Comparison of the total workload of local public transportation drivers with a new approach according to physical and mental workload criteria

The drivers working in the local public transportation may face with musculoskeletal system problems as a result of their working style and they may feel mentally great pressure and fatigue and the workloads of drivers increase. It is extremely important to determine and reduce the total workload of drivers in order to ensure public transport in a safe manner. The total workload evaluation may be considered as a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problem caused by conflicting mental and physical workload criteria. In this study, an integrated approach of AHP and COPRAS methods, which is one of MCDM methods, was used to compare the drivers in terms of total workload criteria. Firstly; while NASA-TLX method criteria were considered as mental workload criteria; physical workload criteria were determined by considering the body parts in REBA method especially depending on the continuous and repeated working positions of the drivers. Then, the weights of the criteria were determined by AHP method and sixty drivers were compared with COPRAS method in terms of total workload by using these weights. The most important criteria were identified as time pressure on the drivers working for a Metropolitan Municipality, while the neck part of body was found to have more strain than the other body parts. According to the results of the study, measures to be taken to reduce the workload of drivers are presented. As a conclusion, it is thought that this study will contribute to the literature since there is no study that analyzes the total workload for drivers mentally and physically by MCDM methods.