FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC:
How enterprise fleets can promote health to drivers to improve their overall quality of life on the road
DETAILS:
Mark Manera, CEO and founder of Supply Chain Fitness, speaks with Mary O’Connell of FreightWaves about the health of truck drivers and why companies should not only invest in drivers’ health, but find ways to make drivers feel engaged in their benefits and care.
KEY QUOTES FROM MANERA:
“When you look at anyone trying to be healthy, if you’re in an office, if you’re behind the wheel, whatever you’re doing, we all have different barriers set up that makes it more difficult for us to make our health a priority. … But If you’re sitting behind a wheel for 10, 11 hours a day, maybe you’re working your shift 12, 13, 14 hours a day, the lack of time and also just feeling mentally exhausted after you get done is a one-two punch that is really, really difficult to combat.”
“It’s just really easy to put it on the backburner and just think about, ‘OK, today I need to drive as many miles as I possibly can, because I need to put food on my family’s table.’” … You do that day after day for 20, 30 years and then all of a sudden, drivers are looking back, and they’re like, ‘What the heck happened?’” And so that’s one of the biggest barriers we see when we’re talking to drivers and really trying to figure out, hey, how do you make this a priority?”
“I think the biggest thing that I’m seeing is this conversation at the executive level around drivers’ health, not just being this feel-good initiative, but an actual cost risk mitigation and also cost reduction strategy.”
“All of the health benefits that a lot of these trucking companies have even available to offer to their employees are all industry-agnostic, which means they were built for someone who works in a cubicle. They’re great for the office staff, and then they’re handed to drivers as an afterthought, and it’s like, how are we going to get these people healthier if none of them are engaging and none of them are really excited and feel like the benefits are even built for them?”