Risk Perception and Drivers’ Characteristic among Haulage Companies in Rivers State, Nigeria

The study examined the relationship between risk perception and driver characteristics among haulage companies' drivers in River State, Nigeria. A total of 210 copies of the questionnaire were administered among 20 haulage companies, and the retrieved questionnaire was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as frequency counts, percentage and spearman rank. On the drivers’ characteristics, the outcome showed that respondents were driving haulage vehicles in the last 6-10 years (62.9%) and driving 13-16 hours (67.6%) in one trip (86.2%). The analysis revealed that most respondents disagreed with various risk perceptions, such as the skills required for handling haulage vehicles are similar to that of other vehicles (91.9%), and anyone with driving experience can handle haulage vehicles (86.7%). The Spearman Rank analysis revealed that there was no significant relationship between risk perception index and years of driving haulage vehicle (where p-value > 0.05, p= 0.069), duration of driving for the current company (where p-value > 0.05, p= 0.488) and numbers of hours driving daily (where p-value > 0.05, p= 0.094). However, the analysis showed a significant relationship between the risk perception index and the number of trips per day (where p-value < 0.05, p=0.000). The correlation coefficient (r) of the relationship between risk perception and drivers' characteristics was weak and negative (where r = -0.126, -0.048, -0.117 and -0.374, respectively). It was concluded that drivers of the haulage showed positive risk perceptions towards the safety and handling activities related to haulage activities, and how these drivers perceived risk in their activities can influence their driving behaviour.