Simple changes can make healthier choices easier for professional drivers — while potentially benefiting safety, retention and fleet performance.
Professional truck drivers make thousands of decisions behind the wheel every day. Fleet managers can’t make their drivers’ health decisions for them — but they can help create an environment that makes healthier choices easier.
That was one of the central messages of “A Healthy Fleet — A Stronger Bottom Line,” an Aug. 18 webinar presented as part of the Truckload Carriers Association’s 2026 Online Recruitment and Retention Series.
Jeremy Reymer, founder and CEO of Project 61, and Tim Chrulski, chief operating officer for Garner Trucking, discussed the health challenges professional drivers face — and practical steps fleets can take to help alleviate those challenges.
“I think most drivers are not waking up and deciding that they don’t care about their health,” Reymer said. “They’re working in an environment that makes healthier choices harder.”
The job itself creates obstacles
Reymer pointed to five challenges that can make maintaining good health particularly difficult for professional drivers:
- Food;
- Sitting;
- Sleep;
- Stress; and
- Access to health care.
While none of these are unique to trucking, drivers often contend with all five while working long and irregular hours in a highly regulated environment.
Chrulski identified stress and sleep as two of the most significant challenges.
Stress, he said, can become a distraction that pulls a driver’s attention away from the road. Sleep presents its own problems because drivers frequently don’t have the luxury of maintaining the consistent schedules that help establish healthy sleep patterns.
The issue becomes more than a matter of personal wellness once the truck starts moving.
“What affects the driver affects the drive,” Reymer said.
Poor sleep can affect alertness, he added, while stress can affect focus and judgment. Chronic health conditions may influence energy and medical readiness, and pain and mobility issues can affect a driver’s ability to function throughout a long workday.
“When you look at it that way, I think driver health and safety become very difficult to separate,” Reymer said.
Health may provide safety clues
Reymer pointed to research from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, published in 2022, that examines the relationship between commercial drivers’ medical certification periods and crash risk.
The research found higher crash risk among groups of CDL drivers receiving shorter medical certification periods compared with drivers receiving full 24-month certifications. Reymer emphasized that the association does not establish that shorter medical certifications cause crashes.
Instead, he said, certification length may provide another indicator worth considering when fleets look at the broader relationship between driver health and safety.
Chrulski said the DOT physical also shouldn’t necessarily be viewed as a substitute for regular health care. When he was driving, Chrulski says, he didn’t have a family physician he routinely visited. Garner now encourages wellness exams and offers eligible employees an insurance-premium incentive for completing them.
The company doesn’t receive the employee’s medical information, he stressed. Instead, the goal is to encourage drivers to learn about potential issues and work with their own health care providers.
“We want to get ahead of those things,” Chrulski said. “And education is the only way.”
Wellness has to fit the job
Another problem, Reymer said, is that many workplace wellness programs simply weren’t designed for trucking. Traditional programs may assume employees have predictable schedules, regular routines and easy access to gyms, healthy food and medical care. None necessarily applies to a professional driver whose workplace travels hundreds of miles each day.
Programs are more likely to engage drivers, Reymer said, when they are:
- Relevant;
- Realistic;
- Voluntary; and
- Consistently supported.
Project 61 uses what it calls the “5 Axles of Health” to address nutrition and hydration, movement, sleep and recovery, mental health and stress, and preventive care. The nonprofit offers free resources designed specifically for professional drivers.
But fleets don’t necessarily need a formal program — or a huge budget — to begin making changes.
Chrulski offered several examples Garner has implemented over time.
The carrier has installed a walking path at its facility and offers portable exercise equipment drivers can take on the road. Its driver’s lounge includes healthier food and beverage choices, and the company offers access to an employee assistance program for drivers dealing with stress, mental health concerns and other personal issues.
Even equipment specifications can play a role. Garner trucks include inverters that allow drivers to prepare meals and power devices such as CPAP machines, along with premium mattresses intended to improve comfort and sleep.
The fleet also uses multiple communication channels to repeatedly put health information and available resources in front of drivers.
“You’ve got a mobile workforce. It’s hard to reach,” Chrulski said.
Create the conditions for better choices
Neither speaker suggested fleets can — or should — dictate drivers’ personal health decisions.
Instead, Reymer said, carriers can surround drivers with conditions that support healthier choices through company culture, leadership, communication, access to resources, support and recognition.
Chrulski said doing these things can be as simple as reconsidering what’s served at a company event. Alongside the traditional hamburgers, hot dogs, cookies and cakes, fleets can provide healthier meals, fruit and other choices.
Drivers aren’t likely to respond well to being lectured about their health, he said. Instead, the goal is to make better options readily available.
And fleets don’t have to overhaul their operations overnight. Garner’s efforts accumulated over years, Chrulski said, as the company identified needs and looked for practical ways to address them.
“Just take the first step,” he said. “And it starts with caring.”
Reymer echoed that advice, recommending fleets start with a single initiative, make it visible to drivers and remain consistent.
Some benefits may be measurable through health care expenses, safety performance or participation. Others may never appear on a spreadsheet.
As Reymer put it, it’s impossible to measure “the heart attack that didn’t happen” or “the crash that never occurred.”
“We measure what we can,” he said, “but we certainly shouldn’t undervalue the things that we can’t measure.”
This article first appeared in the November/December 2026 print edition of Truckload Authority, the official publication of the Truckload Carriers Association.
Linda Garner-Bunch has been with The Trucker since 2020, picking up the reins as managing editor in 2022. Linda has nearly 40 years of experience in the publishing industry, covering topics from the trucking and automotive industry to employment, real estate, home decor, crafts, cooking, weddings, high school sports — you name it, she’s written about it. She is also an experienced photographer, designer and copy editor who has a heartfelt love for the trucking industry, from the driver’s seat to the C-suite.
