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Timebomb drivers
Page 20
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As part of National Men's Health Week, Commercial Motor in association with lveco, carried out a day of health checks for drivers at the Poplar 2000 truckstop at Lymm. Andy Salter reviews the results...
As we reported in last week's issue: of the almost 100 drivers checked during the day at Lymm, 94% were overweight or obese; 78% had a waist measurement of ' 40 inches or over (a critical measure in health risk assessments); 42% had high blood pressure and 49% had a high cholesterol count. As a measure of the health of the UK's truck driving population it makes for pretty gruesome reading.
But before we get too carried away with stats it's worth making a number of points. Firstly. the health checks weren't intended as a research exercise and, secondly, by their very nature,health checks are going to attract people who are perhaps more concerned with their health than others.
To damn the health of UK truckers on the basis of this evidence is a bit like making pronouncements on the nation's health through illnesses reported at a GP's surgery, so we should recognise that these stats paint only a partial picture.
That said,the picture that it does paint is a worrying one and if the industry doesn't act to improve the health of its drivers, then don't be surprised if even tighter controls on health checks aren't introduced to ensure road safety isn't compromised. After all, in these days of claim culture and corporate responsibility, what transport manager worth his salt is going to let a person who could keel over at any second behind the wheel of 44tonnes of speeding metal?
Furthermore. let's not restrict the discussion about health in the road transport sector to truck drivers. A visit to any transport office will paint a similarly grim picture of the health of this industry.
Action
It's clear from the results of the mini-survey that those interviewed, like many of us, do worry about their weight, with a significant 75% falling into that category. A further 64% admitted to having tried to lose weight at some time, although on the face of it not very successfully. And here's the rub. Most of us know we have to shed a few pounds and a good proportion of us have tried, probably on many occasions, with varying degrees of success. But why do we come unstuck? Some of the answers we received were illuminating; "I'm too tired to exercise at the end of a long day," was one response we received at Lymm. "The truckstops and cafes don't have any tasty, healthy food on offer,was another. Now while both probably contain an element of truth, there's also a strong whiff of excuse about both of them.
The issue of health is one that isn't going to improve unless we all act and over the coming weeks Commercial Motor will be launching a major campaign to help all those — men and women — in the road transport sector address their health. If you want to get involved or have an opinion to share, please get in touch as soon as possible. •