Managing fatigue as a linehaul driver

Yup. I experience this almost every night. I don't run a pure night shift, but I'm usually up at 1:00am for a 3:00am dock time. I leave the plant at or near 3:00am, and by about 4:30am the yawns start, and I get that heavy feeling. It doesn't matter how much sleep I get, either. It just happens. Schedules are such that I don't have time to pull over and walk, nap, etc, so I have snacks with me to munch on. As long as I'm eating, drinking, or smoking, I can stay alert. It's when I'm doing nothing but driving and "staring out the windshield" that's the worst.

 

Two other points worth mentioning for some others that are just getting started is when you start to fatigue you will notice your ability to shift starts to diminish a bit (missing, grinding, etc....) then gets progressively worse. That was something my trainer noticed when I first started driving and its something I really watch out for when I'm on the road. Its a red flag that fatigue is starting to set in . Thats a good warning to get yourself into a hotel, rest stop, or truck stop before the "Blackdog" (road mirages) and white line fever has a chance to get started.

 

The twilight hours both morning and evening are the natrural times for drowsyness the body is shifting from one state to the next, one thing i found that helped was those driving glass's. Sounds funny but it helps becuse they even out the light and work both in day and night driving

 

Sometimes I get tired when the sun comes up even after a good nights sleep.(start my run around 3 am.) I'll pull into the chicken house and walk around a few minutes.
Works for me.

 

Any of you not get tired but can't keep your eyes open? And your eyes feel heavy and feels like they just want to shut but you just don't feel sleepy?

 

That eating can only go so far before you balloon out. And of course drinking makes you need to pee. Have you tried singing, or even talking out loud to yourself? After all, there's nobody to hear you, so you don't need to worry about having those little men in their white coats waiting for you at your destination. With a straight jacket. . .

 

Yup, for some reason it doesn't work that well for me. Not sure why...

Now that's funny, but I often think, "what if the company had some sort of listening device in the truck?" Some of what I sing would have them chasing me down with the straight jacket before I ever got to my delivery...lol

 

Take a nap is the best solution.
Crank the radio and sing along. Makes you breath deeper and get more oxygen in your system.
Drink a lot of water, always.

 

Make sure you get a good nights(day) sleep. When you drive use the smith system so you aren't so stressed while driving and can relax a bit. Get something to drink and sip on it ever so often. You also could get some candy to chew/suck on something like those yellow caramels or anything really. Listen to the radio, and don't blast the a/c or heat. I personally always have my drivers window down with the a/c or heat on. Make sure you have a five hour energy for emergency's! Like others said, listen to some good music and sing along. If you need to get a small dim-ish light and hang it up in the cab to help keep you awake. The best type is a small red light..

and most importantly know that you'll get used to it after awhile.

 

Well, if you happen to be "blessed" with a company two way radio, (or even Nextel) make sure you aren't keying on the microphone without knowing it! Oh the stories I could tell about that, from my days in LE. . .