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A truck driver selected seat position tool has been developed to describe where certain percentages of truck drivers position horizontally adjustable seats in various workspace arrangements. The curves describe the 2.5th, 5th, 10th, 50th, 90th, 95th, and 97.5th percentile accommodation levels expressed as H point locations aft of the Accommodation Heel Reference Point as a function of vehicle H-point height (H30). Separate equations describe the accommodation level for driver populations with male/female percentages of 50/50, 75/25 and from 90/10 to 95/5. The equations can be used as a design tool to estimate the location and length of horizontal seat travel to provide accommodation of target percentages of truck drivers. The equations can also be used as a checking tool to estimate the level of accommodation provided by a given horizontally adjustable seat track.

A small car packaging study investigated the effects of the wheel to pedal relationship on driver selected seat position. The horizontal seat positions of sixty subjects stratified by stature and sex to represent the general driving population were recorded in package configurations with three pedal to wheel distances and three pedal-wheel relationships to the interior surface of the vehicle (windshield header, pillar, glass and instrument panel surface). Subjects utilized comparable amounts of seat travel in all configurations. Pedal to wheel distance and pedal-wheel relationship to the interior surface of the vehicle affected seat position independently. When the heel point location was held constant and horizontal wheel location was moved forward in 45mm increments, the seat position distributions shifted forward 5 to 10mm.

Data from fourteen driver workspace studies have been used to develop a two dimensional model which defines driver selected horizontal seat position as a function of chair height for various percentile accomodation levels. The tool is referenced to a manikin ball of foot point and can be used for design and/or checking purposes.

This paper describes the philosophy and development of several functional anthropometric tools currently proposed for use in heavy truck workspace design. These functional tools are statistical models which describe the probabilistic location in heavy truck space of the body landmarks of populations of truck drivers with various percentages of males and females as a function of vehicle packaging parameters. Such tools provide the manufacturer with design flexibility to develop workspaces that maximize accommodation rather than restricting all manufacturers to one cab design dictated by design standards. Models in this paper were developed for truck driver populations with 50%/50%, 75%/25%, 90%/10%, and 95%/5% male to female ratios to enable design for a specific user group.