Field Study to Evaluate Driver Fatigue Performance in Air-Inflated Truck Seat Cushions - Objective Results

This study reports the objective results from a project investigating the effectiveness of several newly proposed metrics to compare fatigue performance between two distinct truck seat cushions, specifically standard foam versus air-inflated cushions. The subjective results from this project have shown the drivers in our study prefer the air-inflated seat cushion over their normal foam cushion, and that air-inflated seat cushions provide advantages in terms of comfort, support, and fatigue [1]. This study aims to further explore the differences between these two different seat cushions by highlighting the differences in objective pressure distribution measurements.

Road tests were performed using existing commercial trucks in the daily operations of Averitt Express. A retrofit air-inflated seat cushion was installed in the fleet's trucks, and the drivers were allowed to adjust to the seats over approximately one week. After this adjustment period, twelve drivers rode on both the air-inflated seat cushion and their original foam seat cushion during their regularly scheduled routes. Surveys were collected throughout the test sessions and the truck seats were fitted with instrumentation to capture physical measurements of seat pressure distribution.