By Janicia Koh, Chief Strategy Officer – Aktivo Labs.
A little over a year ago, American Trucking Association (ATA) President and CEO Chris Spear testified before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Capitol Hill about the serious threat the nation’s persistent driver shortage poses to the economy.
Mr. Spear highlighted the current driver shortage, which reached a record 78,000 vacancies in 2022, is expected to worsen in the coming years. While there was some easing in 2023 due to the impact of inflation and tighter monetary policy softening transport demand, the underlying challenges remain significant.
Underscoring the anticipated resource gap, a study by the ATA forecasts the road transport industry will become the dominant mover of goods in the United States by 2034, handling approximately 14.2 billion tons of freight. This growth will require the on-boarding of an estimated 1.2 million new drivers over the next decade.
The challenge, however, is not limited to the United States. According to an International Road Transport Union (IRU) report, truck driver shortages represent a global threat to supply chains, with the current shortfall expected to double by 2028.
The bleak diagnosis for long-haul truckers
At the heart of the growing global driver shortage is a range of well-publicized health challenges inherent to the profession.
A 2017 study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) found that a significant portion of long-haul truckers exhibited health risk factors:
- 69% were obese
- 54% smoked
- 88% had at least one risk factor for chronic disease
These findings align with a 2023 review by Healthy Trucking of America, which revealed additional health challenges, namely:
- Over 14% of drivers reported chronic joint pain
- 50% had an increased risk of heart disease
- 26% suffered from sleep apnea, contributing to excessive daytime fatigue
- Drivers showed a 90% higher smoking prevalence than the general population
- Clinically diagnosed depression affected around 22%
- Drivers had a 23% greater risk of developing prostate cancer compared to the general population
However, of all the statistics I’ve read on the topic, the most confronting is that published by Healthy Trucking of America, stating the average life expectancy of a truck driver in the US is 17 years lower than that of the general population.
It is no surprise then that the industry is grappling with a high rate of driver exits and a scarcity of new recruits.
Prioritizing driver wellness
Adding to the trucking industry’s resourcing challenges is the rate of new jobs growth – projected, by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, to sit at 5% (year on year) through to 2033.
While the industry has made a valiant effort to implement creative strategies to address the enduring driver shortfall, the inroads made thus far have been relatively small.
Among the most common strategies have been increasing wages and benefit packages, introducing more flexibility to driver schedules, instigating reward-based driver referral programs, establishing partnerships with trucking schools, and modernizing long-standing recruitment processes.
More recently, carriers have turned to preventative health strategies, such as employee wellness programs.
An Inbound Logistics industry report reveals that nearly 50% of companies are now piloting these initiatives; with industry leaders such as Knight-Swift, Estes, Gulf Relay, Melton, Celadon, Schneider National, and JB Hunt Inc. all purporting to have made substantial investments in driver wellness programs.
For carrier companies, the impetus to implement driver wellness programs extends far beyond addressing health concerns for essential employees.
These initiatives are increasingly seen as a cornerstone of HR management strategy, driven by goals such as fulfilling a company’s duty of care, enhancing employee productivity, fostering a positive company culture, and strengthening recruitment efforts.
Navigating common blind spots in driver wellness programs
The success of any wellness program depends on sustained participation, and long-haul truck driver-specific programs are no exception. Yet it would be foolish to think that when it comes to employee wellness programs, one-size-fits-all.
Research highlights four key elements crucial for ensuring drivers’ engagement with a program is meaningful enough to have a positive impact:
- Accessibility: Overcoming geographical barriers and procedural red tape is essential. Many wellness programs are tied to specific health facilities or are only accessible once a driver is identified as an “at risk” employee.
- Community: Inclusive programs that involve a driver’s entire support network – such as spouses, family members and co-workers – help to reinforce engagement with the wellness initiative and/or platform when the driver is both on and off the clock.
- Incentives: Programs that provide tangible rewards, such as health insurance discounts or monetary bonuses, effectively motivate drivers to participate actively and consistently.
- Communication: Regular communication – via in-app notifications and intra-company messaging – helps normalize participation, destigmatize wellness efforts, and keep well-being top of mind.
While the exact ROI from an employee wellness program will vary from organization-to-organization, due to differing commercial models, measurable gains are most commonly realized through cost reductions associated with lower healthcare and workers’ compensation claims, reduced absenteeism and employee turnover, and minimized productivity losses.
In researching the topic of employee wellness programs’ ROI I discovered a case where, by shifting only 10% of employees’ health status from ‘high and medium-risk’ to ‘low-risk’, one employer saw a 6:1 return on their investment. It’s a ratio I encountered frequently.
Key considerations when implementing an employee wellness program
- Understand ‘where’ within your operating model there are gains to be made and/or savings to be had.
- Establish a ROI framework with KPIs to ensure the whole organization is actively invested in driving adoption and sustained engagement with the program.
