Saving Drivers' Backs
A brand new custom seat can go a long way toward comfort in the cab. But showing drivers how to adjust their existing seat can really help.
By Tom Berg,
Senior Equipment Editor
Oh, my achin' back – or buttocks, or legs. Aches and pains are part of a driver's life. Long hours behind the wheel make for a sedentary lifestyle.
Is the seat they're sitting in right? If you're an owner-operator, and own the truck the seat's in, you might be looking to replace what's now in your truck with something that can give your back more support. And some fleets are investing in high-end seats to help prevent driver injury and keep good drivers content.
Odds are you might not have to spec new seats to help drivers be more comfortable. You probably can make better use of the seats you already have.
That's what they're saying at Schneider National Inc., which improved life for its many drivers by teaching them to properly set the seats in its Freightliner Century tractors.
Schneider buys a good quality, multi-adjustable seat, yet the company says it still got a lot of complaints.
Enter Atlas Ergonomics – a company that specializes in training people how to properly use industrial equipment and office furniture. Atlas conducted a "discomfort survey" of Schneider's drivers, listening to their complaints and offering a training program for those who seemed to need special attention. Physical therapists measured drivers' bodies, and those dimensions were used to show drivers how to adjust their seats.
In a "marking" step, the seat settings that made them more comfortable were noted by numbers on the various controls, and then recorded on a laminated card given to each driver. This system has become part of Schneider's driver training procedures, only now company trainers do the measuring and instructing.
You'd think drivers could figure out how to adjust their seats all by themselves, but there are nine adjustments on the seat Schneider specs – plus three more in the truck's tilt-and-telescoping steering wheel and column. It was apparent that drivers weren't using all of them.
Schneider says it started the program to help its drivers, all the while hoping for a payback from the expenses involved. It's getting just that. After the first six months, driver complaints of discomfort dropped by 47 percent and there were 114 fewer lost-time injuries, both inside and outside the cab. Atlas says the positive results come from reducing stresses as well as discomfort. And some of those back injuries from loading and unloading that used to occur outside the cab also diminished.
Better Seats Available
While some fleets have tended to order simple seats to save money, more and more companies spec higher-quality perches because they know they have to keep increasingly scarce drivers happy. The trends toward better seats has grown in the last five or so years, suppliers and truck builders say. Owner-operators meanwhile have been more likely to buy upscale seats, either in new trucks or as replacements, because they're the ones who have to sit in them.
Truck manufacturers try to provide good seats for the money their customers are willing to spend. They supply low-cost "base" seats to stay cost-competitive, while offering better seats for nominal upcharges. An optional seat with more features and comfort potential can be had for $200 to $500 or so; a complete deluxe aftermarket seat might run $1,000 to $1,500.
Some builders have proprietary seats with many features made specifically for them by seat manufacturers. Sometimes these are the manufacturers' deluxe models with special foam, coverings, air bladders that "cycle" up and down, or other unique items that are included only in those proprietary products. Truck dealers can order and install almost any seat for you, or you can contact the seat manufacturers.
Comfort Ride, Bostrom, Knoedler, Isringhausen, National, Seats Inc. and Sears supply products to truck builders, and most will sell directly to you. You can install a seat yourself if you're handy, or have a dealer or competent shop do it. Be aware that government regulations (specifically, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Standard 207) require minimum yield strengths for seat and seatbelt mounts; seat manufacturers and truck builders test for this. The tests are so severe with such high "g" forces that any human belted into a seat would probably not survive, one builder told us. So an aftermarket installation that approximates the original mounting is almost certainly as safe as you could stand in a wreck.
Standard To Sublime
The standard driver's seat in almost every Class 8 truck is air-suspended with a low back and a plain but rugged vinyl covering, and several basic adjustments. The passenger's seat might look like the driver's seat, but is often solidly mounted, with no suspension and maybe fewer adjustments.
