Chapter 40.4: Mental Health and Well Being of Occupational Road Users
Abstract
Occupational road users (ORUs) including truck drivers, couriers, rideshare operators, and emergency service personnel face unique psychosocial risks arising from long hours, isolation, high job demands, and exposure to traumatic events. These factors influence both mental health and road safety outcomes, yet they remain underrepresented in traditional OHS risk management frameworks.
This chapter examines the complex relationship between psychological wellbeing and safe driving performance, highlighting how unmanaged mental health risks can impair cognition, decision-making, and hazard perception. Drawing on contemporary research, legislative developments, and national initiatives, it presents practical strategies for OHS professionals to identify, assess, and control psychosocial hazards across individual, organisational, and regulatory levels.
Emphasis is placed on authentic consultation, integration of mental health into safety management systems, and the use of evidence-informed frameworks. The chapter also provides tools for selecting and evaluating mental-health interventions before implementation, ensuring that programs are credible, feasible, and ethically sound. Collectively, it positions the OHS professional as a key influencer in embedding psychological health and safety into everyday practice, strengthening both worker wellbeing and public safety on the road.
Keywords:
Occupational road users; mental health; psychosocial hazards; psychological safety; wellbeing; transport safety; OHS management systems; ISO 45003; peer support; evaluation; consultation.
First year of publication: 2026
Chapter 40.4: Mental Health and Well Being of Occupational Road Users
Table of contents
| 1 | Introduction |
| 1.1 | Purpose |
| 1.2 | Scope |
| 1.3 | Acronyms |
| 1.4 | Definitions |
| 2 | Heavy Vehicle Transport Industry (HVTI) |
| 3 | Legislation |
| 3.1 | Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) |
| 3.2 | Western Australia’s Legislation |
| 3.4 | Northern Territory |
| 3.5 | Who are the Parties in the Heavy Vehicle Transport System |
| 3.6 | Heavy Vehicle Definitions, Classes and Licence |
| 3.6.1 | General Access Vehicles |
| 3.6.2 | Restricted Access Vehicles |
| 3.6.3 | Licensing |
| 3.6.4 | Drivers Licence |
| 3.6.5 | International Drivers |
| 3.7 | Driver |
| 3.8 | Implications of legislative frameworks |
| 4 | Economic and Organisational Influences on Driver Behaviour |
| 4.1 | System Drivers |
| 4.2 | Organisational Factors |
| 4.3 | Driver Pressures |
| 4.4 | Behavioural Outcomes |
| 4.5 | Safety and System Impacts |
| 5 | The Role of Industry Advocacy in Heavy Vehicle Safety |
| 5.1 | Partnership and the Role of Insurance Stakeholders |
| 5.2 | Alignment with Socio-Technical and Safety Systems Thinking |
| 5.3 | Collaborative Governance and Systemic Improvement |
| 6 | Aligning to the Pillars of Road Safety |
| 6.1 | Heavy Vehicle Transport System Shared Responsibilities |
| 7 | Safety Management System Approach |
| 7.1 | Risk Management & Verification |
| 7.2 | Auditing & Compliance |
| 7.2.1 | Internal Audits |
| 7.2.2 | External Audits |
| 7.2.3 | Accreditation |
| 7.3 | Reducing Audit Burden Through Audit Recognition |
| 7.3.1 | Fitness for Duty |
| 7.4 | Fitness for Duty – Responsibilities |
| 7.4.1 | Medical Assessments |
| 7.4.1.1 | Pre-employment Medical Assessments |
| 7.4.2 | Commercial Drivers Medical Assessments (CDMS) |
| 7.5 | Drivers and their Health & Well Being |
| 7.5.1 | Psychosocial Health |
| 7.5.2 | Managing Drivers’ Psychosocial Health |
| 7.5.3 | Chronic Disease Risks |
| 7.5.4 | Diet and Exercise |
| 7.6 | Fatigue Management |
| 7.6.1 | Sleep and Occupational Barriers |
| 7.7 | Mobile Device Management |
| 7.8 | Distraction Management |
| 7.9 | Drug and Alcohol Testing |
| 7.10 | Speed Management |
| 7.11 | Mass, Dimension, Load Restraint |
| 7.12 | Vehicle Maintenance |
| 7.13 | Event Investigations |
| 7.13.1 | Importance of Blame-Free Investigations |
| 7.13.2 | Identifying Contributing and Underlying Causes |
| 7.13.3 | Embedding Lessons Learned and Corrective Actions |
| 7.14 | Technologies and Telematics Integration |
| 7.14.1 | Organisational Implementation of In-Vehicle Safety Technologies |
| 7.14.2 | Specialised Detection and Vehicle-Based Safety Systems |
| 7.14.3 | Integration of Advanced Vehicle Safety Technologies |
| 7.14.4 | Maintenance, Monitoring, and Continuous Assurance |
| 7.14.5 | Policy, Governance, and Driver Engagement |
| 7.15 | Recruitment |
| 7.16 | Job Descriptions |
| 7.17 | Organisational Culture |
| 8 | Data Analysis to Reduce Risk |
| 8.1 | Continuous Data Review and Organisational Learning |
| 8.2 | Data-Driven Risk Identification and Hot-Spotting |
| 8.3 | Integrating Analysis into Safety Management Systems |
| 9 | Summary |
| 10 | Resources |
| 11 | References |
| Appendix A: | Integration of Heavy Vehicle Management System Elements within ISO 45001:2018 |
Dr Marilyn Hubner PhD, BAppSci(Hons), MEd, FAIHS
With a military background and qualifications in education and OHS, Marilyn specialises in activities around OHS capability and related aspects of OHS training and competency. Marilyn is a highly experienced safety professional and educator with over 30 years of experience in the field. She specialises in providing relevant, engaging, and practical learning interventions that enable empowerment and capability development. Her diverse professional background and international perspective have shaped a comprehensive and practical understanding of OHS principles.
Alastair Milne GradCert BusPsych, GradDip AnalytSci, BSc EnvSci, AdvDip WHS, NEBOSH GradCert OHS
Principal and Director, Curam Consulting
Alastair is a multidisciplinarian educator in the fields of mental health, OHS, leadership and life skills. He specialises in creating psychological safety to facilitate learning and facilitates on behalf of several credible organisations. He has studied Environmental Science, Analytical Chemistry, Business Psychology and at the time of writing, Tertiary Education.
Alastair’s near 30-year experience includes a variety of disciplines including chemistry, oil and gas, sales, OHS leadership, consulting and facilitation. He is a former OHS Manager, Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management (WA), Mental Health First Aid instructor, ICF Coach, AIHS COHSPrac and Psychological Safety practitioner. Alastair is actively involved in advocating for the OHS Body of Knowledge.
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Learning Outcomes:
The OHS Body of Knowledge takes a conceptual approach which enables it to be applied in different contexts and frameworks.
To optimise its value for education and professional development learning outcomes have been developed for each technical chapter in the Body of Knowledge.
The learning outcomes as described give an indication of what should be the capabilities of an OHS professional; it is up to those developing OHS education programs, OHS professionals planning their CPD or recruiters or employers selecting or developing people for the OHS function to consider the required breadth vs. depth .
Please read the section on using the learning outcomes before delving into the leaning outcomes of the individual chapters.
The numbers against each learning outcome refer to the chapter number of the BOK download page. No learning outcomes have been developed for the chapters considered introductory or underpinning knowledge (that is chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 1, .13, 14, 15.)