Men and women who can drive tractor-trailers and long-haul trucks are in seriously high demand, and for plenty of reasons. There has been a certain romanticism about trucking that has developed over the last few decades, and in some ways it can be very rewarding work.

[Image courtesy of Anthony Easton from Flickr, via a Creative Commons license]A couple of interesting reports regarding drivers of long-haul trucks, like this one, came out recently that suggest that trucking is not a very healthy or safe vocation.

But with government regulations and company expectations, trucking is not a romantic reality. And it turns out, much of that reality is actually pretty darn troubling, as truckers seem to be letting go of their health and safety in exchange for doing runs faster than what may be deemed reasonable.

This post will talk about a couple of different surveys and studies. One takes a look at the overall health of long-haul truck drivers while they meet deadlines and try to stay within U.S. Department of Transportation regulations and guidelines; and the other is from a white paper that looked into the effectiveness of a safety training program on truck drivers.

First, the extensive survey of nearly 1,700 truck drivers conducted by NIOSH at truck stops across the country found that truck drivers are much more likely than the general population to be obese, to smoke and have a variety of other diseases or disorders – not the least of which was hypertension. The truckers were asked a series of questions about health and their work. What was found was pretty alarming – more than two-thirds of those surveyed were obese, and more than half of them had smoking habits.  And here is something even more shocking – almost nine in 10 of the drivers admitted to having at least one disease risk factor, such as hypertension, a smoking habit or obesity, among others. By comparison, 54 percent of the general population has at least one of the risk factors.

And now, for the really good news – you thought that was blockbuster? A new white paper from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI)  essentially said that after three years of implementing the Compliance Safety Accountability (CSA) among truckers, the majority of them still don’t have a basic grasp of the CSA and its role in their work. Over the three-year period of the CSA implementation, nearly 8,000 drivers were analyzed for their knowledge of the CSA by a test, and the results found that drivers only got about 42 percent of the CSA knowledge correct, which to the ATRI suggests that either there is a lack of clear understanding about the CSA, or even worse, a complete lack of training in the CSA for drivers. And this is even more discouraging considering that carrier-provided CSA training has increased since 2011.

If you would to read more about the driver health survey by NIOSH, click here, and if you want to request a copy of the ATRI report about CSA, check out this link.