Personality and Bus drivers
At NGR we are on the constant hunt for studies that assess and connects different occupations with personality. By now we have a decent toolbox for the most common occupations. Which means that we have the "ideal" profile for everyone from an inner-sales person, software developers, entrepreneurs, engineers to.........even busdrivers. (and more)
Large truck and bus crashes still cause a high rate of fatalities and costs. The human factor still plays an important role in driving so it is obvious that there is great interest in predicting safe driving in professional drivers, especially with new technologies emerging to assist drivers.
With regard to relevant personality traits. The most important key factors include emotional stability, social responsibility, and subjectively accepted level of risk key factors (Sommer et al., 2008).
The traits can be divided into four different categories with relevant personality traits as under categories.
Goals for life and skills for living
Sense of responsibility
Self-control Risk avoidance Logical reasoning
Driving goals and context
Logical reasoning
Mastery of traffic situations
Gaining an overview
Reactive stress tolerance
Vehicle maneuvering
Concentration
Reaction time
With the exception of Sense of responsibility, correlation coefficients between the psychometric tests and performance in the on-road driving test were rather low and failed to reach the level of significance.
Only Concentration and Self-control showed correlation coefficients over 0.1.
For performance in the obstacle course, correlation coefficients with Gaining an overview, Reactive stress tolerance and Logical reasoning were statistically significant.
With regard to the maneuvering course, Gaining an overview and Logical reasoning showed statistically significant correlations.
In contrast to previous studies (Sommer et al., 2005; Sommer et al., 2008) logical reasoning, showed significant effects on driving performance in the exercises, whereas concentration and reaction time did not.
It also showed that different tests were relevant for the prediction of safe driving performance in different driving exercises.
Contrary to previous research, logical reasoning showed significant effects.
Mening that an IQ test as well as a personality profile, looking for low Neurotisism (N) might be a key for a good and safe professional driver.
