Advanced Fatigue Management is said by the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator to be about helping drivers to rest when you’re tired and drive when you’re fit.
Managing fatigue flexibly is an important requirement in running a trucking business and Sal Petroccitto, National Heavy Vehicle Regulator CEO, outlines how operators can take advantage of the fatigue management scheme. Our job as the regulator is to work with industry to provide the tools and support they need to do their job safely. Industry will keep improving what they do in their business – finding efficiencies and better ways of working, and embracing new technologies.
With a modern and flexible law in place, we can be most effective in supporting safety advancements by putting in place the right risk-based regulatory approaches. This is why the regulator has invested heavily over the last four years to help guide the development of the new law. This is particularly the case with managing fatigue. We’ve learnt a lot about driver fatigue over the past 10 years, and we now have a much clearer understanding of the need to better recognise individual driver needs.
Just like all other aspects of your business, fatigue is an area where you can invest in tailoring fatigue work and rest hours to better suit your business and individual driver needs. The prescriptive (or standard hours) approach to fatigue will always be available for those in industry who want to use it, and it’s long been an accepted community standard.
However, Advanced Fatigue Management (AFM) can provide operators with a tailored approach to work and rest hours, provided they put in place additional controls and offsets to manage fatigue safety risks. Under tailored fatigue options, drivers can have better quality rest periods, are working when they’re most alert, and can take more rest in a shift if they need to.
Indeed, from our data, we know that AFM is typically used to get drivers to somewhere where they can get better quality rest at the end of their shift. Even though AFM has been around for a long time, we’re aware that some operators may be put off by the amount of paperwork and process involved in seeking accreditation. To help address this, we’ve launched a dedicated project to remove unnecessary administrative barriers and make the process more user-friendly for businesses of all sizes.
I am not interested in how well an application is filled out – I am interested in knowing that you have the right safety controls in your business to manage fatigue risks. Effectively managing fatigue – and underpinning AFM – is the genuine commitment from a business to work with its drivers to better understand their needs and to put safety first. Our project focuses on providing better tools and greater support to help more operators become accredited in AFM – as I understand it, many operators are probably already meeting a lot of the requirements for AFM. Getting formally accredited will just ensure they’re proactively managing fatigue safety risks and have this documented in their business.
Through this AFM improvement project, we’ll be sharing examples of the types of tailored options that other companies are currently using, so operators can decide whether there’s a pre-made example of hours that would suit their business. We’ll also be sharing the types of controls and offsets operators can use to manage fatigue risks. There’ll be a library to choose from, and we’ll provide guidance on which best manages a particular risk. We’ll also be providing a collection of templates and tools for operations manuals, and other required safety systems, which operators can implement in their business – just like with our approach to Safety Management Systems.
In addition, the AFM application form will move to the NHVR Portal, and there’ll be a built-in risk calculator, into which applicants will simply have to enter what hours they need to work. Importantly, we’ll have a dedicated AFM case manager to step applicants though the process. We’ll release more information over the coming months about how industry can get involved in AFM using the new process.
I also recommend reading our Fitness to drive: Fatigue – Regulatory Advice, which provides guidance to all parties in the Chain of Responsibility on fatigue in the heavy vehicle transport industry and outlines their obligations under the Heavy Vehicle National Law. It looks at the hazards and risks associated with fatigue, emphasises the importance of considering external factors that may influence the driver’s fatigue risk – not just those related to compliance with regulated work and rest hours – and proposes a range of control measures to ensure the safety of heavy vehicle drivers and other road users.
Our free Safety Management System (SMS) guidance material also provides tools and templates to help operators assess their fatigue safety risks and communicate effectively with their employees about their fitness for duty.
I look forward to keeping you up to date with the progress of our AFM improvement project, and contributing to safer drivers on safer roads.
Find out more about the Fitness to drive: Fatigue – Regulatory Advice
Find out more about the Safety Management System (SMS)
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