Abstract
The necessity for the selection of safe and responsible heavy vehicle drivers cannot be over
emphasised. Good or bad work performances are based on a variety of human characteristics of which
psychological and psycho motor factors are of the most important.
In a study 58 heavy vehicle drivers of the South African Transport Services and stationed
on the Cape Midlands System with Port Elizabeth as headquarters were divided into two groups on
grounds of their job performance (including their accident record). Job perfdrmance and accident
record over a period
of two years were taken into consideration in order to assign the drivers into a good
and a bad group.
The results of 12 psychometric tests which were applied to measure the psychological variables show
that the group with the poorer job performance and accident record perfonned significantly
poorer with regard to spatial/ three dimensional perception as well as motor co-ordination.
It is apparent that the two groups although they were preselected differ
with regard to certain psychological and psychomotor factors.
M.A.