For Immediate Release
NAL Insurance Announces the Healthy Trucker Pilot Program
London Ontario
July 8, 2013
The stats are staggering… “Driver Illness’ are on the rise and the average lifespan of a professional driver is only 61-65 years.” Say’s Aaron Lindsay, Fleet Services Manager at NAL Insurance. “The industry has always struggled with Driver retention but we are losing far too many good Drivers and O/O’s due to failing health”.
As a result, NAL Insurance is introducing a Health and Wellness program to the Canadian Trucking Industry. With the help of a number of a few of our pilot fleets including Bison Transport, Challenger, FTI, Quik X, ICI, ITS, Doug Coleman Trucking as well as few select media members for Truck News and The Rear View Mirror that have agreed to take part in our pilot program, we hope to develop a trucking specific yet affordable Health and Wellness program for the entire industry.
Prior to the 13 week pilot launch that begins July 15th, O/O’s, Drivers, Executive and Staff that have agreed to participate in the pilot will complete a questionnaire so that our Registered Dietitian’s (RD’s) can learn more about their health goals, lifestyle conditions, dietary preferences/ restrictions and existing health issues (such as high blood pressure or diabetes).
Applicants are then matched to the best RD’s for them based on geographic location and what they want to achieve. RD’s will learn about their eating and exercise habits, and create special meal plans to help facilitate healthy changes. The RD’s will walk the members through their nutrition profiles to understand what changes should be made and why. They will make suggestions like portion sizes, daily goals, and healthy recipes that they can try. Nutrition profiles serve as roadmaps to help them reach their goals, including target calorie count, protein/carbohydrate/sugar distribution and foods to include/exclude.
Most Drivers know when they need to be healthier. It’s the how that’s hard, and that’s where our RD’s come in. They help motivate them to keep making changes but not overwhelming them with unrealistic diets. Their RD’s will act as both nutrition experts and motivational coaches—so they’re available every step of the way.
Pilot Participants have agreed to:
- Follow a health program that may suggest changes to their eating and activity habits.
- Participate in bi-weekly phone calls from their Registered Dietitian and NAL Health Coach to motivate and monitor their progress
- Complete a daily food journal
“Although there are a number of off the shelf Health and Wellness programs available today” say’s Lindsay, “there really isn’t anything specifically designed to fit the lifestyle of our O/O’s and Drivers. The goal will be to use the information and data from our pilot project so that we can create a program that will work for the entire trucking industry, and should be ready by late fall”
For more information on The Healthy Trucker Pilot…please call NAL Insurance at 800 265-1657 or visit www.healthytrucker.com