Foreign Drivers Research Articles

A novel spherical decision-making model for measuring the separateness of preferences for drivers’ behavior factors associated with road traffic accidents

Enhancing road safety through a more effective understanding of drivers' behavior is a viable approach to curbing traffic collisions. When evaluating driving behavior, the selection of methodologies is diverse, often facing scrutiny. This study aims to detect, compare and quantify critical drivers' behavior factors concerning road safety in Budapest, Hungary. Employing the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) within a spherical fuzzy framework, based on Spherical Fuzzy Sets (SFS), we assess driver preferences. Kendall's test gauges’ agreement levels among hierarchical driver groups. At Level 1, our Spherical Fuzzy AHP (SFAHP) identifies 'Lapses' as crucial, followed by 'Errors' for experienced and young drivers. However, foreign drivers prioritize 'Errors' and 'Violations.' At Level 2, “Aggressive violations” prevails across all groups, contrasting with “Ordinary violations.” At Level 3, “Driving with alcohol use” reigns supreme. Kendall's concordance demonstrates low similarity at Level 1, while strong agreement surfaces for Levels 2 and 3. Our insights can empower transportation authorities to bolster road safety strategies by addressing these pivotal behavior factors.

On foreign drivers of emerging markets fluctuations

We quantify the fraction of business cycles fluctuations in emerging markets explained by the combined dynamics of a set of common external drivers. By means of specific constraints on a state-space model fitted to a panel of real, financial and commodity price data for twelve emerging economies, we single out financial, commodity and growth common factors driving jointly a third of GDP fluctuations. Our partition of foreign shocks faced by emerging markets offers new insights into the primitive sources of emerging market cycles and feeds policy discussions in terms of the effects of global financial cycles versus commodity prices. Even when we control for the presence of financial cycles, fluctuations in commodity prices play a predominant role on the performance of emerging markets.

Attacks on road-freight transporters: a threat to trade participation for landlocked countries in Southern Africa

South Africa hosts some of the busiest maritime ports which are gateway ports to several landlocked countries in the region. Road transportation is the main modality for moving goods between seaports and hinterland within South Africa and beyond to at least six landlocked countries in the region. However, the high rate of violent crime against freight trucks and vans has for many years been a major known risk to the road freight transport industry. Traditionally, these crimes have been motivated by monetary proceeds from sales of stolen goods from hijacked vehicles or the vehicles themselves. Recently, however, influenced by anti-immigrant sentiments, similar attacks have been specifically targeting foreign drivers and trucks resulting in death, injury, and damage to vehicles and cargo. Previously considered an internal problem for South Africa as a matter arising from domestic social and economic challenges in that country, the emergence of attacks on foreign drivers and trucks have raised concerns about the future of South Africa as an economic powerhouse, its role as a transit country for landlocked countries, and about its relationship with regional neighbors. For the landlocked countries in the region, any instability in South Africa can have a serious impact on the logistics that sustain businesses and international trade. This exploratory study gives an overview of the increasingly complex issue of violent attacks against foreign nationals in South Africa with a focus on attacks targeting the road freight transport sector and the implications on regional integration efforts.

Role of Trade in India's Rising Atmospheric Mercury Emissions.

India is among the largest emitters of atmospheric mercury (Hg) in the world. India's production activities have associated Hg emissions which can be attributed to final demands (e.g., purchases by households, governments, and private investments) of nations driving upstream production from the demand perspective, or primary inputs (e.g., labor and capital supply) of nations enabling downstream production from the supply perspective. This study identifies key nations and sectors that directly and indirectly drove India's Hg emissions from both the demand and supply perspectives during 2004-2014. While domestic final demand was the dominant driver from the demand perspective (driving about 80-85% of the total), USA, China, and UAE are important foreign drivers. Similarly, from the supply perspective, domestic primary inputs were the dominant drivers. However, the share of foreign inputs enabling Hg emissions increased from 16 to 23% during the decade. Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Australia, and China are the top foreign supply-side drivers. The Construction sector is an important demand-side driver, whereas fossil fuel sectors are important supply-side drivers. These findings can guide global and national policies for demand- and supply-side management of Hg emissions in India and assist in the successful implementation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury.

