Opinion: Primed for Physical Fitness Success

This Opinion piece appears in the Nov. 18 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

By Tom Motheral

Premium Environmental Services

At No. 21 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers, Prime Inc. is a major trucking industry player. The company has more than 5,000 drivers, most of them trained by Prime’s safety director, Don Lacy. Many, however, have had additional coaching in weight control and exercise by fellow driver Siphiwe Baleka.

Lacy says Baleka — who routinely does sets of 25 push-ups next to his massive refrigerated rig — is unique in his experience. No one who knows the driver’s history is going to argue with that.

In his youth, Baleka was a champion swimmer who attended Yale University and seemed set for success. But in his last year at the school, an academic disaster — a rejected senior project — caused him to jettison his plans, walk away from Yale without telling anyone and hitchhike to California, where he became a homeless surfer sleeping in a laundromat.

Even so, this leap of faith produced 15 years of extraordinary travels and experiences. Baleka fixed up abandoned homes in Amsterdam, painted a Yale professor’s estate on Elba Island, Tuscany, Italy, and was befriended by the musical group Smashing Pumpkins, with whom he traveled throughout Europe. But these uncommon adventures became prosaic, and Baleka wanted to return to America.

A friend suggested that he try trucking, and in 2008, he was hired by Springfield, Mo.-based Prime, which he selected because of its location and excellent safety record. Besides, he liked the recruiter and the money was right.

After earning his commercial driver license, Baleka turned his fondness for travel into a career piloting an 18-wheeler along the interstates.

Within two months of adopting the trucker lifestyle, however, Baleka had gained 15 pounds.

He shouldn’t have been surprised: American Trucking Associations statistics reveal that 83% of drivers are overweight and 57% are obese — numbers supported by a quick look around any truck stop.

Baleka wanted no part of those statistics. Other drivers might accept as inevitable such ills as obesity and sleep apnea, but the former swimming champ decided to take direct responsibility for his weight and health and tackle the problem of staying fit when you spend the day sitting in a truck cab doing little more strenuous than changing gears.

First, Baleka taught himself to do multi-muscle-group exercises performed in high-intensity 15-minute intervals. Because he had to perform his exercises at truck stops and interstate rest areas, other drivers started to take notice when the muscular driver jumped out of his cab and performed a rigorous 15-minute set of exercises.

Energized by this peer interest, Baleka decided to expand his personal regime to include other drivers. He developed a step-by-step program designed to fit truckers’ actual schedules and environments as they coped with hours-of-service rules, long waits at loading docks, bad weather and other commercial-driver frustrations.

Baleka ultimately decided the best approach was for a driver to leave his tractor cab and conduct a 15-minute workout within a 20-minute span — time easily available while lumpers load or unload a rig or during refueling.

The workout’s first objective was to burn fat, and that meant achieving 75% to 85% of a given maximum heart rate. To bring his or her heart rate to this level, a driver must briskly walk around the rig, do jumping jacks and run in place.

Finally, with plans for a 13-week pilot project in hand, Baleka formally presented his ideas to Prime and its CEO, Robert Low.

Prime welcomed the idea and encouraged employees to volunteer for the pilot. To ensure serious participation, the company required participants to spend $300 for an armband with sensors to measure metabolic output and heat off the body plus a DVD showing exercises and discussing nutrition.

Participants also received a heart-rate monitor built into a watch that keeps track of drivers’ 15-minute exercise segments and food intake. Baleka personally receives and evaluates drivers’ individual logs and recommends necessary changes.

The Drivers’ Health & Fitness Program began in July 2012, and 63% of the Prime drivers enrolled in the pilot completed the 13-week effort. Of those drivers, 90% lost at least 19 pounds — an average 7% of body fat. If they complete the program, company drivers are refunded the $300 — and get to keep all the equipment.

With support from Prime upper management, and with Baleka’s expertise and enthusiasm, the fitness program has been off to a fast start. In the first 10 months, more than 600 Prime drivers lost 6,000 pounds — and 90 drivers even quit smoking. Clearly, Prime has a new culture of fitness — with its drivers at the forefront.

Baleka has continued his own stepped-up regimen. After an 18-year absence from competitive swimming, he entered a United States Masters Swimming race and won his age group.

Winning that race and others has fortified his belief in fitness programs. As his program’s best advertisement, he adheres to a specialized exercise program, follows sound nutritional habits and has become a national swimming champion.

And he’s not done yet: Prime’s own Renaissance man now wants to take the company’s fitness program global. I have no doubt that he will accomplish this goal.

With headquarters in Springfield, Mo., Prime Inc. provides refrigerated, flatbed and tanker services. Newburgh, Ind.-based Premium Environmental Services is a provider of spill- and waste-management programs and other environment-related services.