Occupational risk of transport operators: an ergonomic assessment

Abstract

Professional drivers have a high risk of developing musculoskeletal back disorders.Back pain is a particular stress factor for drivers, although there are clearly other areas of pain such as the neck, shoulders and knees Bus drivers are essentially contained within their cabin with little space for leg flexibility and movement. This static posture and its restricted freedom of movement aggravate the muscular tension accumulated during the working day. The driver’s cabin must be comfortable even for short, tall or overweight drivers, and must promote safe driving, just as it must ensure good visibility. The driver’s cabin also needs to be adapted to human behavior to make it easy to use. Driving posture in the cabin is closely linked to the way the workstation is laid out and the available range of seat adjustments. There is strong evidence of an association between musculoskeletal disorders, workplace physical factors, and non-work related characteristics. Therefore study was conducted for ergonomic assessment of bus drivers (120) working in four different private bus service agencies. An equal representation of 40 drivers from each service agency was purposively selected. The study also aimed to find out occupational factors influencing their health status. Ergonomic cost of the driving activity carried out by the respondent’s was calculated by measuring the physiological parameters of the selected activity. The average energy expenditure was found to be 8.930 kj/min and total cardiac cost of the activity was reported to be 3952.250 beats/min. The cardiac strain index for the selected activity also reported a high value of 24.04 percent. The environmental conditions were also found to be adverse for the drivers. The research envisaged that drivers are prone to increased blood pressure and higher levels of stress hormones -- factors that contribute to sickness and death from heart and blood vessel problems. Drivers are exposed to whole-body vibration, diesel exhaust, and noise while keeping them in a combat-like state of vigilance in order to deal with threatening passengers and crazy motorists.