Who is reporting their fatigue concerns to us and why?

11 January 2024

We’ve taken a closer look at the fatigue-related reports we received between April 2021 and October 2023 to see what they can tell us. Can you use these insights to help your own organisation manage fatigue?

Around 10% of CIRAS reports relate to fatigue. For reports to supply chain members this rises to 26%. For concerns raised by signallers, this rises to 33%.
Fatigue continues to be a topic of concern for transport workers who recognise that not only does it impact their own health and wellbeing, it has potential to impact system safety with potentially tragic consequences.

Fatigue doesn’t make up a big share of the reports we receive. It remains consistently at around 10% of CIRAS reports each year. There were 59 CIRAS reports about fatigue from the start of the 2021/22 financial year to period 7 of the 2023/24 financial year (about halfway through the year, in October). Fatigue accounted for 11% of all CIRAS reports during that time.

Fatigue concerns to CIRAS over three financial years 20/21 to period 7 in 23/24

By period 7 of 2023/24, we had sent slightly more fatigue reports to our member companies than in the same period of time in previous years. Could we see more fatigue reports by the end of 2023/24 than we did in 2022/23?

Fatigue reports to CIRAS from period 1 to 7 over 21/22 to 23/24

Who’s reporting fatigue to CIRAS?

The graph below shows that train operating companies (TOCs) have received the most fatigue-related CIRAS reports by count, but the table underneath it shows that, as a share of all reports received, fatigue only makes up 12% of reports for TOCs. Compared with TOCs, the supply chain has far fewer CIRAS reports about fatigue, but a higher proportion of the CIRAS reports it receives are about fatigue (26%).

Top five sectors to receive a fatigue-related report from 21/22 to period 7 of 23/24

TOCs are historically the biggest recipients of CIRAS reports, accounting for around 40% of reports each year since 2021/22. Linked to this, most fatigue reports we receive are from train crew.

Who makes fatigue reports to CIRAS 21/22 to period 7 of 23/24

Despite train crew frequently reporting on fatigue, fatigue does not constitute a significant portion of all reports made by this group of staff (13%). In comparison to other job roles, reports of fatigue were most prevalent among signallers, accounting for 33% of the reports they made.

Which work locations are our fatigue reports about?

On board train

This represents reporters concerned about their ability to focus while driving a train or dispatching services.

Station/transport hub

In these reports, reporters to CIRAS were concerned that station-based staff were not getting adequate breaks due to new or revised rosters. Some of the reports have also been about the workload negatively impacting on staff being able to take breaks.

Depot

Similarly, fatigue reports related to depots were concerned with under-staffing, and that an inability to control workload meant that depot-based staff were becoming fatigued.

Signalling or control centre

Fatigue reports related to signalling or control centres were almost all about signallers not being able to take breaks due to low staffing levels, including not having enough staff to relieve others so that they could take breaks. Reporters were concerned that signallers being fatigued could contribute to a train accident.

Themes linked with fatigue

CIRAS reports can be tagged with more than one of our themes. Analysis shows that fatigue is often tagged alongside other themes such as those shown in the graph below: health and wellbeing, rules and procedure, equipment, and the person’s environment.

Themes also coded for fatigue 21/22 to period 7 of 23/24

Health and wellbeing is the theme coded together with fatigue most often in our reports. The conditions that contribute to fatigue can negatively impact the health and wellbeing of staff in other ways. But not every reporter who raised a concern about fatigue expressed concerns for their wellbeing or health.

The type of reports we coded with both fatigue and the health and wellbeing theme included those about staff feeling pressured to keep up with workload, and concerns over poor working conditions that could negatively impact health and wellbeing, such as not being able to take personal needs breaks.

Reports where the equipment and person’s environment themes are coded with fatigue show that external conditions – typically temperature – can contribute to fatigue, and so these conditions need to be controlled for, typically using equipment. Examples included reports where faulty or ineffective air conditioning on trains or buses meant on-board temperatures could not be controlled and so drivers were feeling fatigued.

Root cause of fatigue reports

Perceived root causes of fatigue concerns 21/22 to period 7 of 23/24

Reporters tell us their view of the root cause of their concern, and we classify these as set out above.

To no surprise, most CIRAS reports about fatigue in the time period covered by this article had a root cause that we classified as rostering. In more detail, this included the design of shifts, or when the reporter believed there was an insufficient number of staff on the roster.

Risk management was the second most associated root cause with our fatigue reports. Reporters explained that fatigue had been reported internally, but they believed the issue had not been adequately resolved.

Cost-cutting measures are also included in the risk management root cause classification. In instances where cost-cutting was mentioned, reporters felt that cost-cutting measures were contributing to conditions that might lead to fatigued staff. For example, air conditioning not being replaced or fixed in time for upcoming hot weather, and companies not being able to recruit for more staff due to financial constraints.