The Truckload Carriers Association predicts that healthier days will come soon to the trucking industry, due in part to the organization’s ongoing efforts to improve the health and wellness of truck drivers and all trucking industry staff.
“For the past year, we’ve been increasing our emphasis on health in an effort to educate our members about the negative effects that obesity, sleep apnea and other medical conditions are having on the trucking industry’s work force,” says Chris Burruss, TCA’s president. “With our signature event approaching – our Annual Convention, March 4-7 in Kissimmee, Florida – we saw a golden opportunity to influence change in the minds of the major players of the trucking industry.”
At the convention, attendees can look forward to numerous activities related to health and wellness, beginning with a Health & Wellness Pavilion in the convention’s registration area. Here, Lindora Clinic will sponsor a weight loss station that will challenge visitors to see what it feels like to “wear” 30 extra pounds in the form of a special “weight vest.” Also, Health Promotion Solutions will provide interactive wellness demonstrations highlighting services that are available to trucking fleets and will offer body mass index, blood pressure and blood glucose and cholesterol level testing; it also will provide information about sleep apnea, offer a weight loss station and distribute health education materials.
On Tuesday, March 6, and Wednesday, March 7, a trucking-in-the-round workshop called “When Your Drivers Are Healthier, So Is Your Bottom Line” will discuss how to implement a successful health and wellness program for trucking staff and drivers. Attendees will come away with strategies, tactical steps and ideas they can implement in the hopes of lengthening the lives of their people while also lowering company health care and workers’ compensation costs.
Another health highlight will be a video played by Gary Salisbury, TCA’s outgoing chairman and the president and chief executive officer of Fikes Truck Line of Hope, Ark., during his general session remarks on Monday, March 5. The video will introduce attendees to the contestants in the association’s first-ever Trucking’s Weight Loss Showdown. This competition is a battle between 11 TCA-member carriers from across North America to determine who can achieve the greatest percentage of weight loss in 10 weeks. The winners, both fleet and individual, will be announced at TCA’s Safety & Security Division Annual Meeting, which will take place May 20-22 at the Embassy Suites Norman-Hotel & Conference Center in Norman, Okla.
