence for Central Motor Vehicles Act (1989) Formatted: Not Highlight
that mandates Indian truck drivers to have minimum qualification to acquire a truck driving Formatted: Not Highlight
license. However, violation of this rule is also common among Indian truck drivers (Mahajan et Formatted: Not Highlight
al., 2019). A few other studies found that higher education among drivers led to more unlawful Formatted: Not Highlight
practices such as avoiding seat belts, over-speeding etc. (Hemenway & Solnick, 1993; Shinar et Formatted: Not Highlight
al., 2001). Contrary to which Tseng et al. (2016) reported that higher educated truck drivers
reported less engagement in speeding offences. It is also possible that other confounding factors
such as driver income level or type of violation considered in these studies might be responsible
for exhibiting such ambiguous nature of relationship between education and violations. For
instance, highly educated drivers with high income were found frequent perpetrators of speeding
rules in a study by Hemenway & Solnick (1993) while Shinar (1993) found that seat belt use is
higher among highly educated drivers with high socio-economic background. The incoherent
findings above suggest that the role of education levels in influencing the violating behavior by
the drivers still needs to be addressed. Therefore, the current study has tried to examine the role
of education in predicting violating behavior among Indian truck drivers.
Different analysis techniques have been employed in the previous studies to study safety risks
associated with violations and its predictors. Table 1 presents a comprehensive view of previous
studies using different analysis techniques for studying fatigue and violations specifically among
truck drivers. Table 1 also emphasizes that very few studies have been conducted in developing
countries such as India. As listed in Table 1, various studies have employed different forms of
driving behavior questionnaires to study the simple and aggressive violations committed by the
truck drivers (Mohamed & Lotfi, 2016; Reason et al., 1990; G. Zhang et al., 2013). The current
study has considered the violations as per driver behavior questionnaire relevant in context of
Indian truck drivers. Many studies have taken ‘accidents due to violations’ as the dependent
variable to quantify or measure road safety, which is a count variable and modeled it using
Generalized Linear Models (GLM) (refer Table1). However, the current study is focused on
finding the safety risks measured in terms of rate of violations or risky driving practices among
truck drivers as a result of sleepiness and fatigue. Therefore, the score of the prevalence of
Page 5 of 26

violations over the last five years was taken as the dependent variable in the study to model the
predictors of violations among long-haul truck drivers in India.
Research Motivation and Objectives:
Long-haul truck drivers spend more time behind the wheel as compared to other drivers, and
therefore, it becomes necessary to study the safety risks such as traffic rules violations and
fatigue (Häkkänen & Summala, 2001). The above literature suggests the contribution of different
factors such as driver age, education and socio-economic background have been extensively
focused in previous research related to violations specifically among car drivers (Bener et al.,
2007; Poirier, Blais, & Faubert, 2018; Shinar, 1993; Shinar et al., 2001). Further, there are
additional risk factors prevalent among Indian truck drivers such as extended working hours and
inadequate rest that can cause driver fatigue and impair cognitive skills. Therefore, it is important
to learn the effects of these factors on rate of committing violations among truck drivers.
Consequently, the current study was aimed at finding the influence of various factors associated
with driver fatigue and drowsiness such as age, education, experience, work-rest patterns
(duration of working, sleeping, time of driving etc.), economic factors (payment based on trips)
which might influence the rate of violations among truck drivers.

METHODS
Data collection
Data for this study was collected through face-to-face interviews with 453 truck drivers on Formatted: Normal
freight routes connecting to three Indian cities (Mumbai, Nagpur, and Indore). All the drivers
who stopped at roadside eateries, rest locations and intermediate destinations located along the
major freight corridors in outer regions of the cities were approached to participate in the study.
Following driver’s consent to participate, the survey was conducted with all the drivers holding
valid commercial vehicle driving license and were long-haul truck drivers (driving a minimum of
200 kms/day). However, a few drivers denied participating as they were reluctant to invest their
time in the study. The responses to the questionnaire were recorded in a digital tab. All the
completed surveys were included in the study. The participation was entirely anonymous,
voluntary and non-compensated. All the participants were males.
Questionnaire Description
Data regarding different variables was collected using a questionnaire prepared after gaining key
insights from previous studies. Questionnaire recorded information about: 1) driver
demographics and driving characteristics, 2) work-rest pattern, and 3) safety related behavior
(violations and lapses). The questions related to types of violations such as speeding, overtaking,
etc. (as mentioned in Table 4a and 4b) and characteristics of identifying sleepy lapses were
adopted with minor modifications from the Driver Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ) used in
previous studies (Atombo et al., 2016; Bener et al., 2007; J Reason et al., 1990; Sullman et al.,
2002; Useche et al., 2017 etc.). The detailed description of the questionnaire used is as follows:
1) Driver demographic and driving characteristics: It included questions about driver’s age,
experience of professional truck-driving in years and average kms driven per day and approx.
annual kms driven, education, marital status etc. Further questions included information about
the ownership status of the truck driven by the driver and type of salary received by the driver
(monthly fixed pay, based on either trip length or on completion of the task).
Page 6 of 26