The next step up would be a seat with cloth covering – less sticky than vinyl – or leather, which can both look and feel nicer. A few seats use a combination of vinyl and cloth or cloth and leather. Some really nice-looking coverings are now offered by some builders; these tend to come on more upscale seats in cabs with fancier interiors.
A high back and more adjustments, including a head rest, lumbar and bolster supports for the lower back and thighs, arm rests, will be included in truck builders' proprietary products and certain optional seats. Tilting seat pans, heating elements, cooling fans and wider-than-standard cushions are among the niceties in higher-end seats.
Of course, wider cushions are not just nice, but necessary for big people. As we've seen in recent news reports, a growing percentage of America's population is obese, and some of these folks work as truck drivers. They may be beyond the 95 percent of people for whom most seats are designed. Standard cushion width is around 18 inches, and this is not only sufficient for many people but also offers better lateral support than an overly wide seat. Some upscale seat models have cushions 20 to 22 inches wide.
Big people are also heavy, and some weigh more than the maximum of 350 or so pounds that most seat suspensions are designed to handle. Such people should be accommodated with heavier-duty suspensions that can take increased weight; these are optional in new trucks and available as replacements for seats that have worn out or broken – something that will happen sooner than usual if a "Class 8" guy or gal has been driving the truck. Some manufacturers offer seat suspensions that'll carry up to 500 pounds.
Seat cushions and suspensions, in fact, are the first things to look at and test when considering optional or aftermarket seats, manufacturers say. If the seat looks comfortable, it probably will be. But don't confuse cushiness – that is, softness – with comfort. Sit in the seat a while, either in a truck or at a truck show display, and note what pressure points the seat has and how these affect sensitive parts of your body. If you've got problems with pain or numbness in your back or thighs, observe how the seat alleviates or aggravates those problems. And remember: After a long day in the saddle, firm cushions might turn out to be more supportive and comfortable than soft ones.
Along with enough weight capacity, the suspension should have sufficient vertical travel after you've set its height to avoid bottoming out. Some manufacturers offer "low rider" seats with special suspensions that will work when the seat pan is comparatively close to the floor. These go to short people and those who just like the low-rider style.
By the way, medium-duty trucks with no air systems often make do with mechanical suspensions or solid mounts. But they don't necessarily have to because several builders offer air-sprung seats with their own electrically powered air compressors. The roof must be high enough to allow the driver's head to bob upward, of course. Commercial light-duty trucks tend to have low roofs that prevent use of air-ride seats, but such trucks tend to ride pretty well in the first place.
Swiveling bases are included by some truck builders in their proprietary products and are optional in others. Turning the seat toward the center of the truck makes it easier to get up and move into the sleeper; turning the seat around so it faces the sleeper converts the seat to an easy chair, and creates a sitting area that, in effect, enlarges the space in the sleeper. If you're thinking of getting a swiveling seat, be sure the cab is big enough and the steering wheel and column can be moved out of the way to allow the seat to move. If not, you might just have another source of aggravation.
Drivers' Backs continued...
HDT thanks the following industry representatives for their help in preparing this article:
• John Dittmar, product sales manager, Bostrom Seating
• Jennifer Buland, sales and customer service representative, Comfort Ride USA
• Jennifer Harris, product manager, Freightliner Trucks, LLC, and Susan Gullik, account representative, Landau Public Relations, for Sterling and Western Star Trucks
• Peter Van Niekerk, product marketing manager, Isringhausen USA
• Jeff Parietti, public relations manager, Kenworth Truck Co.
• Joerg Pohlmann, marketing and public relations, Knoedler Manufacturer
• Jerry Warmkessel, sales engineer, and John Walsh, trade relations manager, Mack Trucks Inc.
• Steve Wittau, division engineering, cab & interior, and Derek Smith, senior marketing communications manager, Peterbilt Motors Co.
• Don Osterberg, vice president, safety & training, Schneider National Inc., and Drew Bossen, executive vice president, Atlas Ergonomics LLC
• Frank Bio, truck product manager, and Jim McNamara, senior communications manager, Volvo Trucks North America
