A Comparative Analysis of Mental Workload between Train and Bus Drivers

Abstract

Human error is one of the crucial problems in land transport, sea transport, and air transport that inflicting some undesirable occurrence such as delay, cancellation, or accident. This incident causes inconvenience and apprehension for passengers. Hence, drivers should avoid some errors in driving by improving alertness and reducing the excessive workload. This study presents a comparative study about mental workload between train and bus drivers based on subjective and objective criteria. NASA-TLX method is used to measure subjective variables by distributing questionnaires. While the content of a drivers’ Salivary α-amylase (SAA) is measured as an objective parameter before and after driving. 30 drivers are participated in this study who have experience for more than 3 years. Statistical analysis is conducted to test the hypothesis for a difference. The result of this study shows that bus drivers’ SAA level is significantly higher (Asymp. Sig. 0.49) than train drivers for both before (91.99 kU/l) and after (83.19 kU/l) driving activity. Similarly, weighted workload subjectively of bus drivers’ mental workload (1051) is higher than train drivers (1031) insignificantly (Asymp. Sig. 0.561).