By Elka du Piesanie
There are almost 400 000 trucks on South Africa’s roads, according to the National Traffic Information System (NaTIS), which means there are potentially hundreds of thousands of commercial truck drivers.
With long-haul truckers often enduring uncomfortable and even unbearable working conditions, are we paying enough attention to the health of these essential workers who keep our supply chains moving?
In the past 18 months, 378 people died in road crashes involving trucks (with 343 sustaining injuries), according to the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC). The industry must do more to stamp out this carnage on our roads.
This Transport Month (which also happens to be Mental Health Awareness Month), we’re pushing for driver wellness to be made a national priority. Maybe that way, we can reduce the number of horrific accidents involving trucks – by being more humane and compassionate towards those sitting in the driver’s seat.
A 2017 study of more than 13 000 truckers in South Africa by BMC Health Services Research found that long-distance truck drivers are far more susceptible to poor health than the general population. They display a high prevalence of HIV, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted infections and cardiovascular diseases.
Furthermore, they are stressed and depressed. According to Arrive Alive, South African research carried out by Mercedes-Benz showed that one in five – that’s a full 20% – of the truck drivers surveyed described their state of mental health as poor.
This ill-health is fed by a toxic cocktail of lifestyle-related occupational hazards such as insufficient exercise, junk-food diets and unhygienic practices (especially when there are inadequate ablution and rest facilities). Conditions on the roads – especially for cross-border truckers – are often harsh and unpleasant.
Driver wellness is everyone’s business
With anxiety, stress, fatigue and depression affecting drivers’ concentration and their ability to make safe driving decisions, it’s a no-brainer that this issue needs to be taken seriously. Yes, the human rights of individual drivers are at play here, but driver well-being ultimately affects everyone who uses our roads.
While there are some initiatives in place to encourage truckers to buy into healthy-eating practices and exercise, far less attention is paid to mental health in one of the world’s loneliest professions. And drivers’ mental fitness needs to be addressed in conjunction with physical fitness for them to be considered fit to drive.
Looking after our mental health shouldn’t carry a stigma, but more education is needed to ensure truckers (and fleet owners) prioritise it as much as they do actual driving skills.
There are some encouraging signs that the issue is being addressed, but we need a multi stakeholder approach to ensure truck drivers are being given the help and support they need. Talking about it is one thing, but the messages must filter down to those who need to hear them – the drivers.
The RTMC and the Department of Transport are running driver awareness campaigns, but we need to get drivers involved in these conversations, as well as bodies such as the Commercial Transport Academy. The private sector and media outlets should also pitch in more to drive the holistic – body and mind – road safety message home.
Hollard is taking part in Transport Month activations, promoting driver wellness as a cause close to our hearts. And our Hollard Trucking Driver Rewards Card Programme and Hollard Highway Heroes competition both put cash in truck drivers’ pockets for driving well.
But we want to do more, which is why we are also speaking to our corporate wellness provider about ways to extend this service to truck drivers.
How can fleet owners play a role?
Perhaps most importantly, fleet managers need to consider the mental health of their drivers in the same way they would look after the maintenance of their trucks – after all, both human and mechanical considerations contribute to “fitness to drive” and, by extension, road safety.
Telematics is a great tool for identifying driver fatigue. Fleet owners should also carefully scrutinise post-crash reviews for signs of mental ill-health, and put measures in place to ensure there are no repeats – like ensuring their drivers take regular breaks.
We may live in tough economic times, but drivers should not be pressured to “perform” or deliver loads on time when it will endanger others – not to mention the drivers and their cargo – to do so.
What else can we do to ensure driver wellness? The BMC study showed that truckers having easy and convenient access to tailored wellness and healthcare services does make an impact, and these services need to be ramped up for a healthier truck driver workforce.
Providing more health checks at certain weigh bridges and truck stops is an option – Middelburg and Highway Junction, Harrismith, are already leading the way in offering free wellness services on site.
There is also a desperate need to cater better for women truck drivers, with dedicated, safe ablution and rest facilities. In fact, the health of women truck drivers is a growing concern that also needs to be addressed urgently.
Radio, as a popular medium among this demographic, is arguably the most important way to disseminate information and raise driver awareness of the risks of inadequate self-care.
The industry should ideally create a platform on radio for truckers to talk about the issues they face – it’s not enough to talk “at” them, we should be talking “to” them and “with” them.
There are many factors that can affect truck drivers’ health, and the transport, insurance and other industries need to take a holistic view of these workers’ mental and physical wellness.
It’s no good if drivers are eating nutritious food but are anxious about reaching their destinations on time to the point that they drive recklessly. Talking about it will help lessen the stigma attached to reaching out for help – and that help must be on hand when it is sought.
Elka du Piesanie is the operations manager at Hollard Risk Services.
*The views expressed here are not necessarily those of IOL or of title sites.
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