Promoting healthy and safe driving: Physiological and psychological evaluation of truck drivers for individualized shift and route planning

There is a worldwide shortage of truck drivers, and the situation will likely worsen in the coming years. Truck driver health and safety must be improved to counteract this shortage, as this could increase driver availability. A structured literature review was first conducted to identify individual and psychological factors in various vehicle-related application areas that influence drivers’ performance, health, and safety. It encompassed aspects such as the prevailing chronotype, stress levels, and the associated psychological factors of attention and concentration performance. Then, a complementary field study involving professional truck drivers was conducted to measure both physiological and psychological indicators during their daily routines. It found differences in both attentional performance and perceived stress that varied by the type of shift. The further inclusion of truck drivers’ chronotypes showed that these individual differences impact attention and concentration performance, which influence stress. These results enable personnel management or distribution planners to account for individual factors when preparing truck drivers’ work schedules. Shift and route plans considering individual factors could improve truck drivers’ health and safety, positively influencing their availability.