USDOT Seeking Proposals for Fatigue Management Techniques
IVsource.net
15 August 2000

USDOT's work in drowsy driver countermeasures research is well known within the IV community.  A new initiative, coming from another quarter of the Department, is focusing on the long-term effects of fatigue and ways to manage worker schedules, rest periods, etc., in order to keep truck drivers, railway operators, and other transportation operators fresh when they're at the job.

From a look at the government's solicitation, it appears there may be an opportunity for product developers and researchers in human factors and driver drowsiness to propose approaches that provide an opportunity for significant field testing of their techniques. A public meeting is planned for late August in the Washington, DC area to discuss the initiative.

As part of DOT's Program on Human-Centered Transportation Research (a $25M program including non-Federal partners), this solicitation seeks to fund the development and implementation of "methods, technologies, processes, and systems to detect and manage fatigue, and ensure operator alertness to minimize incidents."  The four-year partnership program includes both short and long-term research to develop and implement products and results to significantly reduce transportation incidents and fatalities. 

Although the procurement is being handled by RSPA, the program's impetus and program management comes from Robert Clark within the Transportation Policy office of the Office of the Secretary of Transportation.  This office runs the department's Safety Council and the Human Factors Coordinating Committee.

DOT plans to invest about $12M in this particular initiative over the next four years, starting in fiscal 2001.  It is structured in two complementary parts:  fatigue management, and advanced instructional technologies.  The current solicitation deals only with fatigue management.

As stated in the announcement, "the primary objective of the Operator Fatigue Management (OFM) is to develop, implement, and validate in operational settings the knowledge base, strategies, tools, and analytic systems to forecast and manage operator fatigue in transportation systems. The secondary objective of the OFM is to develop a methodology for evaluating the overall effectiveness of OFM programs."  Field tests are envisioned as part of the projects. 

Evaluation Tools Focus Offers Opportunity for Driver Behavior Monitoring

Three broad project areas are defined to guide proposers, only one of which has significant overlap with activities within the IV industry.  The first two focus areas -- developing a Fatigue Management Reference handbook and developing analytical systems -- are intended to support  "back room" management of a transportation operation:  scheduling work shifts, staffing, etc.  The third area, called "program evaluation tools and methods,"  seeks to "develop program evaluation methods, tools, and technology for capturing and collecting long-term data on fatigue and measuring its impact on the safety, mobility and other business/economic factors in the transportation industry."

The government is interested in going beyond short-term measurements of driver fatigue (the focus of significant research to date) to look at long-term effects.  While a "tactically" focused drowsy driver countermeasure device can ideally detect lapse of driving control and warn the driver to prevent a crash, a "strategic" approach is the idea in this initiative, to reduce long term health effects on drivers, liability from accidents, and staff turnover.  The government believes that better evaluation tools and methodology are needed to identify both the safety and business/ economic factors impacted by fatigued employees.   New methods and baseline measurements are sought to accurately assess these effects and evaluate the overall impacts, and to assess various operator fatigue management systems within a business context. 

Potentially, in-vehicle devices and techniques developed to detect momentary drowsiness could be adapted to the longer-term study of fatigue effects within this program, providing quantitative data tied directly to the operation of the vehicle.

DOT is soliciting proposals focusing on both short-term (12 months) and long-term (12-36 months) projects.  The long term projects could include extended operational testing.

BAA Offers an Opportunity for Creative Proposals

The government's chosen mechanism for seeking proposals is through a Broad Agency Announcement, an intentionally flexible procurement vehicle which allows the government to provide only a general description of its areas of interest, and then leave it open to proposers to provide innovative and creative approaches within this scope.  Proposals are not compared to each other, as in a competitive procurement, and multiple proposals can be awarded under a BAA.   Proposals of no more than 30 pages are sought, and the government "desires" a 50% cost share, with the government cost of projects awarded in the range of $100,000 to $500,000.  The solicitation (# BAA DTRS56-00-BAA-0007) calls for proposals by September 29.

Operator Fatigue Management Conference Planned for August

To kick off and help guide this program, USDOT's Safety Council is holding a conference entitled "Partnering for Transportation Safety -- Human-Centered Systems:  Operator Fatigue Management," to  be held in Tyson's Corner, Virginia -- located just beyond the Washington DC beltway -- on August 29-30.  According to an announcement letter from Eugene Conti, Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy, the intent of the conference is to hear from industry and labor representatives working to apply fatigue management techniques within their operations (the government hopes to enlist industry and labor as active collaborators as the program goes forward).

The meeting agenda includes an overview of human-centered program activities within DOT, a panel discussion of industry/labor approaches to fatigue management, descriptions of proposed operator fatigue management products and processes, and discussion of new ideas and processes to guide program planning.  Time is also allotted for Q&A regarding the Broad Agency Announcement.

The government believes that the success of this initiative is predicated on close relationships and partnerships with industry and labor, as they seek to develop fatigue management programs that meet both safety and productivity goals for transportation operators.

[Top]

... contact Cynthia Barzey, RSPA Contract Specialist,  at cynthia.barzey@rspa.dot.gov.
 

[Top]