2) Work-rest pattern: The questions in this section included information about driver’s average
working hours per day, average duration of sleeping every day, instances of falling asleep
while driving. The drivers were also asked whether the resting hours available to them were
sufficient to alleviate their fatigue. Based on the previous studies, time of driving in majority
of trips was categorized as: day-time (8am-lunch), evening (post lunch- 8pm), night (8pm-
midnight) and late night (midnight-8am) (Alvaro et al., 2018; Chu, 2014; Pack et al., 1995;
Williamson & Friswell, 2011).
3) Driver behavior (violations and lapses): The questions in this section were intended to
collect information about driver’s attitude towards committing traffic rules violation and
history of drowsy lapses while driving. The current study has focused on violations from
DBQ specifically in context of truck drivers which might be expected due to reduced
cognition as a result of fatigue/drowsiness while driving. Therefore, Table 4 does not include
violations such as drunk driving which is known to cause drowsiness among drivers (Mahajan
et al., 2019; Tzamalouka et al., 2005). Based on the experience of drivers in the last five years
of truck driving, the drivers were asked about the frequency at which they have received
penalties for committing violations (ranging from ‘never’ to ‘often’), number of accidents
(any crash resulting in property damage, injury or fatality) due to violations and frequency of
committing different types of violations associated with work stress or lapses while driving.

ANALYSIS
A preliminary analysis was conducted to entail the statistics of various responses collected
through the questionnaire survey. The multiple violations were examined using Principal
Component Analysis (PCA). Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to exhibit that all
the unsafe driving practices (refer Table 4a and 4b) represent one underlying theme of the
frequency of violating traffic rules by the long-haul truck drivers (Maji, Velaga, & Urie, 2018;
Sullman et al., 2002; Ting, Hwang, Doong, & Jeng, 2008). The derived factor from PCA i.e.
‘violations’ was used as a dependent variable to model the significant predictors of violations
among the long-haul truck drivers. All the variables listed in Table 2 and Table 3 were included
in the analysis. The entire analysis was performed using SPSS statistical package v22.0.
Descriptive Analysis of the Data
A preliminary analysis was conducted to find the statistical details of driver demographics and
driving characteristics (presented in Table 2 and Table 3). Most of the drivers in the current
sample belong to the mid-age groups 26-35 (47.9%) and 36-45 (30.9%) and therefore, almost the
respective ranges of driving experience of 5-10 years (41.9%) and 10-15 years (26.74%) were
identified. Also, the majority of the drivers were married (81%). Only 14.3% could be
considered novice drivers with experience less than five years. Experience in terms of daily
mileage showed an average of 380 (SD=138.12) kilometers per day for the long-haul truck
drivers. The sample showed that 19.4% cases of violation of the condition of minimum
educational level required for a truck driving license in India. 18.5% drivers received their
payment upon completing the delivery of goods or material of transport compared to the majority
(77.6%) who were paid salary on flat monthly rates.
According to the ‘Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961’ in India, the maximum working hours for
drivers are restricted to 8 hours in regular working days. This can be extending up to 10 hours for
overtime but in no case more than 12 hours a day. These recommended working hours are
inclusive of adequate breaks within the work schedule. In the current sample, 36% drivers
Page 7 of 26

