Milestone

This app is part of the MILESTONE research (https://www.uhasselt.be/nl/instituut/het-instituut-voor-mobiliteit-imob/portfolio/milestone) in which technological interventions are developed and tested to combat difficult working conditions, reduce stress and negative health effects of professional drivers. Only MILESTONE participants can use this app.

Professional drivers in freight transport often experience difficult, exhausting and stressful working conditions for various reasons: irregular sleep patterns, uncertainty in traffic (e.g. delays, lack of parking spaces), frequently changing schedules, busy schedules, a lot of time away from home, etc. These working conditions can lead to important health problems (such as fatigue, chronic stress, depression) with a significant impact on road safety.

According to the International Road Transport Union, Europe is currently facing the most acute driver shortage in decades. At the same time, growth in road freight volume and structural growth in courier and parcel services are expected in the coming decades.

The driver shortage endangers the further growth of the road transport sector. Technology will play an important role in making road transport safer and more efficient. The general objective of MILESTONE is therefore to develop and test technological interventions

This app is used to collect the data for this study, and at a later stage also to administer the interventions.

All participants will be monitored during road rides for 1 month. The participant must drive as he or she would normally drive, and carries out their daily professional activities as they normally do.
- The participant is asked to wear a wearable 24/7 for a month (the same as in the previous steps), with which we can map their amount of sleep and stress.
- The participant is asked to install this app on his smartphone, in which a few questions are answered per day. For these questions, the participant gives a score at the end of the working day about his subjective sleepiness, sleep quality, stress and thermal comfort.
- A number of sensors will be installed in the participant's vehicle to map environmental values ​​(e.g. temperature, humidity, CO2) on the one hand and to record driving behavior (e.g. acceleration, speed) on the other.

By linking the data from the wearable with the subjective scales, the data from the app and the sensors, we can determine the relationship between the amount of sleep, drowsiness, stress and driving behavior in real-life practical driving conditions.

In a later phase, this app will be used to monitor participants while testing the interventions within MILESTONE, some of which are also administered by the app:

- Intervention 1: The participant receives real-time triggers when experiencing acute stress. These warning messages aim to prevent it from entering a high stress level.
- Intervention 2: The participant receives personalized feedback and advice, related to reducing their chronic stress.
- Intervention 3: The participant receives real-time triggers when experiencing acute stress, as well as personalized feedback and advice related to reducing their chronic stress.
- Intervention 4: The participant receives exercise therapy via the app, based on principles of high-intensity training exercises.
- Active control group: The participant receives a traditional form of therapy to reduce stress, e.g. mindfulness.
- Passive control group: The participant receives no intervention or advice, but is only monitored during the study period.