The average life expectancy of a truck driver is just 61 years – a staggering 17 years less than the average lifespan of a typical American.
Anyone who’s worked with drivers before will likely understand the reasons why. Healthy food is hard to come by on the road, with truck stops mostly offering easy convenience over balanced diet options – and even where healthy options are available, drivers might not have the knowledge or information to make those choices. Building a consistent exercise habit on the road when your location is always changing can feel nearly impossible. Even drinking the daily recommended amount of water can be tough when it’s more tempting for drivers to reach for a soda or coffee at a gas station than to keep a bottle of water at the ready.
These reasons, along with the added toll of a job that combines stress with lots of sitting down, means drivers are at risk for all kinds of health issues ranging from obesity to heart failure. This is a huge concern for both the drivers themselves and the trucking industry as a whole.
Why a Driver Wellness Initiative Is a Win for Everyone
We all care about drivers as human beings and believe they deserve to live long, happy lives, especially after all they’ve done to keep our country running. But beyond caring about drivers and wanting them to remain in the workforce, focusing on driver wellness has a huge benefit to your retention rates.
Conversations about retention have long focused on reactive behaviors like addressing issues before they lead to departure. But driver wellness is the next big issue in the driver retention conversation because carriers that proactively demonstrate a focus on the long-term health of the driver are also demonstrating a long-term investment in these hires.
The Ultimate Strategy Guide for Driver Wellness
So how can your fleet show a commitment to driver wellness? There are lots of places to get started, and many of them don’t take a large investment of time or money. Read on to discover creative strategies for building healthier, happier drivers who will want to stay in their seats for years to come.
1. Eat Healthy
Eating healthy on the road is a two-pronged problem – drivers need both the right equipment and the right knowledge.
Appliances can make a huge difference on the road – a driver who has a slow cooker, minifridge, and microwave can make, store, and reheat healthy meals, whereas one without them is dependent on what’s available at the one place he has time to stop.
Knowledge means a driver knowing what options to reach for, both at the grocery store and on the go. Being aware of what recipes, snacks, and drinks are healthy means driver can build a more balanced diet.
Here’s a few ways carriers can contribute to better eating habits:
- Get the right equipment into drivers’ cabs by running giveaways for items like minifridges, blenders, portable stoves, and more. This creates awareness of useful tools even when a driver doesn’t win.
- Send drivers a weekly healthy recipe they can make in their cabs using minimal equipment – and better yet, have an employee or driver demonstrate how it’s done.
- Send your drivers healthy snack bundles of nuts, dried fruits, granola and protein bars to educate them on what options are healthiest at gas stations.
- Healthy eating requires preparation, so encourage drivers to hit the grocery store and share shopping lists for versatile and longer-lasting healthy foods to get for their trucks.
2. Get Moving and Exercise
You may have heard that “sitting is the new smoking,” and drivers spend all their working time seated, posing numerous short-term and long-term health risks as well as causing discomfort. The lack of consistency in their jobs can make habitual movement or even finding a gym challenging, so help in encouraging movement from a carrier can help drivers feel better and live longer.
Here’s how carriers can keep drivers moving:
- Share information about driver-friendly workouts that can be done on the road.
- Use Pulse Wellness to encourage friendly competition and recognize drivers for practicing healthy habits like walking the most steps.
- Record a Broadcast message encouraging drivers to participate in wellness initiatives or celebrating healthy drivers in your fleet. As a bonus, you can have familiar faces at your company record demonstrations of trucker-friendly exercises to model the healthy behavior you want to see.
- Make drivers aware of gym chains like Anytime Fitness, Crunch Fitness, and Planet Fitness that have locations all over the country so drivers can easily access facilities with just one membership.
- Program PulseGeo messages for areas at or around your terminal that offer gyms or other wellness sites so drivers are aware of their options.
3. Stay Hydrated
The average adult is supposed to drink almost a gallon of water a day, which is much easier said than done when you’re not in a building with a sink or fridge. Drivers on the road will need to plan ahead to have water on hand.
Here’s how carriers can enable proper hydration:
- Gift drivers swag at orientation like high-quality water bottles and travel cups they can fill on the road that will keep them hydrated between truck stops.
- Encourage drivers to track their water intake and award Rewards points to drivers who reach a certain amount of water during a weekly or monthly period.
- Send drivers samples of zero-calorie or low-calorie water flavorings like True Lemon, Nuun, or Mio to make drinking water more tasty and appealing.
- Make sure drivers know about portable options like Brita pitchers they can fill at truck stops to keep water in their cabs.
4. Sleep Easy
Getting good sleep is especially important for drivers because a full night’s rest can be the difference between being alert and prepared or getting into an accident.
Here’s how to encourage better sleep habits:
- Offer stipends or gift cards to drivers to replace mattresses with more comfortable models.
- Send short FleetCheck surveys to your drivers about how well they sleep and encourage drivers who routinely get bad sleep to see a doctor in case they need additional assistance with conditions like sleep apnea, of which obesity is often a main contributor.
- Educate drivers about the damage to sleep that looking at mobile devices right before bed causes and encourage them to switch to activities like reading before bed.
5. Manage Doctor Visits
Being on the road makes regular checkups and receiving proactive care from doctors, nutritionists, and other providers a challenge.
Here’s how carriers can make medical care more accessible to drivers:
- If your company provides drivers with health insurance, make sure their plans include telehealth visits so they can get seen quickly while they’re away from home.
- Assign driver wellness-oriented trainings from our Training Content Library on topics like Dehydration, Driver Wellness, Eating Healthy on the Road, Exercising on the Road, and Fatigue Management to encourage greater understanding of their health and give them topics to discuss with their doctors.
6. Prioritize Mental Health
A driver’s mental health is just as important as his physical wellness while on the road, especially for over the road drivers who don’t get to see their families and loved ones often.
Here’s how you can encourage drivers to prioritize mental health:
- Have someone from your staff check in with drivers regularly using tools like Pulse Video Chat to make sure they’re seeing friendly faces and not becoming socially isolated.
- Work with drivers to accommodate important home time requests to ensure they don’t miss important life milestones.
Keeping Wellness Front and Center
Investing in drivers’ well-being may take a bit of effort up front, but by demonstrating commitment to your employees, you increase long-term satisfaction and productivity in your fleet.
For many of these important categories of driver health, the Pulse Wellness feature is a great tool to get started. This tool encourages friendly competition and recognizes drivers for practicing healthy habits through the Driver Pulse App. Pulse Wellness lets you use Rewards and Sweepstakes to run structured challenges around health initiatives like drinking water, exercising, and eating well to make drivers more aware of their habits and help encourage better choices.
Learn how to build a healthier fleet, start conversations about the issues that affect drivers, and see higher retention rates by signing up to learn more about Pulse Wellness and other ways to promote fleet health!