violated this “12-hr” working rule by working up to a maximum of 24 hours (15%) in their long
commercial trips. The average working hours noted were also beyond 12 hours/day (M=13.62,
SD=5.347 hours) which shows that violation of “12-hr” working rule is very common among
the truck drivers in India. There was an approximately equal distribution of the drivers driving at
different times of the day. The only exception was slightly low percentage of drivers (only 5%)
opting for late-night driving. Approximately, half of the drivers (43%) took adequate sleep
between 6-8 hours daily while 36% reported taking insufficient sleep (<6hours/day). 60% of
drivers believed that the rest hours they get are sufficient to alleviate their fatigue. 19.9% of
drivers reported instances of falling asleep on the wheel at a frequency of at least twice a month
in the last five years. There were 18.6% of drivers who were penalized for violations in the past
five years and 23.2% agreed their likeliness to violate rules under given circumstances of job
strain or related penalties of not abiding by the tight time schedules in their job. 17% of the
drivers reported consuming alcohol about 2-3 times a month in general but not while driving.
Since, none of the drivers in the current sample reported driving while intoxicated, therefore it
was not included as one of the violations for further analysis.
The current sample has very few drivers who were involved in the crashes in last five years. In
total, only 66 crashes were reported by 57 drivers, out of which 6 had more than one accident in
the past five years. As per the accident causes reported by the drivers, it showed that majority of
accidents were due to driver’s violations (52%) and drowsiness (27%).
Principal Component Analysis
The questions regarding violations (refer Table 4b) such as frequency of overspeeding and other
unsafe driving practices were found to be correlated (Pearson correlation coefficient ‘r’ >0.3, the
response to drunk driving was zero and hence was not found correlated with other violations in
current study). Therefore, the PCA was used to form an integrated variable representing
violations.
Predictors of Violations
In this study, the prevalence of violations and its predictors by the drivers is examined using a
generalized linear model (GLM). Poisson and Negative Binomial (NB) are popular counts based
generalized linear regression models used to model accident occurrence (refer Table 1). The
basic assumption of Poisson regression is that the mean shall be proportionate to variance.
However, in case of overdispersion, NB model shall be preferred (Cameron & Trivedi, 1990;
Kim, Ramjan, & Mak, 2016; Mohammadzadeh Moghaddam et al., 2017; C. M. Tseng, 2013).
The Poisson and NB models are defined respectively as follows:
(𝑒 𝜆𝑖 −𝜆𝑖 )
Pr(𝑦𝑖 ) = 1(a)
𝑦𝑖 !
 yi
( + yi )     i 
Pr( yi ) =     2(a)
( yi + 1) ( )  + yi   + i 
Where, 𝜆𝑖 represents the violations score for ith entry; 𝜙 is the inverse of over dispersion
parameter and Γ(.) represents gamma function.
Based on the model, the mean of y is determined by the exposure time t and ‘k’ parameters (x) in
the model as follows:
Page 8 of 26

λ = exp (ln(𝑡) + 𝛽1.𝑥1 + 𝛽2.𝑥2 + ⋯ + 𝛽𝑘.𝑥𝑘) (Hilbe, 2011) 2(b) Formatted: Subscript
Formatted: Subscript
For convenience of interpreting the regression results, often 𝑥1 = 1, in which case β1 is called the
Formatted: Subscript
intercept. The regression coefficients β1, β2, … βk are unknown parameters that are estimated
from a set of data. A more informative way of interpreting the model is by comparative odds Formatted: Subscript

ratio (OR) to a reference category or failure of event is given by exponential of estimated Formatted: Subscript
coefficients {exp(βk)} (Hilbe, 2011). Formatted: Subscript
Formatted: Subscript
The derived factor of rate of violations in the past five years (N=453, M=2.302, SD=3.586) was
Formatted: Subscript
taken as the Dependent Variable (DV) in the model. The overdispersion hypothesis test as
suggested by Cameron and Trivedi (1990) was performed for the current data (p-value <0.001); Formatted: Subscript

and it was found that rate of violations in the past five years is significantly over-dispersed at 1% Formatted: Subscript
level of significance. Hence the GLM using negative binomial model was found appropriate to Formatted: Subscript
model the rate of violations. Formatted: Subscript