Domestic versus foreign drivers of trade (im)balances: How robust is evidence from estimated DSGE models?

Estimated DSGE models tend to ascribe a significant and often predominant part of a country's trade balance (TB) dynamics to domestic drivers (“shocks”), suggesting foreign factors to be only of secondary importance. This paper revisits the result based on more agnostic approaches to shock transmission and using “agnostic structural disturbances”. We estimate multi-region models for Germany and Spain as countries with very distinct TB patterns since 1999. Results suggest that domestic drivers remain dominant when theory-based restrictions on shock transmission are relaxed, although the transmission of foreign shocks is strengthened.

The multilingual workplace realities of Polish truckers: A case study in the Netherlands

AbstractAlthough international truckers are essential to the European supply chain, we know little about how they deal with their frequent multilingual workplace interactions. This paper examines the effects of participants’ Individual Multilingual Repertoires (Pitzl, Marie-Luise. 2016. World Englishes and creative idioms in English as a lingua franca.World Englishes35(2). 293–309.https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12196) on their behavior and attitude toward multilingual interactions. Five Polish truckers and six Dutch logistics professionals were observed and interviewed. An ethnographic case study approach allowed us to consider interactions from multiple perspectives. Findings from the study reveal that some, but not all, Polish truckers struggle to interact in the most common lingua francas in the Netherlands: English and German. We show that some of the Dutch logistics professionals have a low opinion of foreign drivers’ linguistic abilities, which impairs the potential to find shared multilingual resources, and ultimately to improve communication skills. Results of the study contribute to an understanding of the dynamics of multilingual interactions in the workplace. Practical suggestions for logistics professionals and future research are identified.

The anti-money laundering law in Tanzania: whither the ongoing “war” against economic crimes?

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the evolution of the law for combating economic crimes including money laundering in Tanzania and explore the current developments in the anti-money laundering (AML) law and the ongoing fight against these crimes in Tanzania.Design/methodology/approachA desk-based review of documents on money laundering and its control in Tanzania was conducted. The paper presents qualitative data from the documentary sources. It applies the doctrinal legal research approach to examine, analyze and describe the AML law applicable in Tanzania. The paper uses the “law-in-context” research approach to explore some non-law aspects of money laundering in Tanzania and interrogate how the law addresses non-law dimensions of money laundering. Policy documents and media reports were analyzed. The thematic data analysis technique was applied, which involved identifying, describing and reporting issues according to the themes emerging from the data.FindingsThe AML law in Tanzania emerged from the law that was originally enacted to curb economic crimes. The law has evolved for some decades. Its evolution has been driven by domestic factors and foreign drivers which are political, economic and social in nature. The role of the AML law has been changing. Initially, the law was a tool for curbing economic crimes. Recently, the law has acquired a new role, namely, to facilitate the recovery of illicit funds and non-financial assets from offenders and enable the authorities in Tanzania to use those economic resources for developmental purposes.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper underscores the need for the Government of Tanzania to re-consider the broader implications involved in its current efforts to tackle economic crimes and money laundering. The balance between the implementation of the measures to combat money laundering and economic crimes in Tanzania and the importance of protecting rights of persons indicted with those offences should be struck. The AML law should be applied in such a way not to infringe the rights of the accused persons and not to throttle economic activities including the flow of legitimate foreign investments into Tanzania.Originality/valueThis paper generates insightful information to policymakers, law enforcers, regulators and other stakeholders who undertake activities to tackle money laundering and its control in Tanzania and researchers who study these issues for purposes of providing understanding of the problem and facilitating policy and legal reforms. The paper raises issues that can be explored further in future and contribute to the discourse on money laundering and its control in Tanzania.

