should you take a break? ABSOLUTELY ! ! !
this post is directed at night line-haul specifically.
Unofficial results of safety data when plotted on a 24 hour grid provides evidence of the importance of taking your 15 minute breaks during line-haul operations. Apply this data to our operating model (drive-reship-drive) and many factors come into play. The most dangerous hour for our night line-haul is the tenth hour. This falls into a window between 5 and 7 a.m. Sunrise, maximum level of traffic, etc. are factors contributing to the challenge of operating safely during this time. The second most dangerous time period is the fourth hour, the last hour of driving before arriving at reship. Given our operating model, twice nightly the last hour our drivers are operating their equipment is the most dangerous. Now apply driver fatigue and our personal challenges to drive defensively. Knowing how unsafe the motoring public can be, knowing how fatigue can dangerously effect how we react to situations around us, why would you not want to stop and take that 15 minutes at the 3 hour mark of your run to better prepare for the safety challenges that are ahead of you? Instead of fighting off fatigue and telling yourself "I can make it" one hour from home, why not stop and refresh the mind and body to better prepare for all the stupid, unsafe behaviors we encounter every morning? Driving defensively is all about acting not reacting. That 15 minute break puts you back in charge, back on your game, and thinking about everything around you. Calculating and creating time and space around you instead of reacting to situations that can lead to lane departures and stab braking. Remember preventable is about involvement not cause.
You can rebuttal all day about arriving late and the big bad company this, and the big bad company that... but bottom line is safety. If you do an honest day's work and you do it safely everything else is secondary.
