Regulatory and Legal Frameworks for Managing Fatigue in Transportation

Fatigue management in the transport sector has undergone significant changes in recent decades. Broadly, there has been a shift from prescriptive rule sets where hours of work were managed via established limits (typically with significant union involvement) towards the inclusion of fatigue as a hazard within workplace safety management systems. Current legal and regulatory requirements differ between transport industries (e.g., aviation, road transport, and rail), with differing degrees of prescription and/or flexibility. Typically, industries with international regulation (e.g., aviation maritime transport) tend to display more advanced risk—or performance-based regulatory systems. There are significant future challenges for transport industries, including the implementation of these less prescriptive systems, and challenges surrounding the regulation of fatigue in non-work transport contexts.