Порядок взыскания штрафов с водителей иностранных транспортных средств, нарушающих правила дорожного движения

This article describes in detail the procedure for collecting fines from foreign drivers who violate the traffic rules in the regulation of regulatory documents of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the transition to a new renaissance with the world community.

Collaboration and citation impact: Trends in health sciences research at the University of Cape Town

Against a background of substantial growth in publication output in health sciences at the University of Cape Town (UCT) over the past two decades, we examined the relationship between collaboration with domestic and foreign institutions and resulting citations of co-published work. We report on trends in authorship and citation impact for health sciences research at UCT across three 3-year periods: 1999–2001, 2006–2008 and 2013–2015. We examined numbers of collaborative publications with domestic and foreign co-authors; the status of collaboration with other African countries; the location of the ‘drivers’ of the research (with ‘drivers’ indicated by first or last authorship); and expected and observed citation counts – used as an indicator of impact – over time. We found that the relative citation rate of the set of UCT health sciences publications has increased; the set of 1999–2001 publications was less frequently cited than expected for the journals in which the publications appear, while the 2006–2008 and 2013–2015 sets were cited more frequently than expected. Relative citation rates were greater for papers for which UCT shared international co-authorship than for papers with UCT-only or domestic co-authorship. Our findings confirm reports in the literature of higher citation of internationally co-authored publications. We additionally found that the publications with the highest relative citation rates were driven by authors from foreign institutions.
 Significance:
 
 Methods are presented for extracting, measuring, analysing and representing the citation impact of collaborative research.
 The relative citation rate of health sciences publications produced by UCT has increased and copublication with international authors has increased.
 The findings confirm reports in the literature of higher citation of publications co-authored with international collaborators.
 An apparent influence of foreign drivers on citation impact, holds risk for South African science.

External Shocks and Business Cycle Fluctuations in Oil-exporting Small Open Economies: The Case of Nigeria

This study employs a sign-restricted Bayesian structural vector autoregressive (BSVAR) model to analyse how global demand, oil price and the US monetary policy shocks impact the Nigerian business cycle. The objective is to uncover the dominant external drivers of the business cycle in Nigeria. Results show that global demand and oil price shocks are the principal foreign drivers of the Nigerian business cycle. The global demand shock elicits the strongest responses from output growth and inflation; while oil price shock impacts the terms-of-trade and interest rate the most. The historical contributions of the global demand and oil price shocks to the evolution of output growth are significant and comparable, while that of oil price shock to inflation and interest rate is dominant. Further sensitivity analysis of pre-crisis period of 2008/09 suggests that macroeconomic risk arising from global demand shock is systematic, owing to the comparable impact on output growth and similar interest rate response in the two estimations. Evidence suggests that the GFC may have contributed to the more volatile inflation response to global demand shock in our full sample estimation. Given the strong and pervasive impact of the global demand shock on output growth, Nigeria can manage its vulnerability by shrinking the size of oil exports in its terms-of-trade, while growing non-oil exports progressively through sustained economic diversification and viable industrialization strategy.

Analysis of Relationship between the steep braking point and the road traffic environment for reducing traffic accidents by foreign driver

Analysis of Relationship between the steep braking point and the road traffic environment for reducing traffic accidents by foreign driver

Entangled with Traffic Signs: An Ethnographic Account of Internationals Driving in Mainland China

This study investigates the difficulty of internationals’ driving in non-English Chinese environment by reporting on their encounters and reflections in the traffic contexts. The study adopts a geosemiotic perspective and utilizes an ethnography to study foreigners’ usage of traffic signage in Guangzhou, a major and hub city of Mainland China. It collects the verbal and written data of non-Chinese drivers and Chinese traffic authorities as well as scrutinizing some government standards and news reports on this issue. The study finds that foreign sign users are enculturated to an indigenous Chinese driving practice by assimilating into the local “Chinese-only” driving environment. The empirical findings suggest that traffic signs as one form of discourses in place are keyed to culture contextedness for their comprehension and usage by their users as another form of discourses in action. It is therefore argued that although China with its high-end signing system has stepped into a globalized world, the signing system may be less convenient for foreign drivers to mobilize. The contribution of this research rests with two respects: first, it may appeal to more geosemiotic review of signs in the concrete world; second, this study may be helpful in its attempts to make transportation engineers, urban planners, and law enforcers recognize the importance of Romanized versions of traffic signs addressing foreign drivers in Mainland China.

