Structured Health and Intervention for Transport (SHIFT)
The L6 Express manager degree apprentice students get a guest lecturer each month; Nov was a driver health safety focused event. Professor Stacy Clemes gave an upbeat delivery of risk factors effecting professional van drivers - how a business can recognise and support awareness of health issues, posing the question: vehicle health checks are mandatory so why don't businesses carry out driver health checks?
Key factors of driver's health: suffering from sleep deprivation, long period of sitting, bad cholesterol and minimal activity leading to higher levels of obesity compared to the general public.
‘Compulsory sedentary occupations’. This means that drivers are suffering a higher rate of health issues compared to the wider public. The students were engaged by participating in opening questioning sessions along with quiz questions, rapid fire of questions heightened the enthusiasm of students to engage. Prof Clemes detailed causes, effects and outcomes for health issues which sees the professional driver occupation open to so many health issues rather than focused on just one or two. The student poll showed that only 18% of the cohort were maintaining a healthy lifestyle and Prof Clemes went on to explain that small changes to your lifestyle can reduce longer term health issues.
“If physical activity was a drug, we would refer to it as a miracle cure, due to the great many illnesses it can prevent and help treat’. (UK Chief Medical Officer, 2019).
Professor Clemes made the point that ‘doing just something', e.g. 7 mins a day, is proven to lower the risk level by as much as 20%. The students engaged in a frank discussion about how much time they spend at the desk and were amazed at the difference such a short amount of time can make. However, breaking up prologed periods of sitting improves long term health, implying that the working time directive may need to be addressed, so that drivers are not regulated to driving and then sitting once more on their break; more movement is needed. One question from the students raised the issue of ‘looking at screens’ - computers in the cab - and this doesn’t match the requirements of someone at a desk looking at a screen.
Opening question by Prof Clemes was to ask the students what they had experienced with their drivers. She saw hands raised swiftly to offer many issues they were aware of for drivers' health issues.- Fatigue, skin cancer (suncream) musculoskeletal, Over weight / diabetes, stress related back problems, poor fitness and low activity leads to muscle ache and cramps/ high blood pressure. Vision and hearing linked to ageing, Joint pain, tendonitis, COPD breathing issues. Environmental factors were further discussed and Stacy explained that, even though many of the general public have similar issues, research shows that drivers have a higher rate of these problems. The issues led to causes of early retirement due to ill health or even leading to premature death, but undiagnosed conditions can lead to traffic accidents. Chronic pain and mobility leading to restricted life activity. These consequences lead to challenges for the business to cover for the absenteeism and to support long term health issues.
Causes of the health issues can be: working alone, heavy lifting/manual handling, direct sunlight exposure, poor dietary choices, meal content - fast food, scheduling by inexperienced routers, working patterns of restricted mobility. Environmental - exhaust fumes, quality of air in the cabin as well as outside. Work life balance causing stress and poor rest.
Research evidence from a compartive study of bus drivers and conductors carried out in 1958 highlighted the huge variation between those who carried out physical activity and those who carried out sedentary jobs. This was the early work which led to current interest in the subject - which has in turn led to general guidelines for the population.
