Trucking job may look like an adventurous journey, but it is no less than a bed of thorns. Sleepless nights, irregular meals, driving for long periods, no physical activity, sitting in wrong position for a long time, all these are a common thing for truckers. Moreover staying away from home for a long time may affect them emotionally.
The occupational stress of this job can create havoc on your health. This type of lifestyle increases their chances of getting affected from chronic diseases like diabetes, obesity, blood pressure, heart disease and hypertension.
Truckers usually face similar type of complications. Below we are listing some common challenges that are attached to them:
Sleeplessness
Trucking is a job where you get paid for number of hours worked or number of miles driven. This usually tempts the truckers to work extra in night shifts in order to earn some extra money. What they don’t understand is that this temptation can lead to serious health issues like high blood pressure, weight loss, sleep paralysis, low immunity or even memory loss. It is very important for a trucker to take proper sleep because it can prove to be fatal on road if you deprive yourself of sleep. This problem usually occurs because truckers are always in a search of a good place to sleep. There are always limited truck stops on roads, and that too get filled early. And the ones which are empty, happens to be miles apart from them. Due to this, they are never able to get a sound sleep most of the times.
Unstable family life
Truck drivers usually have to stay away from their families for a longer period of time. Their job involves driving for many days in different cities. So it becomes impossible for them to visit home on a regular basis. They get to spend time with their families only when they take a long break. This affects their family members as well. Due to this pressure, many truckers quit their jobs after some months of joining. Those who are home sick cannot continue for even one month. This job works better only for those who are unmarried or don’t have a family. One should try to understand that his career should never affect his family.
Obesity
According to a survey, it was observed that 50% of the truck drivers are obese. Only their lifestyle has to be blamed for this serious health issue. Truckers have to spend most of the time sitting in one position without any physical activity. Their job involves long journeys where they are only able to take short brakes. Moreover, they don’t have any access to healthy food and end up eating junk food. Sometimes, they don’t even get time to eat anything throughout the day so they tend to overeat at night which is not good for health. Obesity is a lifestyle disease which can lead to many other diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, depression etc.
Skin cancer
The major reason for skin cancer is excessive exposure to sun. The Ultra Violet rays are very harmful and can even burn your skin. Truckers usually get prolonged exposure to sun, which increases their chances of getting skin cancer. While driving, truckers get a lot of sun on one side of their face or arms which proves to be harmful. One should always apply sunscreen with SPF30 or wear full sleeves clothes while driving. On a contrary, you can also place films on your truck’s windows to prevent sunlight from coming inside your cabin. This would reduce the harmful effects of sunlight.
Heart diseases
Heart diseases can be considered to be a common issue among truckers. Blame it on their unhealthy eating habits or long working hours, this can become a serious health complication if not looked into. Heart diseases usually occur due to unhealthy lifestyle. Truckers have a very tight schedule and do not get time for any physical activity. Moreover, unhealthy food habits make it all the more worse. People in trucking industry should try to maintain a healthy lifestyle by changing small habits.
High blood pressure
It has been reported that many truckers develop high blood pressure due to low quality of food or no physical activity. Sometimes truckers don’t even know that they are suffering from high blood pressure and the long ignorance makes the condition worse. If ignored, it can lead to kidney failure or even a heart stroke. The rising blood pressure can also lead to hypertension. Prevention is better than cure, so one must always take precautionary measures in order to avoid high blood pressure. Regular exercise, limited salt in your food and reducing the intake of alcohol, caffeine and saturated fats would keep you healthy.
Risk of life
It has been stated that truck driving accounts for 12 % of the work related deaths in USA. This is a huge figure and puts this job in the category where there is a high risk of losing life. Truckers usually drive on highways all the time, where the vehicles tend to move at higher speed. This increases the chances of a collision. Even if they are following the traffic rules, a vehicle on the other side can make a mistake. Sometimes, truckers also carry hazardous freight which if not handled properly can lead to fatal situations. In some cases truckers are given a deadline to complete a particular order, and in order to reach on time they tend to drive faster. This may increase the risk of an accident. Sleep deprivation can cause them to doze off while driving. This can lead to fatal situations as they may collide into some other vehicle. While driving, truckers put their lives at high risk without any worries.
These were some common challenges tackled by truckers in their day to day routine. Still they fight it off and continue with their jobs. So we can come to a conclusion that this job is not for the faint hearted people and need nerves of steel.