Driving simulator study of the comparative effectiveness of monolingual and bilingual guide signs on Chinese highways

As China has become more attractive for foreigners to travel or work, some Chinese-English bilingual guide signs have been adopted on the highways for the convenience of foreign drivers. This research examined the effectiveness of Chinese-English bilingual guide signs on highways in China for drivers with different language backgrounds. The study involved three different groups of participants: Chinese (Group C), foreigners who passed the Chinese proficiency test HSK (Group FC), and foreigners without Chinese proficiency test (Group F). A driving simulator and an eye tracker were used to obtain eye movement and driving behaviour data for both monolingual and bilingual guide sign scenes. The results showed that, for Groups C and FC, their performance in the two scenes had little difference when the number of Chinese place (destination) names on the sign was 5 or less. However, the performance of Groups C and FC in the bilingual guide sign scene was worse than that in the Chinese guide sign scene when the number of place names exceeded 5. Moreover, the participants’ performance worsened as the number of place names increased for all different groups within the same scene. Thus, the threshold of the number of place names for bilingual guide signs on highways appears to be 5. Actually, the English place names on the bilingual guide signs did not have much practical effect on the drivers, since the letters of the place names were too small to be quickly seen and the translation was inaccurate.

Global environmental policies with innovation spillovers

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore automobile fuel efficiency policies in the presence of two externalities: a global environmental problem and international innovation spillovers.Design/methodology/approachUsing a simple model with two regions, the authors show that both a fuel tax and a tax on vehicles based on their fuel economy rating are needed to decentralize the first best.FindingsIf standards are used instead of taxes, the authors find that spillovers may alleviate free-riding. Under some conditions, a strict standard in one region may favor the adoption of a strict standard in the other one.Originality/valueThe authors also show that if policies are not coordinated between regions, the resulting gas taxes will be set too low and each region will use the tax on fuel rating to reduce the damage caused by foreign drivers.

Utility Evaluation of the Services provided in International Transportation Section of East Azerbaijan Province

Background: International transportation is one of the main Sections of economy, services of which are used directly and indirectly. Drivers are considered as one of beneficiaries of this section and their comments are of great importance in evaluation of utility of transportation services. Hence, the main research question of the present paper is that how drivers evaluate utility of International Transportation Section services of East Azerbaijan. The aim of this study was being informed of services utility in Jolfa and Norduz border terminals. -Estimation of servicing gap in Jolfa and Norduz border terminals. Methods: Using survey and questionnaire, 219 local and foreign drivers were interviewed to determine utility of international transportation services of East Azerbaijan. SPSS was employed for data analysis. According to the variables’ measurement level, frequency distribution, diagram, center-oriented statistics and scattering were used in descriptive section and in inferential section correlation coefficient test and averages differences were employed to test the research hypotheses. Results: Findings of the study indicated that servicing gap of the province border terminals are in road services, transportation companies’ services, border terminals services, medical services, welfare complexes services and police services, respectively. Inferential results indicated that there is a significant correlation between degree of importance and satisfaction from services and from among the above mentioned services, only transportation companies’ services and medical services had significant difference in Jolfa and Norduz border terminals. Other findings, also, indicated that transportation companies’ services, medical services and police services have significant difference in Iran and foreign countries and also border terminals services have significant difference based on transit and non-transit nature of the cargo. Conclusion: Findings of the study indicated gap in services utility of International Transportation section in East Azerbaijan and hence, the paper’s suggestion is that transportation planners of the province take more attempts in line with improvement of services provided in Jolfa and Norduz border terminals.

