Sleep on it

The Safety Research Council (SRC), which advocates science-based alternatives to prescriptive hours-of-service regulations, is working with Stanford University's Sleep Disorders & Research Center to develop a clinical approach aimed at eliminating driver fatigue. Two fleets, Morton, Ill.-based Star Transport and Dart Transit of Eagan, Minn., have underwritten the initial cost of having a total of nine truck drivers complete two stints at the sleep center. According to SRC, this is the first step in developing a pilot program for federal approval. The goal is to permit drivers "to operate under exemptions from hours-of-service regulations with strict controls to test the efficacy of fatigue-sensitive operating plans as an alternative to prescriptive regulations."