The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has requested approval from the Office of Management and Budget to conduct a study to examine the relative risk of commercial motor vehicle crashes and inspection violations based on various factors related to the driver’s work schedule and demographics. The information collected is intended to answer questions related to driver schedules and how these factors impact overall driver performance and fatigue.

In its 2011 final rule on driver hours of service, the FMCSA committed to an analysis of the relative crash risk by driving hour, the impact of the changes in the HOS provisions, and examination of differences in crash risk after restarts that include 2 nights and those that do not.

FMCSA intends to recruit motor carriers to participate voluntarily in the study. Information will be collected electronically from HOS duty logs, accident and incident data, and inspection violations records. HOS duty logs, as well as incident and crash data, will be obtained through an integration with the telematics system provider, and driver demographic data will be provided directly by participating carriers.