Does anyone else remember the old height-vs.-weight charts that were in use by recruiting departments not so long ago? My, how times have changed! The top weight on the chart that I have (don’t tell my H/R director) is 240 pounds. Unfortunately, my orientation class would be a lonely place some weeks if I utilized that chart.

Health and fitness have always been an important part of my life, and I try to bring that philosophy into what we do at Koch Trucking. In early 2007, my friend Mike Zezza at Ramp Media Group approached me with the idea of placing a blood pressure monitor in our drivers’ lounge. I was a bit skeptical, but Mike convinced me to give it a try. We had a machine installed in our driver facility, and one of our office staff was the first to give it a try. His comment: “This needs to be recalibrated; it’s way off.” It wasn’t, he got his high blood pressure under control, and the monitor has been in our drivers’ lounge ever since.

At Koch Trucking, we utilize as many information streams as possible to keep health-related information in front of our drivers via e-mail, newsletters, a poster program, weekly Qualcomm messages, our blood pressure monitor and our membership in the Healthy Trucking Association of America (HTAA). After reading one of the weekly messages sent out by our driver liaison, and reading through some of our HTAA literature, one of our drivers, David A., made the decision to schedule a doctor’s appointment and get his health under control. By changing his diet and adding a little exercise to his day, David has gone from over 270 pounds down to under 220 and has his blood pressure under control.

This is just one of many stories at Koch of our drivers successfully changing their lifestyles and getting their personal health back under control.

This past week I lost my father-in-law to Parkinson’s-related complications. A sad occasion, yes, but also an opportunity to celebrate an interesting life. Here was an 82-year-old who could still fit into the Army uniform he wore when he was 18. How many of us can say that?

I was thinking back to when I met him 20 years ago at a family picnic. He loaded up his plate with some beans, potato salad and a hot dog with no bun. I asked, “Ken, you don’t like bread?” After he gave me the “are you stupid, boy” look, he explained that the bread was a starch and he had plenty of that on his plate already. His philosophy was everything in moderation, and everything in balance. Our challenge as managers is to get our drivers and office staff to the point where, like Ken, decisions about health are not a chore, but a lifestyle choice.

How do we get our employees to that point? I can tell you that it’s not easy, and it’s an ongoing challenge. I hear from so many managers who want to do something, but it’s too difficult. What’s more difficult: having a large percentage of our industry’s employees suffering from obesity and diabetes or taking the time and effort to do something about it?

If we don’t step up as an industry and make the changes that we know we need, the federal government is gearing up to do it for us. I for one am not always thrilled with the way that turns out and would prefer not to go in that direction.

Give your employees the information and tools they need to make the changes. Put a blood pressure machine in front of them. They’ll use it. Put the HTAA information in front of them. They’ll use it. Keep the information flow consistent and relative to the drivers’ lives.

As I’ve heard Marvin Shefsky say numerous times, “walk the talk.” We’ll see the benefits in reduced insurance rates, happier, healthier employees and a reduction in driver turnover – all worth the effort in my book.