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Healthy Trucking kiosks offer innovative advertising opportunity

My Point

Drivers' Health Crisis: What Can Your Company Do?

By Marvin Shefsky

One of the greatest driver retention tools we know is painfully obvious, yet it's surprising how few carriers have seen fit to use it. We're talking about drivers' health, an issue that has been flying below the industry's radar for many years, but is just now gaining altitude and attention as the driver shortage crisis intensifies.

Survey after survey show that drivers want to be wanted, they want to be valued, they want to be respected by the companies they drive for. Show me a carrier that demonstrates that they want, value and respect their drivers -- and, most importantly, that the drivers know that they are wanted, valued and respected -- and I'll show you a carrier with a loyal corps of drivers and/or contractors and a relatively low driver turnover rate.

What better way to show drivers that you want, value and respect them than by having your company do all it can to help them improve their health?

That point was driven home for us at our booth at the recent Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville where approximately 2,000 drivers took advantage of the four Healthy Trucking kiosks we had on site. From practically the moment the show opened each day until it closed, drivers were testing their blood pressure at each of the four stations. Clearly, the nation's over-the-road professionals are concerned about their health, they know they've got a problem, and they're looking for answers and help.

Along with the blood pressure machines, we also arranged for Dr. John McElligott to be on site to oversee the blood pressure testing and answer drivers' questions. Dr. McElligott, who has studied and treated truck drivers for 15 years and is the founder of a planned network of health clinics geared toward truckers (Professional Drivers Medical Depots, www.pd-md.com), is one of the country's foremost authorities on medical issues as they relate to truck drivers.

According to Dr. McElligott, whose company surveyed more than 2,000 truck drivers in conjunction with a free flu-shot program, 90 percent of truck drivers are taking medication for high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol or some combination of the three. When asked what makes the over-the-road lifestyle so bad on one's health, Dr. McElligott points the finger first at stress. "It's stressful from the time they get up until the time they go to bed," he says. "They are regulated like no other profession in this country."

Stress can contribute to high blood pressure, which along with causing a host of potential medical problems, can also cost a driver his job if he can't pass the DOT standard of 140/90 mmHg or lower. Which brings us back to the retention issue.

Forget, for a moment, the moral ramifications. From a pure numbers standpoint, it just makes economic sense for your company to do whatever it can to keep its drivers and owner-operators healthy, happy and on the road. As we said in this space last issue, a healthy driver tends to be a happy driver, and a happy driver tends to stay put when it comes to his or her job. Speaking of numbers, from an actuary standpoint, consider that the average age of a U.S. truck driver is 48 and the average life expectancy of a truck driver is 60. Unless something is done, retirement and, unfortunately, death are only going to exacerbate the current driver shortage crisis going forward.
Isn't it time the trucking industry steps up and does everything it can to take better care of its backbone, its heart and soul -- the three million men and women behind the wheel? We think so, which is why we're sponsoring Healthy Trucking kiosks at truck stops around the country. We believe this is such an urgent issue for our over-the-road professional driving force that we're also dedicating a significant percentage of our editorial space to the topic in Over the Road and Pro Trucker.

-- Marvin Shefsky, Publisher/CEO

(Marvin@otrprotrucker.com)

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