Fatigue Management within the mining industry

Fatigue hampers an individual’s ability to function. Couple this with the fact that it is difficult to self-identify fatigue levels and the health and safety risk increases even more - particularly within the mining industry.

“The emphasis placed on fatigue management has vastly increased, due to legislative and other compliance requirements (HSEQ & global operation standards) as well as learnings from industry best practices,” explains Henry Smith, Fleets Sales Director at MiX Telematics Africa, a leading global provider of fleet and mobile asset management solutions.

Smith says as technology develops and becomes more accessible and affordable, the industry is realising the value of fatigue monitoring solutions.

Impact on the mining industry

Mining has a high demand for strenuous work activities, and when fatigue becomes a factor there are many risks and hazards at play. Standard causes of fatigue include; long periods of shift work, issues with sleep as well as physically demanding fast-moving work.

Being fatigued significantly increases the risk of incidents. Tiredness can impair the ability to respond quickly and safely when a dangerous situation arises, and the results can be disastrous. The severity of incidents in a mining environment can quickly escalate from injury to fatality if not managed correctly.

Mines need to focus on HSEQ 24/7 due to the high-risk environment, the size of their operations and the specialised equipment used.

From a human resource perspective, the results of fatigue often lead to high stress or anxiety levels, underperformance, absenteeism, impulsiveness, poor decisionmaking, and reduced reaction times amongst other effects. The commercial impact as a result then becomes unplanned downtime in operations or equipment, increased incident rates and reputational damage.

Fatigue management, therefore, becomes key in the mining industry and service providers such as MiX Telematics specialise in providing technology that benefits multiple verticals in terms of compliance, efficiency, security, safety, and sustainability.

Employee Wellness & Staff retention

Staff retention and employee wellness are factors which are rapidly becoming codependent. Employees who work in highstress environments and industries with no concerted efforts on part of the employer to remedy poor working conditions, tend to be harder to retain.

Employees who feel they need to be more empowered with the relevant tools and resources tend to disengage from their employers/working environments which can be dangerous in several industries, especially mining.

“Thanks to the availability of data proving the impact of fatigue, work/life balance and employee wellness have become a global focus,” says explains Smith.

Current technology on the market

From a MiX Telematics perspective, the solutions offered are refined and developed continuously to meet customer demand. “As technology develops and becomes more accessible and affordable,; the industry is realising the value of fatigue monitoring solutions,” says Smith.

Advancements in AI-powered technology have improved fatigue detection. The MiX Vision AI dashcam solution uses advanced machine learning to monitor risky driving behaviours that could lead to fatal accidents. MiX Vision AI cameras are enabled with Advanced Driving Assistance (ADAS) giving the driver real-time coaching feedback on the trip, and the ability to review performance after the trip.

The in-cab and road-facing cameras help prevent collisions, alert drivers to risky driving behaviour and save on insurance costs from wrongful claims against drivers with the power of video footage available of incidents. The Driver Coach unit provides in-cab feedback on every trip which helps improve driver behaviour. AI video cameras alert on risky driving behaviours such as fatigue, distracted driving (including mobile phone use), seat belt usage, unintended lane departure, unsafe following distance and imminent forward collisions which are often precursors to the onset of fatigue.

Added onto the camera solution is the MiX Vision Bureau Gold service which offers an eyes-on-screen bureau service with key features such as the Driver Coaching Module, Driver Scorecard and Risk Profile which offer a view of driver trends to see improvements and/or declines in driver behaviour. Coaching that a driver needs to undergo for repeated offences to be avoided in the future is identified. The service also has a Health Service which ensures uptime of all MiX Vision AI cameras with regards to hardware failure and driver tampering.

MiX Track and React is a 24/7 bureau service that assists in proactively managing drivers and fleets in real-time. Critical event notifications, such as fatigue or the onset of fatigue, are brought to a driver’s attention, resulting in increased safety and fewer road accidents. A driver can immediately be notified through a solution like MiX Talk, a hands-free in-vehicle communication device that can be used to give real-time in-cab audio or verbal feedback to drivers when driving events occur.

MiX Hours of Service (HOS) is a driver fatigue management solution that facilitates the recording of driving and “not driving” states, without any driver input. This data from the vehicle is then made available to managers via MiX’s secure software platform for alerting, viewing, and auditing driver hours and rest stops.

All these solutions are supported by the MiX Fleet Manager Premium online platform, comprising a sophisticated onboard computer which collects and transmits valuable vehicle and driver data. Driving events such as harsh braking, speeding, excessive idling, over-revving, harsh cornering, and an impact sensor –give insight into driver behaviour which can indicate symptoms of fatigue.

The MyMiX App focuses on driver management and app-based tracking. It offers numerous modules including a driver scoring module for driver behaviour modification and risk reduction. The app scores drivers in relation to colleagues and aggregates trip data so that drivers and operators can view violations which can often be impacted by factors such as fatigue. This empowers drivers to view their own driving score. This is also a great tool to use for an employee rewards program based on driving data, rewarding good behaviour, and providing coaching to correct poor behaviour.

The launch of the new MiX KPI Manager is built to leverage MiX’s powerful embedded fleet data. MiX KPI Manager provides self-service analytics that is fully customisable by customers - allowing them to visually track their performance on specific issues impacting their fleet’s risk, safety, efficiency, and sustainability.

These solutions are data-driven and connect vehicles/assets, protect the operator/ driver, and offer actionable insights for managers or owners.

Strategies to manage fatigue within the mining industry

Awareness, engagement, and driver training strategies are key to identifying how significantly certain elements (such as fatigue) can affect the business. The more educated drivers (and organisations as a whole) are on the effects of fatigue and aware of the management systems in place to combat fatigue, the easier it becomes to keep drivers engaged and invested in the tools available to empower them and the business.

The future of fatigue management within the mining industry

Safety and compliance issues require technological solutions for proper fatigue management. “Five years ago, fatigue management systems monitored fatigue by only monitoring yawning. Today, telematics technology and AI have evolved so that additional indicators of fatigue, including the frequency of yawning, heart rate, breathing rates, eye closure, the position of a driver’s head (when it is not facing forward), drooping eyelids, and microsleeps can be monitored and recorded, “Smith explains. “Using technology to facilitate the management of human assets has a trickling-down effect on the vehicle assets of a business,” concludes Smith.

Visit www.mixtelematics.com/za for more information.

See an increased 10:1 return on investment when you use the combination of AI dashcams with vehicle telematics benefits +15% -20% -96% -25% +25%

Fuel savings: Typical rands per litre improvement

Maintenance cost: Typical maintenance reduction

Accident reduction: Typical collision reduction

Insurance reduction: Typical insurance cost reduction

Productivity Improvement: Utilisation productivity cost improvement