HORIZON - Enhanced Sleeper Semi-Truck

The long-haul truck transportation industry is a crucial part of the global economy, providing essential goods to consumers in every country and locale around the world. Moving cargo and goods by truck requires driver operators to spend days or weeks on the road at a time. The work environment and the driver’s tasks can often have serious detrimental health effects on operators, which in turn results in very high turnover rates and high retraining costs across the industry. A lack of ergonomic innovation coupled with the repetitive nature of the job, lack of proper amenities and social isolation puts drivers at heightened risk of cardiometabolic diseases, musculoskeletal disorders, as well as anxiety and depression. How might we improve the livability and working conditions for long haul truck drivers? Research will be done to gain a general understanding of the topic, and user interviews and observations will be conducted to gain greater insight into the issues at hand. Research will be done on sleeper trucks and the findings will be used for a full ergonomic analysis. This analysis will greatly influence how the design is carried out. A solution will be designed to help the physical and mental well-being of long-haul truck drivers, and in turn help the overall trucking industry.