Keep on Trucking
Walkerjoe
This is a mucho interesting subject, not because I fly long-haul - I'm a humble chopper pilot - but because I've done many years in and around the trucking business, including time spent as an engineer.
Fact is, there are MANY common fatigue and design-related factors and concerns between the trucking and airline industries, so much so that manufacturers with a foot in both camps, eg: Saab-Scania, have worked to transfer ergonomic lessons learned in the cockpit to the cabs of those 'juggernauts' , and vice-versa. Other truck makers such as Peterbilt and Kenworth have even approached Boeing (they're both in Seattle) to buy-in ergonomic know-how, reciprocating with results from fatigue and boredom tests conducted on US truck drivers. Then there are the 'outside' factors such as alcohol, drug use, night working, variable shifts, time away from family, rostering, diet and night stops (nudge nudge, wink wink). Plus there's direct stuff like seating and DVT.
(...all scary thoughts, eh, 18-Wheeler? )
Anyway, the purpose of this post is to suggest you include at least a chapter on trucks and trucking in your dissertation. I'm happy to contribute,,, but you're buying the beer. Send me a PM and I'll sort you out.
The longest 'run' I ever drove was 54hours (including two stops totally just seven hours sleep) from Oslo to Kirkenes on the north Cape of Norway in winter. But you really need to talk to the 'airfreight' guys who run Chicago to LA nonstop in 72hours beating the airlines at their own game, and the Australians who run coast-to-coast using strict, self-imposed (yes, self-imposed) 'no alcohol' rules. Then there's Jo-burg to Cape Town in 13hours non-stop. Why? because of the hijack threat.
Like I said, many overlaps.
I'd be interested to know if any of you airline pilots have had fatique-induced hallucinations, and if so, what did you see?
Dantruck