As much as the trucking industry gives back and positively impacts the overall global economy, it’s often seen as dangerous due to high-risk truck-related accidents. To address driving behaviour, the Singaporean government has set in place strict regulations to ensure truck drivers drive recommended hours and stay safe and alert on the road.
Let’s dive in to see how exactly Singapore ensures truck driver safety with every mile.
After driving an estimated 11 hours back and forth transporting cargo or delivering materials between locations, sometimes the road rules may slip your mind, and you start focusing only on getting to your destination.
Then the hunger, hours of driving, and lack of sleep set in and even the goal of reaching your destination fades. What remains is a desperate need to rest, even if it means just shutting your eyes for a few seconds.
Before you know it, this trail of thought makes you drowsy, and your heavy vehicle, moving at 60 km/h, swerves into oncoming traffic, colliding with a passing vehicle that unfortunately gets fatally affected.
In a matter of seconds, an accident happens that could have been prevented. If it was your job to drive all day and night frequently, what challenges would you face that would influence your driving?
For truck drivers, these challenges are:
Due to the nature of their work, truck drivers have faced several safety issues in the past. Long hours on the road, unhealthy diets, and more have taken their toll and contributed to high levels of fatigue and distracted driving habits. This has resulted in road incidents from dozing off while driving due to drowsiness or causing accidents due to being distracted.
In fact, The US has gathered stats proving that drowsiness contributes to between an estimated 13% to 40% of all heavy-truck accidents are caused by fatigue, it further shows that fatigue-related accidents result in over 100,000 fatigue-related motor accidents per year in the US alone.
While Singapore is considered one of the safest countries in the world, consistently ranked in the top ten on the Institute of Economics and Peace’s Global Peace Index (GPI), it faces some challenges when it comes to road safety.
In efforts to protect not only their citizens but their truck drivers, certain rules and regulations have been put in place to ensure safe and aware driving is always practised on Singapore roads.
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One vital responsibility in fleet management is putting safety first to protect your in-field personnel, drivers, and other motorists on the road. To ensure this and uphold the safety of your drivers, it’s important to know what’s happening on the road at all times, get updates on your drivers’ performance and vehicle usage, and put safety measures in place for unplanned events.
This way of thinking has prompted the Singaporean government and fleet businesses to create strict driving rules and regulations to follow for peak driver safety standards for Singaporean commercial and heavy vehicles.
Depending on vehicle type, some goods vehicles aren’t allowed to be driven on expressways or through tunnels:
There are also restrictions based on the type of vehicle:
1. Light goods vehicles (LGVs)
2. Heavy goods vehicles (HGVs)
3. Very heavy goods vehicles (VHGVs)
As an answer to keeping a watchful eye on lorry usage and driving behaviour, these Singaporean entities: The Ministry of Manpower (MOM), the Land Transport Authority (LTA), the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and the Ministry of Transportation (MOT), have come together to issue and enforce new guidelines for lorry drivers.
1. General requirement for truck use
From 1 January 2023 to 1 July 2027, newly registered trucks need to be fitted with rain covers around all non-enclosed sides, with one side of the rain cover being transparent.
Additionally, vehicles with MLWs between 3,500 kg and 12,000 kg driven on Singaporean roads are required by law to be fitted with speed limiters. This tool is installed to ensure the speeding limit for heavy vehicles (60 km/h) is followed at all times. This is an effort to improve road safety and the behaviour of truck drivers.
2. Recommendation for truck drivers
It’s required that dual role drivers (drivers who don’t drive as their main role but are permitted to drive a truck to transport workers) have to work more than 6 hours in their shift and must take a 30-minute break before driving a truck.
Truck drivers who transport workers in the rear deck must have a “vehicle buddy” who sits in the passenger seat beside the driver who ensures the driver stays alert and is able to drive safely throughout the trip.
These rules align with the existing truck drivers' recommended driving hours of 14 hours, with 11 hours spent on driving. After this period, truck drivers cannot drive again until an off-duty rest period of another 10 hours.
These new rules can be added to the list of safety initiatives that set the tone for enhanced road safety, improved driver behaviour and reduced accidents.
To prove the level of commitment drivers have to road safety practices, here's a list of key driving trends that motorists exercise, no matter the size of their trucks, actively shaping safer roads.
1. Rule 13 (1) road traffic rules
No driver of any vehicle is allowed to make a U-turn at a road intersection, opening in a road divider, or junction unless permitted to make a U-turn by a road sign. If a driver is required to do a U-turn and is permitted to do so by a road sign, they must move near the right-hand edge of the roadway, give way to any on-coming vehicles, and turn only if safe to do so.