All the variables listed in Table 2 and 3 were considered as independent variables for the Formatted: Subscript

regression model. As per regression model assumptions, it is recommended to check for any
multicollinearity issues before regression (Blanco et al., 2011; Cameron & Trivedi, 1990; Guang
Xiang Chen, Fang, Guo, & Hanowski, 2016; Field, 2009; Hanowski, 2000; Nassau, 2002;
Pallant, 2010). Multicollinearity is any instance where two or more independent variables are
highly correlated (correlation coefficient, |𝜌|> 0.3) they contribute to improper model fit, as they
tend to signify same factor in the model (Blanco et al., 2011). In the initial correlation analysis of
explanatory variables, age had higher correlations with experience (number of years of driving)
and marital status (|𝜌|> 0.3, p< 0.05). This can be expected in the given sample as majority of
the drivers were above 25 years (refer descriptive analysis) and were therefore married. Also,
higher the age greater is the experience in number of years of driving. Therefore, only age was
considered among these three variables in the final analysis to avoid any multicollinearity issues.
Among other explanatory variables very weak or insignificant correlations (|𝜌|< <0.3) were
observed, therefore they were considered individually as independent variables in the regression
model. Table 5 contains the model results mentioning the variables considered in the regression
analysis, parameter coefficients, odds ratio and relevant test-statistics.

RESULTS
Factor analysis of the different types of violations listed in Table 4 resulted in one factor,
explaining 58.94% of total variance among the considered type of violations, with Cronbach’s
alpha 0.82. The resulting factor was termed ‘violations’ committed by the drivers. The direct
sum of raw scores over all the five considered violations loading on one-factor violations was
taken to calculate the factor score of violations (Cordazzo et al., 2016). The higher score on the
derived factor violations implied higher frequency of violations perpetrated by the drivers.
The NB regression results are listed in Table 5. The negative binomial regression model results
indicate that mid-aged drivers (26 to 45 years) are expected to be less involved in violations
compared to younger drivers (below 25 years). Age of the drivers showed a U-shaped curve with
violations (refer Figure1). Drivers who are working as employees and driving for their employer
also tend to commit violations less frequently compared to drivers who own the truck that they
drive. Drivers who get paid on completion of work (or on delivery) adopt risky driving practices
compared to flat rate paid drivers. Drivers’ willingness toward earning additional incentives
shows higher risk of their involvement in traffic offences. Longer working hours and late-night
Page 9 of 26

driving are expected to increase their frequency of perpetrating traffic rules. Sleep-deprived
drivers (sleeping less than 4 hours daily) and having a history of frequent sleepy lapses while
driving in the last five years are expected to be more frequent violators. However, contrary to
this, drivers who believe that they get sufficient resting hours have also reported a higher
likelihood of violations. The drivers with a history of receiving penalties for violations also
showed higher risk of repeating violations.

DISCUSSION
The previous research have examined the association of driver behavior with driver
demographics and work-sleep patterns. However, it is crucial to predict the safety-related
behavior of drivers in particular, especially for long-haul truck drivers (Oppenheim et al., 2016).
According to the model results (see Table 5), the violations were broadly associated with driver
demographics, work status and driving characteristics especially sleep-related behavior.
According to the model results, a The middle-aged drivers were found to be less involved in
unsafe driving practices compared to the younger drivers (below 25 years). The mid-aged truck
drivers might have avoided risky driving due to their enhanced driving skills over the period or
drove cautiously as they cared for the associated partner or family responsibilities in their life.
On the other hand, the younger drivers (under 25 years) might lack such maturity and skills to
avoid adopting unsafe driving practices (Cantor et al., 2010). Similar to the findings of the study
by Tseng (2013), the role of education was found to be insignificant in the present study. This
might be because the current sample did not offer enough comparison among the education
levels as 64% drivers were educated below eighth grade and 84% below tenth grade. The driving
exposure in terms of daily kms driven (variable named- ‘Mileage’) was also found to be
insignificant in contrast with the results published by Tseng et al. (2016).
Employment characteristics of the driver including the ‘payment type’ and ownership status of
the truck driven by the driver appeared significant in the model. Also, a small correlation
observed between working hours and ‘payment type’ (|𝜌|= 0.137, p< 0.05) suggests that more
number of working hours can be associated with higher payments for drivers receiving payments
based on trip length or duration. Drivers who were employees and were hired to drive the trucks
of their owners might have preferred to drive safer under the responsibility of their job as well as
to ensure vehicle safety. The employers might impose some consequences such as suspension,
reducing payment etc. if drivers violate the rules. This might be the reason for less likely
involvement of drivers in traffic violations. However, those who earned on completing their
delivery or trips might have experienced the work pressure of completing the deliveries within a
given time window (Vardaman et al., 2014). Useche et al. (2017) stated that such job strain may
cause fatigue and hence can reduce the judgement capability of the driver to take safer driving
decisions. This was confirmed by 1.73 times increment in the likeliness to violate rules (such as
adhering to speeding and overtaking) under time pressure or to avoid any ‘late’ penalties. Hence,
the company based fatigue training practices shall be encouraged (Arboleda, Morrow, Crum, &
Shelley, 2003). Also, the management of driver fatigue at organizational level like aiming for
realistic and reasonable delivery schedules, controlling for ‘late’ penalties and providing
reasonable payments for the job of commercial drivers shall be encouraged (Duke, Guest, &
Boggess, 2010; Vardaman et al., 2014).
According to the model findings, sleep-related driving characteristics like drivers adhering to
late-night driving (between mid-night and 8:00a.m) were subjected to 2.6 times higher risk of
Page 10 of 26