A video-based approach to promote safe driving among foreign visitors to Japan

Recently, the demand for car rentals has been increasing at tourist destinations in Japan due to their convenience and the high degree of freedom they offer. On the other hand, there is a problem of a dramatic rise in the number of traffic accidents involving drivers from countries with different traffic customs and cultures from Japan. In order to examine measures to reduce the traffic accident risk of foreign drivers visiting Japan, an animation video to promote safe driving was created and its educational effects were tested in this article. First, through a driving survey of foreigners and a review of preceding studies, we identified information on Priority, Speed, and Comprehension (PSC) that must be learned by foreign visitors to reduce their accident risk. Next, drawing from the technique of branded contents in order to enhance the effects of educational videos, we created a short video that conveys the PSC philosophy that should be understood for safe driving in Japan. We then tested the educational effects of the video by conducting a survey of Taiwanese people. The results show that strengthening the video's appeal leads to improvements in educational effects and therefore safety awareness. We also realized that the effect was particularly significant among young people in their twenties. Lastly, the rent-a-car businesses evaluated the videos and basing on their input, we summarized effective ways for foreign rent-a-car users visiting Japan to use the video.

Internationalisation in Road Transport of Goods in Norway: Safety Outcomes, Risk Factors and Policy Implications

The European Union (EU) promotes a gradual lifting of restrictions on foreign hauliers involved in domestic road transport of goods (cabotage), and liberalization of the current road cabotage rules may further increase the proportion of foreign heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) on Norwegian roads. The aims of the present study are to: (1) Examine the safety outcomes of increasing internationalisation in (Norwegian) road transport of goods; and (2) Discuss the importance of potential risk factors related to increasing proportions of foreign HGVs on Norwegian roads. We use four data sources to shed light on the aims. Results show that foreign HGVs account for 6% of the average domestic transport in Norway, and 11% of the HGVs involved in personal injury accidents. Additionally, foreign HGVs have a three times higher risk of single vehicle accidents, and twice the risk of head-on collisions. Foreign HGV drivers also seem more likely to trigger fatal accidents. We conclude that two risk factors seem to be important: (1) experience with/competence on Norwegian roads and (2) winter driving. Thus, the safety challenge is not that the drivers are foreign, but that they to some extent lack experience with, and competence on, the Norwegian road networks and the challenges that these roads may pose (e.g., narrow roads with high gradients, many curves, snow and ice). Previous research from other countries has also found that lacking experience with national road networks is an important risk factor. Given our results on risk factors, we may hypothesize that if foreign HGV drivers get more experience and education on Norwegian driving conditions, then increased internationalization could perhaps be of less concern in road safety. When discussing the higher accident risk and lower experience of foreign HGV drivers in Norway, it is important to note that the reason for foreign HGV drivers, working for foreign hauliers, to drive in Norway is that there are customers of the goods in Norway. Interviewees stressed that the foreign driver is often the last link in a long and complex chain of actors involved in the transport. Although these actors have a legal responsibility to “contribute to safety,” interviewees stated that this responsibility is vague and not clearly enforced. We therefore suggest the clarification of, and an increase in, the responsibilities of the different parties involved in goods transport, especially the transport buyers. This means to both ensure the experience and training of the drivers (e.g., preparing them properly to drive on winter roads), and to positively influence their transport safety in other ways (e.g., reducing stress and time-pressure).

