loneliness, depression and emptiness that come with total exhaustion. While truck- ing companies can help drivers avoid these problems, they first have to understand the physiology behind sleep.


Why Drivers Are Drowsy Drivers build sleep deficits as they drive


at night and catch sleep as best as they can on the road. But even when drivers are back home they may not be able to get the quality sleep they need to reduce their sleep debt. Families often don’t understand why mom or dad wants to nap instead of going to a barbecue on their day off, and they perceive the driver as lazy and/or not contributing to the family, Croke said. It’s also difficult for drivers to juggle


their on and off-day schedules. A driver who’s had two good nights’ sleep on his break probably won’t be able to nap during the day before his shift. “So he’s already been awake 12 hours before he starts his shift, and he is 24 hours away from sleep at the end of the shift, although he’s legal in his logbook. This is why you see a spike in accidents in drivers’ first night back; it’s not the hours of service, it’s how long they’ve been awake,” said Croke. Even blue skies can contribute to sleep


deficits, since human brains are wired to see the color blue as a wake-up signal. That means drivers who get off shift at sunrise and then try to sleep are working against biology. Even if they manage to get a few hours down, once they wake up and look out the window in the middle of the day they’re likely to have a hard time get- ting back to sleep because they’ve been exposed to that daytime sky. It’s the same if they try to go out and run errands and then go back to sleep. All of these can contribute to cumulative


fatigue, which can make drivers more irri- table, more emotional and prone to poor decision-making. Sleep deprivation may explain why


many new long-haul drivers don’t stick around. “You take a new driver who has been sleeping at home in his bed, and you put him in a truck and a new occupation and say ‘We’re going to pay you a base rate,


www.mmtanet.com


DRIVERS BENEFIT FROM EASY AND AFFORDABLE FITNESS


OPTIONS Regular workouts can be beneficial for drivers’ health and fitness levels, but a gym membership, which can run as high as $100 or more, may not be very good for their budgets.


Fleet Transit, Inc. wants its 100 drivers to have the opportunity to stay in shape. That’s why the company has been offering a fully equipped gym at its Baltimore headquarters at the bargain price of just $7 a month.


“This isn’t just one treadmill tucked into an office; it’s a full, onsite gym, with chest and leg exercise machines, treadmills, elliptical machines, a punching bag, stationary bike and even satellite TV,” said Dee Philips, who works in HR and compliance at the company.


The company opened the gym 10 years ago and is preparing to launch a new kickoff campaign to remind drivers of its availability and encourage greater usage. “We will be bringing in a nutritionist and personal trainer who can work with employees and show them exercises to help them out,” she said.


Phillips said the company already offers great health benefits and incorporates many health-related messages into its safety meetings. “We bring awareness to drivers about getting enough rest and drinking enough fluids; we want to promote healthy drivers,” she added.


The company is also looking into offering other types of wellness programs—like a 10,000-steps-a-day challenge—that could promote healthy habits while increasing employee engagement.


Companies that offer fitness and wellness programs can see a real reduction in their health-related costs. According to the Seltzer Group, a Pennsylvania insurance agency, one regional carrier in Georgia has saved more than $250,000 in medical costs and diagnosed several pre-heart attack and pre-diabetic conditions among drivers simply by changing the frequency of physical exams. Michigan-based Con-way Freight has seen a 32 percent reduction in workdays lost to injury by hiring 46 wellness coaches.


send you away so you may get home only one day in the next couple of weeks, and by the way you have to drive all night every night.’ It takes months to adjust their body clock, and yet we wonder why they leave in 90 days,” Croke said. Sleep fatigue contributes to other health


problems such as obesity. Companies can provide drivers with information about


nutrition, healthy diets and exercise, but it won’t have the desired impact on sleep- deprived drivers. “You need to have the willpower from good sleep to actually make the right decisions,” said Croke. An Australian study in the late 1990s


found that the performance on a truck simulator by people who hadn’t slept for 16


BEHIND THE WHEEL ~ Q4 Winter 2015 13 ➥


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