offending traffic rules compared to daytime drivers (refer Figure 2). The reason could be reduced
vigilance during the night by the traffic police (Tseng et al., 2016). The truck drivers seem to
prefer late-night driving, either due to less traffic or as they might be prohibited on the city
highways during peak times of traffic congestion (C. Tseng et al., 2016). Moreover, driving in
the period between midnight to early morning hours has been associated with higher sleepiness
and reduced driving efficiency (Gastaldi, Rossi, & Gecchele, 2014; G. Zhang, Yau, Zhang, & Li,
2016; H. Zhang, Yan, Wu, & Qiu, 2014). This can also be a possible explanation for higher
traffic rules violations by the Indian truck drivers during late-night driving. An interesting
finding of this study is increased violations among drivers sleeping less than the recommended 6-
8 hours. The drivers after working for long hours and with insufficient sleep may get sleepy or
fatigued while driving (Anne G. Wheaton, Chapman, Presley-Cantrell, Croft, & Roehler, 2013;
Davenne et al., 2012; Maia, Grandner, Findley, & Gurubhagavatula, 2013; Matthews et al.,
2012). As a result of which, they might not be able to respond attentively and cautiously to the
safety critical situations they face while driving (May & Baldwin, 2009). The inattentiveness or
lack of interest in driving caused by sleepiness or fatigue might be the explanation for their
higher involvement in violations with less sleep and long working hours (refer Figure 3 and
Table 5). The long working hours might contribute towards driver fatigue and which is reflected
in increased violations among truck drivers as shown through linear trend in Figure 3. Tseng et
al. (2016) also stated that truck drivers with poor sleep quality or insufficient sleep reported more
speeding offences in Taiwan. Moreover, factors such as insufficient sleep and long working
hours are found to be predictors of lapses behind the wheel (Mahajan et al., 2019). The drivers
having the history of frequent nodding off incidents at the wheel were also found to be frequent
violators of traffic rules. Therefore, drowsy driving might be one of the reasons for accidents due
to violations which are predictive of accidents. In addition, it may also suggest that repetitive
violations might be associated with frequent instances of dozing off while driving. The drivers
having a history of being caught and penalized were also found to be frequent violators as per the
model similar to the findings by Teoh et al., (2017). This might be due to lack of stringent or
significant punishments for committing violations. Another reason based on the above stated
findings might be that the persistent conditions of work pressure and fatigue situations promote
the traffic violating behavior among drivers.

CONCLUSIONS Formatted: Heading 1

India being a developing nation has a relatively weak economy and poor infrastructure facilities
that draw a different working scenario for the drivers. Moreover, when the financial or reward
based earnings are associated with hectic driving schedules, they tend to impound work pressure
on drivers. Such continuous job strain motivates their indulgence in violation of traffic rules as
well as working hour regulations. In addition, persistence of such fatigue conditions among truck
driving might be the reason for their indulgence in violations more often other than just
inefficiency of existing regulations to curb the rate of violations. The most significant findings of
the current study can be summarized as follows:
1. Sleepiness and unfulfilled rest requirements of the truck drivers due to continuous job
strain is significantly responsible for indulgence of drivers in violation of traffic and HOS
rules.
2. Driver fatigue and associated factors such as extended wake hours, late-night driving etc. Formatted: List Paragraph, Numbered + Level: 1 +
Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left +
are potential factors to influence the rate of traffic violations among truck drivers. Aligned at: 0.63 cm + Indent at: 1.27 cm
Page 11 of 26

3. Repetitive offences along with other factors associated with driver fatigue are indicative
of persisting fatigue conditions among truck drivers leading to increased violations.
In conclusion, this study motivates to focus on the driving and resting schedules of drivers on a Formatted: Space Before: 6 pt
deeper level to study the overall aberrant driving behavior of Indian drivers to draw some policy
recommendations and to prevent the risky traffic violations by the truck drivers.
Limitations and Future Scope Formatted: Font: Bold

