Opinion: Healthy Drivers, Healthy Business

By Peter Berg

Account Executive — National Accounts

TrueNorth Cos.

This Opinion piece appears in the July 9 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

Editor’s Note: The author noted a correction to this article in a subsequent letter to TT.

It is an unfortunate reality that truck drivers tend to be among the more unhealthy folks in today’s workforce. Most of this stems from the physical and mental demands associated with the hazardous mix of climbing and straining, sedentary driving and a heavy reliance on fast food and truck-stop snacks. And while driver health has been a visible problem for decades, the industry has been very slow to address the 10,000-pound gorilla in the room: In a poor economy, driver health programs aimed at preventing illness and promoting wellness are among the first budget items to go.

At the corporate level, motor carriers are constantly pulling every operational lever just to eke out slim profits. The results leave little room in the budget for key reinvestment opportunities and differentiation strategies such as employer contributions to health insurance and, of course, wellness initiatives.

This also does not consider the several hundred thousand self-employed owner-operators and small — i.e., fewer than 20 trucks — motor carriers, most of which do not have access to, do not qualify for and/or cannot afford catastrophic health coverage and benefits.

Health-care reform may bring about significant, costly change that has forced all companies to strongly examine the future composition of their worker benefits packages.

In an effort to protect already razor-thin margins, industry executives are running the numbers to determine (and potentially justify) their decision whether or not to ultimately reduce — or completely abandon — their company’s investment in risk strategies related to health plans and wellness initiatives.

The numbers may be compelling, but the decision to cut or eliminate these programs is not as simple as analyzing the monetary effect on a bottom line. It’s nearly impossible to predict subsequent effects on worker morale, productivity, retention, safety behaviors, fraud, etc.

So, how do corporations begin to assess unknown variables to assist them in recognizing that their investment in employee/driver health-improvement strategies is cost-beneficial in the long-term?

Consider the sleep-apnea studies conducted at some large national carriers in which thousands of professional drivers have been screened, and many of them diagnosed and treated for that medical condition. After tracking both the realized and unrealized savings, not only were there vast reductions in the average costs of health care per driver, but almost every carrier also experienced dramatically improved driver retention ratios and overwhelming decreases in the frequency and severity of liability-related crashes.

And sleep apnea is only one aspect of employee/driver health management.

In addition to these enterprise-wide benefits, commercial motor carriers that proactively build and manage a cohesive platform around employee/driver health improvement and advocacy can attain sustainable results far greater than the immediate savings achieved from reducing or eliminating health-risk strategies.

We’ve seen companies save from $3 to $6 for every dollar invested in several known and also unforeseen areas, including but not limited to:

• Decreased worker-related injuries and accidents, including fraudulent claims.

• Increased productivity and capacity utilization across the operating fleet.

• Improved driver quality of life.

• Reduction in taxable earning because (1) wellness initiatives qualify for a 20% corporate tax credit, and (2) effective Jan. 1, 2014, the tax credit for wellness initiatives is bumped to 30%.

With uncertainty around the looming 2012 presidential election, commercial motor carriers are hesitant to pull the trigger and purchase new equipment to haul excess demand — and rightfully so. The byproduct has been the dramatic spike witnessed in the non-asset-based capacity activity: freight brokerages, freight forwarders, and traditional owner-operators.

You’ve most likely had a professional driver recruited by a competitor offering him or her “greener pastures”. Heck, I recently spoke with a company that offered drivers a five-figure sign-on bonus but still managed to have a more than 100% driver turnover percentage. I thought about what even half those funds could do if properly reinvested in a meaningful strategy aimed at improving the lifestyle of today’s professional driver.

With headquarters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and locations throughout the United States, TrueNorth Cos. helps transportation companies create and administer driver-oriented risk-management platforms.