The cost and time required to retain drivers is well known to most fleets. One part of that approach has been to offer equipment specified to address driver comfort and convenience. Along with adequately powered vehicles, for example, higher interior trim levels, cab and sleeper amenities are common specifications for many fleets today. One specific choice fleets managers often make to help ensure driver comfort, health and safety is for driver’s seats.
Ergonomics in seat design is important because it is about the proper design of the equipment for safety, comfort and productivity. Today, technology has allowed manufacturers to design seats with greatly enhanced ergonomic value and comfort. Basic requirements for good driver seating include systems that help control posture and provide proper support to the hips, lower back, shoulders, thighs and arms while still allowing easy operation of all controls.
Taking measurements
Also important to address, according to Sears Seating, is anthropometrics. Because truck drivers vary in size and shape, the company notes, extensive anthropometric studies enable seats to be designed to accommodate that diversity. To build a database, for example, the manufacturer took 16 different measurements on nearly 200 male and female truck drivers. Measurements included arm reach, elbow rest height, hip breadth, sitting height, stomach breadth, thigh clearance and weight.
Also used by Sears to design truck seats is Pressure Mapping. Proper support is key to designing a truly comfortable ergonomic seat, the company relates. For that reason, cushion engineering is used to configure contours and foam density. Pressure mapping documents pressure inputs and produces a pressure image, which provides information that aids in selecting cushion materials and enhances comfort.
Another basic ergonomic seat requirement is to protect the operator from excessive shock and vibration. In the design of a seat suspension system, Sears relates, consideration must be given to vibration characteristics of the vehicle, including natural and input vibration frequency, amplitude and direction that are present on the operator platform.
With this information, the seat suspension system can be properly designed to isolate the operator from vibration. To achieve this objective, Sears employs Portable Data Acquisition Equipment to collect ride data from vehicles in the field. It measures the vibration and accelerations within the operator’s environment and copies, analyzes and stores the data for computer reproduction. A six-axis computer controlled ride simulator can then recreate the ride in a clinical environment from data acquired in the field, and that information can be used for testing and fine tuning a seat suspension system.
2.5 million combinations
National Seating, part of Commercial Vehicle Group’s Interior Systems Division, and the company that first introduced air suspended truck seats for Class 8 vehicles, also utilizes innovative processes that lead to truck driver’s seats designed for ergonomic comfort. The company’s fleet customers, in fact, have access to more than 2.5 million seat combinations and can choose a wide selection of features like lumbar support, cushion and back bolsters, and leg and thigh supports.
National Seating also has unveiled its Green Concept Seat. Introduced at the 2008 Mid-America Trucking Show, the special concept version of a National Seating High Performance Seat utilizes environmentally favorable “green” materials, according to the company, and features improved functioning with a reduced environmental impact. The Green Concept Seat, for example, uses special soy content foam that provides a reduction in petroleum requirements and is significantly friendlier to the environment.
The Green Concept Seat also utilizes bamboo fabric that possesses a natural anti-microbial property making it suitable for those sensitive to allergens. It helps reduce odors without the risk of allergic reactions sometimes associated with exposure to chemicals used to give other materials similar properties. The fibers of the bamboo plant are naturally porous, absorb more moisture and wick it away from the driver more efficiently. This provides a cooling effect and reduces perspiration generated when spending long periods of time in a seat.
Latest products
Another supplier that has built driver comfort into its latest truck seat products is Bostrom. The company’s Signature series, for example, has a Flex Support System, which it says provides increased and contoured seat and back foam for better ergonomics. Options on the Signature seats also include air operated lumbar supports, twin armrests and dual heavy-duty dampers. Many of these features, the company notes, are the result of extensive surveys of truck drivers and fleets aimed at determining comfort needs and making that information part of the design process.
Innovative options
Clinical studies, relates seat manufacturer Comfort Ride USA, have shown the importance of changing your body’s position and stimulating circulation during long periods behind the wheel. That not only reduces muscle fatigue and cramping, but can also increase the number of miles you can safely travel each day. For that reason, the company notes, it offers a variety of options so fleets can tailor seats to meet driver’s needs. Features of the manufacturer’s products include ergonomically designed cushions and innovative options to keep drivers fresher, safer, healthier and more productive.
Individual adjustment
Ergonomic sitting means that stresses on the spine are relieved as much as is possible, notes seat manufacturer RECARO. The lumbar support provided by the RECARO Airmatic-System, according to the company, allows for individual adjustment of the backrest to the spine with separately adjustable air chambers.
RECARO also notes that sweating when driving and damp clothes can lead to all kinds of respiratory and rheumatic problems. That, it says, is addressed by a unique ventilation system in the seat’s cushion and backrest. The RECARO Vent-System discharges moisture through breathable materials into the air ducts of the upholstery, from where fans installed inside the seat squab and backrest automatically emit it through ventilation slits in the back.
Truck seat suppliers
The very nature of driving a long haul truck means that drivers spend as many hours of service as possible in the driver’s seat. With that in mind, and the ongoing need to enhance driver retention efforts as much as possible, astute fleets are buying the latest seating options offered by the following industry suppliers:
Bostrom Seating
www.bostromseating.com
Comfort Ride USA
www.comfortride.com
Knoedler Manufacturers
www.knoedler.com
National Seating
www.cvgrp.com
RECARO
www.recaro.com
Sears Seating
www.searsseating.com
Seats, Inc.
www.seatsinc.com
Wise Seating
www.wiseseats.com