This study has limited implications due to the sample size considered. Based on the statistics
which shows 65% of freight carriers are trucks in India (Asian Institute of Transport
Development (AITD), 2000) and only 7.5% out of total 10,67,434 trucks are registered in the
three Indian cities which are considered in this study (MORTH, 2018). Therefore, the current
sample of 453 is even less than 1% of total truck driver population, however, the drivers here
represent only long-haul truck drivers which is again a small proportion of such drivers in
India(National AIDS Control Organization, 2006). Current sample also lacked the diversity in
driver characteristics observed in other studies for example education level, job characteristics
like driver working for some established freight companies reported by Bryan, Fisher, & Joseph
Benziger (2001) but with a small sample (n=242). Established private freight companies are
expected to enhance the effectiveness of regulations to curb violations (National Transport
Development Policy Committee (NTDPC), 2014) and impose strategies to manage driver
working hours. However, on the other hand, such freight companies might also have productivity
driven incentives which influence the work-rest pattern of drivers and their drowsiness while
driving (Mahajan et al., 2019; Thompson et al., 2015; Williamson & Friswell, 2013). Another
limitation of this study is that the violations were considered only as per standard validated
driver behavior questionnaire. Drunk driving was underreported and was not considered among
the violations here as none of drivers in the current sample reported any instance of drunk
driving. Future studies can also consider the violations such as usage of digital devices like cell
phone among drivers. The current study could not back the existing requirement of education
level for having commercial vehicle driving license in India. Therefore, further studies are
required to comment on the role of education in driver licensing and safe driving.
Acknowledgement
This research has been made available through the European Union Europe Aid-funded Project
“EU-India Research & Innovation Partnership for Efficient and Sustainable Freight
Transportation (REINVEST),” Contract Number: R/141842. The contents of this publication are
the sole responsibility of the authors of this paper and can in no way be taken to reflect the views
of the European Union.

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Table 1 Common factors associating driver sleepiness and violations in previous studies conducted in various countries
Study and place Factors studied Analysis technique Findings/Remarks Formatted Table
• M. Moghaddam et al. Formatted: Font: 10 pt
(2017) (Iran) • Age, gender, education levels, years of active driving, and
Formatted: Font: 10 pt
• (Kim et al., 2016) especially exposure had an effect on drivers’ at-fault accidents.
Generalized Linear Model Formatted: Font: 10 pt, Italic
(Korea) • Driver demographics: Age, • Behavioral comparisons indicated the highest influence of violations
(Negative Binomial, Multivariate
• Oppenheim et al. (2016) gender, experience, mileage, on accident-prone drivers. Formatted: List Paragraph, Bulleted + Level: 1 + Aligned at:
Analysis of Variance 0 cm + Indent at: 0 cm
(Israel) education etc.
(MANOVA) etc.) • Older, more educated drivers reported engaging in more unsafe
• Newnam et al. (2014) driving behaviors than younger, less educated drivers explained by Formatted: Font: 10 pt
(Ethiopia) cultural ideologies.
Formatted: List Paragraph, Bulleted + Level: 1 + Aligned at:
• Tseng (2013) (Taiwan) 0 cm + Indent at: 0 cm
• Adolescent drivers Formatted: List Paragraph
Garner et al. (2017) Repeated-measures Analysis of Insufficient sleep was positively associated with self-reported
• Insufficient sleep
(USA) Covariance purposeful driving violations. Formatted: Font: 10 pt
• Driving violations
• Work pressure and fatigue Formatted: List Paragraph, Bulleted + Level: 1 + Aligned at:
Useche et al. (2017) 0 cm + Indent at: 0 cm
• (BRT drivers) Structural Equation Modeling Risky driving is associated with higher fatigue due to job strain.
(Columbia) Formatted: List Paragraph
• Driver Behavior
• Driver demographics Formatted: Font: 10 pt
Tseng et al. (2016) Truck driver’s sleep quality, sleep duration, age, experience and
• Driving status Logistic Regression Model Formatted: List Paragraph, Bulleted + Level: 1 + Aligned at:
(Taiwan) education were significant predictors of speeding offences.
• Speeding offences 0 cm + Indent at: 0 cm
Atombo et al. (2016) • Driving motivations The idea of driving motivations to enhance performance in driving Formatted: Font: 10 pt, Italic
Hierarchical Linear Regression
(Ghana) • Traffic violations behavior lead to increased overtaking violations Formatted: Tab stops: 14.9 cm, Left
Alver et al. (2014)
• Social demographic details Formatted Table
(Turkey) Binary Logit model and Logistic Repetitive violations increase the crash risk among drivers.
• Violations in past Formatted Table
Mahajan et al. (2019) Regression Violations are associated with fatigue.
(India) • Accident history
• Goods and commercial vehicles compared to motorcycles are at
• Road, human, vehicle and higher risk of violations.
Zhang et al. (2013) environment factors Backward Approach Logistic • No street-lighting, bad visibility, weekends and driving during the
(China) • Driver violations and Regression hours 7:00–8:59 and 17:00–19:59 present a higher risk of traffic
accidents violations. These times are also associated with low circadian
rhythms.
Page 19 of 26