2. Four-second rule
This rule advises truck drivers to leave four seconds of distance between you and the
vehicle in front to react faster if anything happens and to have more time to stop. This rule is effective for driving on wet and frosty roads as trying to slow down on these roads would double the stopping distance, and doing it too late might result in you bumping into a car and causing an accident.
3. Two-second rule
This rule is mostly directed to drivers who own smaller vehicles and not heavy trucks. Similar to the four-second rule, it is another safe tailing rule that advises drivers to leave at least two seconds’ worth of distance between their vehicle and the one in front to avoid possible collision if the vehicle in front abruptly stops.
Here’s Cartrack’s take on this safe driving trend.
4. Road hogging driving offence
Vehicles obstructing other vehicles moving at fast speeds on the right-most lane are guilty of road going. According to the Land Transport Authority (LTA), this is an offence that can result in a fine of not more than S$1,000 demerit points on a licence, or imprisonment for up to three months.
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Apart from the permits drivers need to operate heavy vehicles, these vehicles also come with a set of rules for navigating blind spots and general safety.
Being able to drive accounting for your blind spots is a skill many drivers, even those with regular-sized vehicles, often struggle with. The issue becomes amplified when driving a heavy vehicle, as smaller vehicles around them become virtually invisible. Without properly navigating blind spots, it can create a dangerous environment that might damage other vehicles or even impact the lives of other drivers.
These blindspot safety rules are mainly for HGVs and VHGVs with a maximum laden weight of over 12,000 kg, such as cement mixers, tipper trucks, and tankers.
Since the 1st of April 2015, heavy vehicles have been required to have extra mirrors or camera systems to account for their blind spots. These extra features are used to make truck drivers aware of other vehicles and road users while driving, reducing the risk of accidents when heavy vehicles turn or change lanes.
If the vehicles were registered before the 1st of April 2015, fleet owners have to choose between retrofitting the blind spot mirrors or installing an A4 Fresnel lens on the passenger window that provides an extra downward view of any vulnerable vehicles.
If a heavy vehicle gets into an accident, there is a higher impact in terms of damage and lives affected, which is why these rules set for heavy vehicle drivers are regularly monitored. In efforts to lower the risk of these vehicles getting into accidents, the Singapore Police Force has a few road safety tips for truck drivers to consider:
To stay as safe and considerate as possible, they recommend drivers use their ROADSENSE acronym to remind drivers of safety steps to take:
Rest well when not working to reduce fatigue.
Observe your surroundings and never use a handheld device while driving.
Avoid tailgating and drive a safe distance behind other vehicles.
Do not hog the road/lanes. Always keep to your left.
Stay alert while driving.
Ensure your vehicle is maintained and checked properly before use.
Never drink and drive.
Speeding can lead to accidents. Always drive below the road speed or vehicle speed limit.
Ensure your vehicle is safe to drive by servicing the vehicle and performing checkups.
For fleet owners, they suggest educating, training and using incentives to encourage drivers to practice safer driving and follow the rules and regulations set by the Singaporean government.
If you are looking to leverage technology to uphold the safety of motorists and truck drivers on the roads, look no further than Cartrack.
Cartrack is here to offer advanced fleet management technology created to tackle all pain points businesses face without proper safety measures put in place and offer these benefits instead: boost driver behaviour, incentivise safety, lower insurance premiums, and reduce costly road incidents such as accidents or breakdowns.
Driver behaviour monitoring and analysis features for truck driver safety.
Cartrack provides risk reports that track unsafe driver habits such as harsh accelerations, cornering, braking, speeding, and even idling, and driver scorecards that show the driving
behaviour of drivers. These two help fleet managers assess the driver performance of their fleet and use the insight to offer solutions to improving driving skills or implementing safety.
Installing vehicle tracking units in your fleet offers live locations for all your vehicles. This allows you to ensure that your drivers remain on schedule, follow recommended routes without delays or unauthorised stops, and respond quickly to emergencies.
Our cameras monitor drivers in real-time, recording unsafe driving behaviours such as being distracted, fatigued, covering the camera lens, etc. By using our two-way in-cabin smart cameras, managers can communicate directly with drivers about their behaviour and receive immediate feedback from them, verbally and in action, enabling them to correct their behaviour before a fatal accident occurs quickly.
With the right Cartrack tools, fleet managers can take proactive steps to improve their safety approach. They can facilitate effective driver coaching, reduce accidents and their associated costs, and even lower vehicle insurance premiums.
If Cartrack offers all this and more, imagine what we can do for your fleet.
Using Cartrack’s advanced features and services, fleet managers in Singapore can ensure that their truck drivers operate in a safer, more efficient environment, benefiting both the drivers and the business.
Contact Cartrack and get a free quote today.
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Singapore’s driving rules and regulations are designed to improve truck driver safety. Get updated on the latest news and rules to support your fleet’s compliance.
