Shawn Mandel, vice president of safety and risk management at Waste Connections, calls his 16,000 drivers “industrial athletes” because they climb up and down out of trucks and handle heavy equipment.
But the nature of the job behind the wheel of a truck is sedentary, leading to health issues like obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and so on, and those health issues ultimately have an impact on a company’s bottom line.
Mandel joined two other industry experts during a recent Truckload Carriers Association webinar to discuss how companies can impact their drivers’ health.
Mark Manera, founder and CEO of Offshift, a company that tailors health and wellness programs for the trucking industry, pointed to a study from ATRI last year in which men and women drivers said the No. 2 and No. 1 issue they have, respectively, is the lack of ability to exercise and be healthier while on the road.
“Drivers want to be healthier, and a lot of them just don't know where to start. I really think that trucking companies have the ability to be that spark,” Manera said. “These drivers want it, but are you giving them the tools that fit their lifestyle anywhere they drive to be able to make those choices and start shifting their lifestyle?”
Meeting them where they are
Manera said the companies that provide benefits packages to trucking companies are most often industry agnostic and built for someone who works in a cubicle.
“A lot of times they don't speak the language drivers speak. They don't fit the lifestyle. They just don’t understand the culture of the industry, and drivers don't resonate with them,” he said. “What I found is when … you offer solutions that are industry-specific … that drivers can follow that fit into their day to day, drivers are receptive of that.”
Manera dug into the industry, hanging out at truck stops and going on ride-alongs with truckers and working with trucking and insurance companies, resulting in Offshift building a program around helping drivers focus on issues they face in particular and how to exercise inside and outside of their trucks, and eat healthy at a Love’s truck stop and the McDonalds attached.
Manera said truckers have the highest rates of obesity and diabetes among any other occupation, and they die 16 years earlier than the average American.
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“Personally, deep down in my soul, I do not believe anyone's career should define their health, but as I've gotten deeper into trucking, that's exactly what's happening,” he said.
Mandel said Waste Connections takes an aggressive approach when it comes to the health of its drivers. The company has a third-party health and wellness organization it brings in to educate its drivers on how to “pre-trip their bodies like they pre-trip their trucks.” The company builds rest/stretch breaks into its drivers’ routes.
“We don't need RFK Jr. to tell us there's an epidemic when it comes to obesity in the U.S.,” Mandel said. “We certainly see that … sedentary nature of a lot of the commercial driving positions, and it doesn't afford them an opportunity that perhaps other sectors might when it comes to that activity level. We don't want our folks out there driving hour after hour after hour repetitively in that sedentary state without taking those breaks.”
The bottom line
These health issues are impacting the budgets of trucking companies, whether it’s because a driver has to take sick leave or short- or long-term disability, worker’s comp claims, forced into early retirement – leaving a company with the cost of hiring a replacement – or crashes, among other things.
Manera said studies show that obese drivers have a 55% higher risk of a crash compared to non-obese drivers, and drivers with heart disease (high blood pressure, cholesterol issues, etc.) are two times more likely to be involved in a crash compared to those without heart disease. In addition, drivers with musculoskeletal issues (aches and pains) are three times more likely to be involved in a crash compared to a driver without musculoskeletal issues.
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Healthier drivers are safer drivers, Manera said, citing a report from the Centers for Disease Control.
Mandel said Waste Connections’ goal is to hire drivers young and retire them.
“Our frontline team members, in order for them to achieve that 30-year mark, they've really got to take their health seriously, and we've got to partner with them and afford them an opportunity, the tools, the training, the resources to do that,” Mandel said.
His company uses technology partners like Lytx to ensure its drivers are doing just that. James H. Clark & Son, a trucking company with around 100 trucks that hauls food, also uses technology to impact the bottom line, said Jason Douglass, vice president of operations and recruiting.
Douglass said his company uses Samsara to monitor drivers for things like drowsiness and harsh braking to determine the root cause of issues to help drivers – many of which are out a month at a time – to improve.
He said many drivers are diagnosed with sleep apnea and are treated with a CPAP machine, for example. That machine, which requires the truck to idle when in use, is not fixing the problem, Douglass said. Instead, it’s fixing the symptoms. The company tries to fix the symptoms in the short term while seeking solutions to the root cause.
That means providing drivers with the resources to improve their overall health – mentally and physically, he said. He approaches it “one bite at a time,” by getting to know the drivers on an individual level and fixing one problem before moving to the next.
“There's the mental side and the physical side of it,” he said. “I've noticed when they're happy and healthy, they do a better job, and they're safer for themselves and everybody else.”