Table 2 Descriptive statistics of continuous explanatory variables

Std.
Variable description N Minimum Maximum Mean
Deviation
On duty working hours/day in last 5 years (in hours):
453 5 24 13.62 5.347
wrkh
Professional truck driving experience (in kms/day):
453 200 1000 379.79 138.119
Mileage
Page 20 of 26

Table 3 Descriptive statistics of categorical variables

Variable Violations
Categorical Variable Category Number Percent Formatted Table
Encoding Mean SD
25 or below 49 10.80% 3.67 4.33
26-35 217 47.90% 1.92 3.12
Age Age
36-45 140 30.90% 1.94 3.35
46 or above 47 10.40% 3.74 4.67
(School) Grade 5 88 19.40% 2.49 3.71
(School) up to Grade 8 202 44.60% 1.68 3.14
Education level Edu
Metric or 10th grade 92 20.30% 3.28 4.08
12th grade or above 71 15.67% 2.56 3.68
less than 5 years 65 14.30% 2.80 4.01
Professional truck driving 5-10 190 41.94% 1.51 2.90
Expyrs
experience in years 10-15 121 26.71% 2.90 3.85
15 years or above 77 16.99% 2.91 3.99
Single 85 18.80% 2.72 3.81
Marital status Mstat
Married 368 81.20% 2.21 3.53
Self-owned 27 6.00% 3.15 4.34
Vehicle ownership vehown Employee 392 86.50% 2.02 3.40
Contractor 34 7.50% 4.91 3.97
Day time (8am- lunch) 162 35.80% 2.17 3.35
Evening (post lunch)-8pm 92 20.30% 2.20 3.64
Most frequent time of drive wrktim Night (8pm-1am) 107 23.60% 1.87 3.09
Late night (1am-8am) 24 5.30% 5.13 5.46
Any time 68 15.00% 2.46 3.64
Less than 4 hours 37 8.20% 3.84 4.61
4-6 hours 126 27.80% 2.78 3.69
Average Number of hours
sleep_h 6-8 hours 195 43.00% 1.50 2.75
slept per day in general
8-10 hours 84 18.50% 2.56 3.89
10 hours or more 11 2.40% 4.00 5.85
No 363 80.10% 1.99 3.54
Fallen asleep while driving slpdriv
Yes 90 19.90% 3.54 3.54
Rest time provided by owner No 182 40.20% 1.98 3.37
is sufficient to alleviate sufresth
Yes 271 59.80% 2.52 3.71
stress
Fixed monthly salary 350 77.30% 1.87 3.34
Payment on the basis of
On completion of work
delivery or completion of payment 84 18.50% 4.02 4.11
(on delivery)
work
On basis of kms driven 19 4.20% 2.74 3.35
Willingness to commit No 348 76.80% 1.77 3.15
violations for incentives or pay_inc
under time pressure Yes 105 23.20% 4.06 4.33
Never 369 81.50% 1.87 3.27
Penalized for violations penalized Sometimes 70 15.50% 3.74 3.92
Often 14 3.10% 6.43 5.29
Page 21 of 26

Table 4 a. Factor analysis of unsafe driving practices by the driver

Valid percent (%)

PCA
Type of violation Quite Very N Extrac Formatted Table
Never Rarely Sometimes
often often tion
(0) (1) (2)
(3) (=4)
Ignoring traffic lights 81.2 11.3 5.1 0.4 2.0 453 0.44
Driving too close to lead
70.6 12.1 13.0 1.5 2.6 453 0.52
vehicle
Forget to give indicator
75.1 9.7 9.9 1.8 3.5 453 0.73
at turns
Forget to give indicator
to small vehicles to 74.4 9.3 9.9 0.9 5.5 453 0.63
overtake
Overspeeding/ racing on
75.3 11.0 10.4 1.8 1.5 453 0.63
the road in hurry
Eigen values (after extraction) 2.947
% Variance explained 58.94
Page 22 of 26

Table 4b. Description of type of violations associated with drowsy/fatigued driving.

