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Fourteen-hour days and middle-of-the-night starts are not unusual for Goulburn truck driver Adam Craig.
Long and erratic shifts aside, he loves his job.
But they can take their toll.
"Some days you could be happy as Larry for fourteen hours and not get tired at all, but then some days you could do two hours and want to pull up for a sleep," he said.
"You do have to stop and have a break, otherwise things do go wrong."
But the 25-year-old said finding a safe place to pull over is far from easy, with parking bays often overflowing with cars and caravans.
"Then we have to go even further to pull up, so it does get tiring," he said.
Truck drivers are fifteen times more likely to die of fatigue than other workers.
Last year alone, 185 people died in crashes involving heavy trucks on Australian roads.
And fatigue, which rises the crash or near-crash risk between four to six times, is often the first factor looked at when a truck driver dies behind the wheel.
That's why Mr Craig welcomes a pilot "smart steering wheel" that monitors a driver's heartrate and fatigue, while also predicting the onset of tiredness.
The idea was the focus of a truck driver fatigue hackathon in Canberra this week.
Smart wheel aims to stop drivers from pushing through tiredness
The "Augmented Intelligence" team, made up of entrepreneurs and health clinicians from Canberra and Brisbane, overwhelmingly received the most votes out of several ideas to curb driver fatigue.
Their smart steering wheel is designed for the nation's 120,000 long-haul drivers.
Embedded ECG monitors are visually communicated to drivers through a Navman, suggesting rest stops in real-time based on the heart rate readings.
The winning team's Andrew Hammond said it will prevent drivers from "pushing through unnecessarily, or they can stop earlier if there are better facilities available".
"There is clinical research and papers available that show high speed heart rate is a predictor of fatigue," he said.
He said the steering wheel would also signal other health risks including early onset of heart disease, stroke and diabetes risk.
The team, which said the technology would cost $100 per truck a month for an unlimited number of drivers, won $6,000 in cash from the Australian Trucking Association and Teletrac Navman.
They also won coaching from the Canberra Innovation Network to progress the idea.
"It is quite exciting," Mr Hammond said.
"We want to actually have an impact on the world and now we have the platform and a bit of funding to make it happen."
Second place went to a new smart phone App that uses the voice of Siri to help drivers find and book a rest stop as well as rate the experience of the stay.
It was created by Canberra Institute of Technology staff.
"It is a mix between something like Trivago and Google Maps," the team's Rebecca Sporcic said.
"It will allow truck drivers to say 'where is my closest stop?' [while driving]."
The App would also include information and ratings for safe parking on land such as underutilised airfields and farms, which is not currently available to Australian truck drivers.
Driver shortage and ageing workforce behind worsening fatigue
Trucking companies say an ageing and shrinking workforce has contributed to the growing problem of driver fatigue.
Managing director of Divall's Bulk Haulage, Andy Divall, said Australia's freight task is expanding.
"Australia has the fifth-largest freight task in the world and we are one of the smallest populations," Mr Divall said.
"With an ageing workforce, the shortage of drivers adds pressure to get the freight task done."
Mr Divall, who employs Mr Craig, said the average age of Australian truck driver is 47 and qualified drivers as young as Mr Craig are in high demand.
Mr Divall is "desperately" looking to hire and train more young drivers, including women, which he believes will help curb driver fatigue.
"The driver shortage is the key to fatigue," he said.
"We would like to double the number of drivers per truck from one to two to reduce individual driving hours and fatigue risk."
The 50 heavy truck drivers employed by the company undergo annual medial checks and are trained on improving general health and wellbeing.
Mr Divall says this is crucial in fighting tiredness and improving fitness for work.
Mr Craig would like to see all young drivers educated about the dangers of heavy vehicles.
Topics: road-transport, industry, business-economics-and-finance, small-business, goulburn-2580, nsw, australia, canberra-2600, act
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