Healthy Trucking Kiosks Offer Innovative Advertising Opportunities
Ramp Media Group Announces Important Promotions
Quote of the Day
Given the theme of the issue’s lead story regarding military and trucking careers, here are a few famous military quotes:
“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
– Prime Minister Winston Churchill, talking about the Royal Air Force
“Come on you sons of bitches! Do you want to live forever?”
Gunnery Sgt. Dan Daly, June 4, 1918, while leading Marines at Belleu Wood
“No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.”
– Gen. George Patton Jr.
“I have not yet begun to fight.”
– Captain John Paul Jones, aboard the Bon Homme Richard after the captain of the British ship Serapis asked Capt. Jones if he wanted to surrender
My Point
Healthy Choices for Carriers and Drivers
By Marvin Shefsky
If you happened to stop by our booth at this year’s Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville – many of you did – you had to be as impressed as we were by the huge number of truck drivers who checked their blood pressure for free. As part of our “Healthy Trucking Initiative,” we had four BP machines at our booth, and each machine was in use from virtually the moment the show opened each day until closing time. During the three days of the show, well over 2,000 drivers checked their blood pressure and, in so doing, walked away with a better understanding of where they stand health-wise and what they need to do in order to get healthier.
The Ramp Publishing Group, publishers of Over the Road and Pro Trucker as well as the Inside Trucking Online newsletter, is proud to be out in front on the crucial issue of driver health among the crowded field of driver recruitment magazines. Our Healthy Trucking Initiative, which includes setting up BP kiosks at more than 100 truck stops, is part of what separates us from the pack. In addition to the truck stops, we’ve arranged for several carriers – big, medium and small – to install blood pressure machines at their headquarters and terminals so that their drivers can have free and easy access to potentially life-saving BP testing and information. Celadon Trucking, Hoekstra Transportation, Kennesaw Transportation and Koch Trucking are some of the carriers who have joined us in this “healthy” endeavor.
We’re pleased to report that of the 130 or so BP kiosks we’ve placed in truck stops and with carriers, none have been returned. In other words, drivers see the kiosks and use them, and carriers recognize their value on many levels. The fact that we’ve seen zero machines returned, combined with our own experiences at MATS the past two years, tell us that, given the opportunity, drivers are going to check their BP numbers and start thinking about their health.
That assumption was confirmed by preliminary results from our ongoing survey of drivers (http://otrprotrucker.com/OTR/survey.cfm) in which the vast majority of respondents said they were concerned about eating a healthy diet and getting enough exercise, and that they would welcome a company-sponsored wellness program to help them achieve their goals. The driver survey, the first of its kind, is being conducted in conjunction with TRINCON Group. The survey is designed to help improve problem areas in the trucking industry such as driver retention to driver health. We urge readers to encourage their drivers to participate in the survey by going to the URL given above.
Questions regarding health play a prominent role in the survey. The way we see it, thinking healthy leads to living healthy, living healthy leads to healthy trucking, and healthy trucking leads to happy, stable, more productive drivers who are far less likely to leave on a whim.
Thus, the major commitment we’ve made to improving drivers’ health is not only the “right thing to do” on a human and moral level, but also a pro-active approach to addressing the trucking industry’s notorious driver retention problem. We don’t need to tell you how costly it is to replace a driver when you take recruiting, training and downtime into account. It is far more cost-effective to focus on retaining the drivers you have rather than replacing the ones you lose through “churning.” One of the best ways to do that is by offering your drivers benefits they can’t get from your competitors, such as wellness programs.
Driver Jack Kelsh, who lost 175 pounds through diet and exercise, made this point quite well in the last issue of Inside Trucking Online. Jack told a story about two drivers – one fit, the other fat. The fit driver watches what he eats, exercises whenever he can, hits the road energized and gets the job done on time and with few if any problems. The fat driver overeats, is overweight, gets little exercise and suffers from sleep apnea, so he’s tired and lethargic before he even gets on the road. Because he’s tired and overweight, he slips and falls getting out of his truck, dislocates his shoulder and blames it all on his company for pushing him too hard.
At the end of the day, the fit driver has made a “healthy” profit for the company and himself, while the fat driver is in the hospital, his load sitting and waiting for someone else to get it to its destination late.
Unfortunately, the nation’s truck drivers, as a group, are far more prone to have weight problems, sleep problems and health problems than the general public. Certainly, responsibility for the problems begin with the individuals themselves, but truck stops and carriers need to do their part to mitigate the problem rather than exacerbate it. Truck stops can offer healthier food choices, for example, and companies can replace the candy vending machines in their drivers’ lounges with baskets of fresh fruit. Both can offer workout facilities. The key to success in the battle of the bulge is making healthy food and exercise opportunities both affordable and accessible for drivers.
If your company is interested in joining the healthy movement that’s energized the trucking industry, give us a call at 770-587-0311or send us an e-mail at Marvin@otrprotrucker.com. We have lots of ideas to help you get started.
Marvin Shefsky is the CEO of Ramp Publishing Group and the publisher of Inside Trucking Online.
-- Marvin Shefsky, Publisher/CEO
(Marvin@otrprotrucker.com)
