ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the relationship between bus drivers' personality characteristics with driving experience and to provide reference for safe driving. Methods A total of 158 bus drivers who work for one year and above were extracted by random sampling from a bus company in Ningbo during March 2016 to May 2016. The survey was carried out by 16 personality factor questionnaire (16PF), and compared with the national norm. Results The subjects were male, and average age was 39.24±6.78. The average bus driving year was 15.54±6.66 and mainly with high school education (62.66%) . The scores of agreeableness (9.21±3.18), intelligence (8.12±1.81), excitability (9.60± 3.26), excitement (10.84±4.59), suspicion (8.94±2.87), introversion (9.01±2.60), experiment (10.18±2.52) and independence (10.51±3.13) of the subjects were significantly lower than the national norm (P<0.05) . The scores of sensitivity (10.67±2.72), anxiety (9.60±3.78) and the self-discipline (13.30±2.42) were significantly higher than the national norm (P<0.05) . And 54.43% of bus drivers have high score in eight sub-personality analysis of mental health factors and 67.09% of them have low score in professional achievement factor. The analysis of personality characteristics of bus drivers with different bus driving experiences showed that the highest stability score was in 16 bus driving years and above, and the highest anxiety score was in 6~ <11 bus driving years and the highest tension and anxiety score were in 11 ~ <16 bus driving years (P <0.05) . Conclusion Bus drivers show special professional personality traits, and some characteristics will be strengthened and weakened with the growth of bus driving experience. It is necessary to carry out special training for the bus drivers with different bus driving experience, especially about dealing with various types of accident risk for new bus driver timely and psychological counseling for old bus driver regularly.