Roadside survey on alcohol and drug use among drivers in the Arctic county of Finnmark (Norway)

ABSTRACTObjective: The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of alcohol and potentially impairing drugs among the general driving population in Finnmark and to compare the prevalence among Norwegian, Russian, and other foreign drivers by analyzing samples of oral fluid.Methods: In collaboration with local police, drivers were selected for a voluntary and anonymous study using a multistage cluster sampling procedure (selection of roads, time intervals, and drivers within each interval) from September 2014 to October 2015. Age, gender, citizenship, time, and geographical site were recorded. Samples of oral fluid were collected using the Quantisal device. The samples were analyzed for alcohol with an enzymatic method and for 12 illicit drugs and 16 medicinal drugs and some metabolites using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry detection.Results: A total of 3,228 drivers were asked to participate in the study. The refusal rate was 6.2%. Of the 3,027 participants in the study, 111 (3.7%) were Russian and 204 (6.7%) had citizenship other than Norwegian or Russian. The total prevalence of psychoactive substances was 4.3%. Alcohol was detected in 0.3%, psychoactive medicinal drugs in 2.5%, and illicit drugs in 1.6% of the samples. The most commonly found substances were the sleeping agent zopiclone (1.1%), tetrahydrocannabinol (THC; 1.1%), and the analgesic agent codeine (0.6%). Illicit drugs were detected significantly more often in samples from drivers of citizenship other than Norwegian or Russian. The prevalence of alcohol was somewhat higher among Russian drivers but not statistically significant. There were large differences between age groups and genders concerning illicit drugs and psychoactive medicinal drugs; illicit drugs were more frequently in samples from young male drivers, whereas psychoactive medicinal drugs were more frequently in samples from elderly female drivers.Conclusion: The total prevalence of alcohol and drugs among the general driving population in Finnmark was low and similar to previous Norwegian roadside surveys. Illicit drugs were detected significantly more often in samples from drivers with citizenship other than Russian and Norwegian and among young male drivers.

Comparative study on foreign drivers' characteristics using traffic violation and accident statistics in Japan

Recently the number of foreign drivers has been rapidly increasing. Hence, the driving safety measures for foreign drivers have become more essential. This study aims to identify the characteristics of foreign drivers through analyzing traffic violation and traffic accident data in Japan. Chi-square test of independence and specialization coefficient were applied, in order to understand the specific violations and accidents with high tendency with respect to the region the foreign driver hails from. Also, multi-regression analysis was utilized to reveal the relationships between traffic violations and accidents. As a result, it was revealed that sense of priority, speed, and comprehension of rules affect traffic violations. Asian drivers tend to violate the rules related to priority in the road space, while North and South Americans violate rules related to speed, and South East Asian drivers violate rules related to priority and comprehension of traffic rules and road signs. Asian drivers tend to cause crossing collision while on the other hand North and South Americans are prone to head-on collision and rear-end collision. It was concluded that driving safety measures based on drivers' characteristics with respect to region were effective. This study seeks to contribute to the improvement of traffic safety for foreigners in Japan.

외국의 운전면허 취득제도 현황 및 시사점

안전한 교통 환경을 조성하기 위해서는 무엇보다도 운전자의 안전운전의식과 운전 역량이 중요하다. 이러한 양질의 운전자를 배출하기 위해서는 효과적인 운전면허 취득체계를 갖추는 것이 필수적이며, 운전면허를 취득하기 위한 교육제도와 평가수단으로서의 운전면허시험제도를 어떻게 설계하고 운영하느냐가 그 핵심 과제라고 할 것이다.BR 외국의 경우 각 나라의 문화와 제도, 교통의식 등에 따라 운전면허 취득절차는 조금씩 차이가 있다. 미국과 영국은 운전교육기관에서의 정규 운전교육이 의무화되어 있지는 않으나, 독일, 프랑스와 같이 운전교육기관에 의한 교육을 의무화하는 국가도 있으며, 일본의 경우는 우리와 같이 전문교육기관에 의한 교육을 이수할 경우 운전면허 시험의 일부를 면제하는 방식을 취하고 있다. 또한 영국과 같이 운전교육기관에 의한 교육을 의무화하지는 않았지만 전문강사나 운전교육기관의 교육과정을 이수한 운전자에게는 보험 상의 인센티브를 제공하는 등 다양한 방식으로 운전교육이 권장되고 있다.