How to do driver wellness

Father and son: Radha and dr Sujen Padayatchi

WITH on average 12 000 trucks a day thundering past Pietermaritzburg on the N3, the city is grateful to all fleet operators who ensure their drivers and trucks are in the best health when negotiating the dangerous down run.

One such fleet operator is Aspen Logistics, which last week launched its first drivers’ wellness day with Mercedes-Benz South Africa’s Trucking Wellness Programme.

MD of the company, Dr Sujen Padayatchi, said the company already offers tailored health insurance and eye-testing at its head quarters in Germiston, but in partnering with Mercedes-Benz its Trucking Wellness Programme can take a step to becoming an ISO listed company, offering an holistic
approach to employee health and wellness, based on a proven model.

Padayatchi qualified as a medical doctor in the UK before returning to South Africa to become involved in the transport business started by his father, Radha Padayatchi.

With his medical background he is almost fanatical about maintaining the cold chain to combat bacteria in the group’s fleet of refrigerated trucks that transport perishable foods overnight. In this battle, he said healthy drivers were the critical factor. “We salute our drivers, they are the heroes who make ithappen,” said Padayatchi.

The Trucking Wellness Programme (initially Trucking Against Aids) is managed by Corridor Empowerment Project and was launched by the Road Freight Industry in 1999 to create HIV, Aids and STI awareness amongst long-distance truck drivers, commercial sex workers and the vulnerable communities around truck stops.

Michelle Woods told Wheels last year saw 41 000 drivers and women at risk assessed. Since 1999 the initiative has HIV infections decrease from 20% to the current 8,9% of drivers screened.

There has also been a 25% drop in sexually transmitted infections and a 34% increase in drivers and sex workers seeking treatment.

This means the staff working on Trucking Wellness programmes can now focus on other diseases that impact drivers. Nurses Portia Mbatha and Sibongile Nala told Wheels that they listed their new priorities as diabetes, high cholesterol and blood pressure, before HIV and TB.

The next level

Aspen joins PMB-based fleet operator Bakers, which became the first company to implement Mercedes-Benz’s Fleet Owner Workplace Programme that aims to assist fleet owners in taking a holistic approach to employee health and wellness, based on a proven model. This is the next level of corporate wellness companies can aspire to.

• Contact Michelle Woods a info@truckingwellness.co.za for more information.