Description Type of violation
How often do you ignore the traffic lights when driving in a
Ignoring traffic lights
hurry under time-pressure due to your job?
How often do you drive so close to the car ahead that it is
Driving too close to lead vehicle
difficult to stop in an emergency?
How often do you forget to give indicator at turns Forget to give indicator at turns
How often do you forget to give indicator to small vehicles to Forget to give indicator to small
give way vehicles to overtake
How often do you prefer speeding over the limits under time Overspeeding/ racing on the road
pressure due to your job? in a hurry
Page 23 of 26

Table 5 Estimating predictors of violations among truck drivers using GLM, dependent variable is frequency of
violations over last 5 years (N=453).
Odds
Hypothesis Test
Std. Ratio
Parameter B Formatted Table
Error Wald -
p-value Exp(B)
χ2
(Intercept) 0.78 0.49 2.58 0.11 2.18
46 or above 0.00 0.26 0.00 0.99 1.00
36-45 -0.61 0.22 7.57 0.01 0.54***
Age
26-35 -0.70 0.21 10.74 0.00 0.50***
25 or below(reference) 0a 1.00
12th or above 0.05 0.21 0.06 0.80 1.06
Metric or 10th grade 0.05 0.20 0.06 0.81 1.05
Edu
(School level) up to Grade 8 -0.24 0.18 1.86 0.17 0.78
(Primary School) Grade 5 (reference) 0a 1.00
Mileage Experience in daily kms driven 0.00 0.00 0.02 0.89 1.00
contractor 0.21 0.34 0.36 0.55 1.23
vehown employee -0.45 0.26 2.98 0.08 0.64*
self-owned(reference) 0a 1.00
On basis of kms driven -0.15 0.31 0.24 0.62 0.86
payment On completion of work(on delivery) 0.53 0.16 10.62 0.00 1.70***
fixed monthly salary(reference) 0a 1.00
Yes 0.55 0.15 12.88 0.00 1.73***
pay_inc
No(reference) 0a 1.00
wrkh Working hours per day 0.03 0.01 7.60 0.01 1.03***
Any time -0.01 0.21 0.00 0.96 0.99
Late night (1am-8am) 0.96 0.27 12.33 0.00 2.61***
wrktim Night (8pm-1am) -0.23 0.19 1.55 0.21 0.79
Evening (post lunch)-8pm -0.12 0.19 0.39 0.53 0.89
Day time (8am- lunch)(reference) 0a 1.00
more than 10 hours -0.13 0.43 0.10 0.75 0.87
8-10 hours -0.29 0.26 1.29 0.26 0.74
sleep_h 6-8 hours -0.62 0.23 7.10 0.01 0.54***
4-6 hours -0.33 0.24 1.97 0.16 0.72
less than 4 hours(reference) 0a 1.00
Yes 0.49 0.16 9.85 0.00 1.64***
slpdriv
No(reference) 0a 1.00
Yes 0.29 0.14 4.36 0.04 1.34**
sufresth
No(reference) 0a 1.00
often 1.25 0.33 14.46 0.00 3.48***
penalized sometimes 0.75 0.17 20.02 0.00 2.11***
Never(reference) 0a 1.00
‘a’
reference category ‘*’ p < 0.1; ‘**’ p < 0.05; ‘***’ p < 0.01
Overall model AIC value: 1668.47, Pearson Chi-square: 715.116, df =427, Value: 1.675.
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100%
Increase in odds of truck driver

90%

80%
violations

70%

60%

50%

40%
≤25 26-35 36-45 ≥46
Truck Driver Age

Figure 1 Relation of age with increase in odds compared to younger drivers (≤25 years).
Page 25 of 26

Figure 2 Increase in violations during late-night driving among truck drivers

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4
Rate of violations

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Working hours per day

Figure 3 Increase in rate of violations with increase in duration of working (in hours) per day