Modern trucking increasingly involves digital monitoring through telematics and in-cab cameras, introduced for safety. When these are used as tools to micro-manage drivers, they become a significant psychosocial risk and a source of chronic stress. It can also lead to data privacy violations, as drivers' highly sensitive biometrics and personal habits are routinely stored without explicit consent, and used to dynamically adjust transport rates.
For drivers who work and live in their trucks, constant biometric monitoring - eye tracking and fatigue sensors - represents an excessive intrusion into their private lives and can lead to exhaustion, anxiety and other mental health issues. The high volume of real-time in-cab notifications, flashing screens and auditory alerts from dispatch software acts as a major cognitive hazard, causing driver distraction and paradoxically increasing collision risks on the road.
For migrant workers, technology also acts as a digital barrier that reinforces legal and social isolation, particularly where dispatching apps and in-cab interfaces are not available in the driver’s own language.
When these algorithms are used to set unrealistic performance targets or trigger automated disciplinary actions without human oversight, they directly undermine the right to fair working conditions and an effective legal remedy.
Automated driving operations pose significant and changing risks as the technology develops. Existing and new automated vehicle technologies vary from breaking assistance to fully automated, ‘self-driving’ vehicles. Each potentially poses a variety of unique safety and health risks. Each introduction of new technology and degree of automation therefore requires bespoke training and expertise, and significant investment in, and continued resources for rigorous training regimes for existing and new drivers.
For more on new technology, see the Risks Across Transport guidance.