A Qualitative Study of Driving Behaviors of Professional Driving

Human error is a dominant factor in the occurrence of road traffic accidents. Professional drivers on the other hand are more likely to involve in road traffic accidents due to their long driving hours in traffic. However, par so many studies conducted on driving behaviors of professional drivers. Therefore, in the current study, it was aimed to investigate thoroughly the driving behaviors of professional drivers. For this reason, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 professional drivers. The interviews were content analyzed and the obtained behavioral examples were classified as error, ordinary and aggressive violation, and positive driver behavior. As a result of the study, it was found that professional driving differs from nonprofessional driving with some distinctive behavioral examples. Moreover, further distinction could be observed as a function of vehicle type. The results of the study were presented in detail and discussed