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For driving efficiency it's comfort that counts

27th August 1983, Page 93
27th August 1983
Page 93
Page 93, 27th August 1983 — For driving efficiency it's comfort that counts
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

I ARRIVED early on Sunday in hot sunshine at the familiar surroundings of the NEC S2 Car Park, Birmingham, wondering how exacting my duties as an observer in the Commercial Motor 1,000 miles round-Britain Energy Conservation Run would be.

How would drivers, who, like their vehicles, were attuned to miserly running, react to the spy in the cab?

I need not have worried because one of the features of the run turned out to be the expertise of the 15 men who handled the so-called "juggernauts" in such a way that the unfavourable responses which we expected, and indeed were promised on the Edinburgh ring road, never materialised.

Not once during the four days running did I, or anyone else as far as I gathered, have to query any driver's technique and I settled down to making observations in other ways which could contribute to the data being gathered.

As an hgv driver myself I could not remember having sat for more than a few minutes in the passenger's seat before. I have often wondered why manufacturers fit them as standard because it is most unusual in these days for operators' schedules to have a requirement for a second man to "ride shot-gun".

As a former operator I recalled a period when I ordered new vehicles without the passenger's seat so that the space saved could be used for other purposes.

As one of the judges of the IBCAM International Bodywork Competition held at the NEC Motor Show, I remember the detailed attention given to the driver's seat, driving position, visibility, and so on, but there was hardly a mention of the second seat.

Now I was spending six or seven hours each day in four different makes of vehicles in this unfamiliar position.

It was unfortunate in a way that I had what turned out to be

the most comfortable time on the first day. Even so, I needed to move my legs to different positions to relieve the changing sorts of discomfort. A driver in control of the vehicle has to move his limbs in regular sequences, and quite rightly much thought has gone into the ergonomics on the offside.

After the first day I studied this aspect in as many cabs as I could and the first obvious feature was that the driver's cab seat is more sophisticated in every application although I was informed some makes provide the option of identical driver and passenger seats. In both positions there is a demand for a range of adjustments for differing size users but obviously greater care is taken of the driver.

Typical of the detailed thought which has gone into the design of such seats is the Sabell fitted to the lveco 190-30. Here, airsuspension is used and the pressure supporting the weight of the user can be adjusted from a supply fed from the vehicle's auxiliary tank. This arrangement caters for the varying states of leg fatigue which in some individuals will differ several times during the course of a spell in the seat.

One driver who did not have this type of facility commented to me that for the first two hours his cushion gave him armchair comfort but as time passed it became progressively more like a board.

Obviously such observations are most important because fatigue affects different people in a host of ways and over varying time scales. The common concept of driver fatigue being exclusively sleepiness is misleading and while this aspect is of paramount importance in terms of road safety, the subsidiary consideration of fatigue, that is, a falling off in performance in the context of handling the vehicle, has an insidious effect. The sceptic may scoff at theory, but even one day in observer's seat was an ed tion to me. The driver under

disciplines of scrupul, recognition of both the rule

the run and statutory regulat was under strain for four con utive days.

Without in any way wishin depreciate any of the vehicl says much for the tenacity o15 drivers that the remak fuel consumption figures 1, attained.

Operators studying the must not take it out of cor and appreciate that ancillary tors have to be considered.

After my experience I bel that driver comfort, in e sense of the word, is more portant than ever before. 01 another way, the best pa train the designer can provil not going to be used to its mum if the driver is not a best for the whole of the tirn is in his seat.

How the passenger's sea into the considerations deo, on whether a second ma needed and the time he sp, as a passenger. Ironically best passenger's seat I enc tered did not have a manufa er's name on it. Its design is plicity itself, it has a stra forward scissors action sioned by four pull-out spr A simple screw adjustment ers for any weight of user tailed thought went into characteristics of the spi and the whole design illust that a successful seat neer be complicated or expensiv(

The other important fact sufficient room and ader rails or rests to provide 1 variety of leg and posture tions. Frequently there is a flict of interests for call: space but some manufacti show great ingenuity in c mining this.

Fuel economy and prodt ity were the objects of thi but there were many othe sons learned, some of whic already being assimilated t chassis manufacturers.

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