My grandfather was a long-haul truck driver from well before I was born until just two years before his death in 2013, so I’ve heard some stories about life on the road.
He had seen death, and he had seen the “making of life” in the driver’s seat of passenger cars going down the interstate from behind the wheel of an International.
I spent a lot of time on the phone with him as he drove for hours on end. Sixty-nine percent of drivers said they talk to friends and family as a strategy to manage mental health, according to a recent survey by JW Surety Bonds that unveiled the realities of trucking life, exploring the pressures that impact mental and physical health, personal relationships, and safety on the road.
The survey found that more than one in 10 truckers have poor mental health, 55% reported feeling both loneliness and burnout, and more than four in five truckers (82%) reported having strained relationships because of long hours and irregular schedules often making it difficult to prioritize loved ones.
My grandparents were three months shy of their 50th wedding anniversary when my grandfather died from heart-related issues – in my opinion, stemming from his years dealing with the stress of living on the road for weeks at a time.
He was a smoker, and his eating and exercise habits were less than desirable.
Those are just some of the unhealthy coping strategies truckers employe to combat fatigue, stress or long hours on the road, according to the survey. Those strategies include excessive caffeine intake (64%), staying awake with minimal sleep (35%), ignoring signs of fatigue and pushing through without rest (30%), binge eating junk/fast food (28%), relying on sugary snacks to stay alert (27%), smoking (27%), scrolling social media excessively during breaks (25%), using nicotine alternatives (16%), overusing pain relievers (14%), taking stimulants from convenience stores (11%), heavy alcohol consumption (6%), over-relying on over-the-counter stimulants (5%) and using prescription stimulants without medical guidance (3%).
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I’m sure there are things my grandfather didn’t tell me, but I know for a fact that the smoking, sugary and junk foods and caffeine were at the top of his list of unhealthy habits. I also know he fudged his logbooks and pushed through breaks to get to his destination on time.
And one thing he did, too, to avoid stops was pee in a bottle. As a kid, that was a funny thing to imagine, and I didn’t quite understand the logistics of making that work while driving. I remember when my mother was a trucker, she would carry one of those round, plastic Kroger Old Fashioned Ice Cream buckets with her and line it with a plastic sack so if there was ever stand-still traffic, she could hop in the back and relieve herself.
I’m amazed this is still an issue in all the 10-plus years it has been since she came off the road.
According to the survey, 43% of truckers went to the bathroom in the truck due to a lack of nearby facilities, and 38% took a shower or cleaned themselves in the truck due to a lack of accessible rest stops.
As a new mom who has learned to hold her bladder and hasn’t been able to shower as often as I’d like since having a baby, I’ve come to understand how crucial personal hygiene is to my mental health. We take for granted being able to step into a hot shower at the end of the day.
I grew up poor. My mother sat with elderly people, waitressed, cleaned houses and mowed yards for a living. Truck driving was the highest-paying job she ever had, and I’m sure that’s the case for many people, which is why they do this job. But 38% of truckers felt that their earnings do not reflect the risks and physical toll of their job, according to the survey.
After reading the results of this survey, I don’t know how anyone drives a truck for a living.
I know many trucking companies make efforts to make their drivers’ lives better, but we all know something must be done at the federal level to see true improvements.
Many drivers that responded to CCJ’s What Drivers Want survey complained about regulations causing stress, and I recently received an email from a single-truck owner-operator, who has been driving for over 40 years.
“I never see where anyone discusses the stress created by the continued onslaught of government rules and regulations that end in a compliance nightmare for small operators like myself,” Derek Rohrer said in his email.
Rohrer talked about the pressures of the ELD clicking away as he runs out of time as well as the requirement for both an administrative and driver account for ELD as a one-man company. He also mentioned two accounts for the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse as well as the heavy highway use tax.
“All in all, I would say driver stress is a real problem,” he said. “The burden of compliance placed on me by constant government regulation creates more stress in my life than anything else ever has. The people coming up with all of the rules for today's truckers have clearly never engaged in the business I entered over 40 years ago, moving freight from Point A to Point B.”