- Understand the barriers to adoption for your specific employee ‘type’ – prior to selecting an employee wellness program. Remember, what might work for the team at head office, may not connect with your colleagues in the field or branches.
- Make sure your program provider has a contemporary, secure and scalable platform – that has the capacity to accurately report on your organization’s journey to improved wellbeing.
- Be prepared to defend the value of the program with hard facts. Employee wellness programs’ have a measurable ROI, so when the inevitable question comes regarding the value of the initiative versus traditional (and mostly outdated) stick versus carrot strategies – you’ll have a ‘drop the mic’ answer to silence any detractors.
How others innovate with the Aktivo® platform
Presently, Aktivo® is utilized by government and commercial organizations to achieve a broad range of objectives, including:
- Understanding the moving risk within a portfolio or population by calculating morbidity probabilities at scale whilst simultaneously incentivizing target groups to adopt risk-reducing behaviors;
- Creating a distinctly different customer experience to grow market penetration;
- Fortifying existing market share against competitor or disruptor-driven erosion;
- Deepening stakeholder connections for the purpose of building loyalty and advocacy – be that from customers or employees;
- Fostering sustained citizen engagement around the issue of healthy living, to drive reductions in health spending;
- Reducing costs linked to healthcare and workers’ compensation claims, staff absenteeism, productivity losses and employee turnover – in a manner that builds a positive corporate culture;
In every instance, regardless of the model of deployment, each organization who deploys the Aktivo® platform is inadvertently making a genuine and measurable contribution to the United Nation’s Sustainability Development Goal #3 (Target 3.4), which aims to “reduce mortality from non-communicable diseases by a third between 2015 and 2030”.
It’s a value proposition that connects with both today’s conscientious consumer and senior leaders who are sensitive to claims of ‘health-washing’.
For the organizations we partner with, the platform provides a clear view of where the risk of chronic disease resides within managed populations/portfolios; as well as where it will likely present in the next three, five and 10 years.
While for individuals at risk of developing a chronic condition, the Aktivo® app (which connects users to the platform), operates as a non-invasive intervention tool – championing preventative health practices through the use of behavioral design patterning.
In a nutshell, we enable service providers to find common ground with their consumers and constituents.
Focused on driver longevity:
For the trucking industry, Aktivo® tracks perfectly to the four key elements crucial for ensuring drivers’ long-term engagement with wellness initiatives:
Accessibility:
For truck drivers, one of the biggest barriers to participating in employee wellness programs is access. As a digital health platform, Aktivo® enables all drivers – regardless of their schedules or routes – to engage in tailored corporate well-being programs. What’s more, Aktivo® simplifies the process for drivers by handling the heavy lifting of data collection. Unlike most health apps that require users to input information manually, Aktivo® leverages an extensive array of data points – up to 90 from a user’s smartphone alone – to passively capture essential data.
The platform’s low-touch, non-invasive approach eliminates the need for drivers to choose between “getting on the road” or “stopping to update their health app.” Instead, drivers can stay focused on earning a living, confident that Aktivo® is continuously working to create their personalized health journey.
Building a sense of community and incentivizing participation:
One of the most popular modules within the Aktivo® suite is Aktivo® Engage. Aktivo® Engage is a dynamic gamification platform designed to enhance user engagement by leveraging social and peer-to-peer interactions.
Seamlessly integrated with the Aktivo® suite, it transforms health journeys into interactive and rewarding experiences. Features include:
- Peer-to-peer challenges: Friendly competitions that motivate users to stay active and achieve their goals.
- Personalized nudges: Gentle, timely prompts based on real-time data to encourage healthier choices. (A ‘nudge’ is a subtle intervention that guides behavior without restricting options, making it easier to adopt positive habits.)
- Achievements and badges: Milestones and visual rewards to celebrate progress and sustain motivation.
- Points-based rewards system: Users earn points for healthy behaviors, which can be redeemed for tangible rewards – such as lower insurance premiums – driving consistent participation. By integrating these gamification elements into key touchpoints of the customer journey, Aktivo® Engage fosters long-term engagement, helping users stay on track with their health goals while creating a sense of community and accomplishment. In addition, access to the Aktivo® platform can be extended to a driver’s family, ensuring they have a robust support system – both on and off the clock.
Communication:
Available in multiple languages, Aktivo’s in-app notifications are fashioned to support hyper-personalized health journeys. Recognizing and communicating with each user as an individual, is one of the key drivers of success for the Aktivo® platform.
How users connect to the platform – that is, the ‘lens’ they view the insights through – is equally as important for creating a connection.
To this end, the Aktivo® platform has been made available for deployment using SDK, API, PWA (Progressive Web App), or a white-label solution. Aktivo® can also be integrated with existing apps and/or platforms.
Aktivo® is one of the best options for Fleet Managers, Logistics Managers, Transport Operations Managers and industry HR Managers who have enjoyed little success improving truck driver retention rates and/or sourcing a better solution to the enduring truck driver shortage.