Life on the road has become substantially more stressful in the past three years for commercial vehicle drivers, research reveals.
The survey of 200 van drivers by logistics firm Ryder asked questions about the stresses and strains of daily life on the road, what drivers do to alleviate them and how they feel about their jobs.
More than 80% of the drivers interviewed indicated that driving conditions have become more stressful over the past three years.
They feel the major cause is traffic jams resulting from the sheer volume of traffic now on the roads, with eight out of ten drivers indicating this was the one thing that made driving stressful for them.
This was followed by road works (64%), parking restrictions that have been introduced into many of high streets (47%), speed cameras (46%) and the pressure to deliver goods on time (36%).
“We all know anecdotally about the pressures, particularly on delivery drivers, but this is the first time we have attempted to quantify them,” said Nigel Godbolt, director of HR at Ryder Europe.
“As a provider of vehicles and an employer of drivers, we need this kind of information to help us plan strategies to work with our drivers and clients to help alleviate the stress that these external circumstances create,” he said.
Drivers hogging the middle lane on motorways, not indicating, and early starts/long hours were also quoted as sources of stress.
