
May 4, 2016 ● Peter Jones
4 Strategies to Avoid Truck Driver Burnout
Long haul driving is hard. Period. Truck drivers are said to work 70-hour work weeks, but we all know the reality is more like 90. Compared to a normal office worker, clocking in at 40 hours a week, this is already a recipe for exhaustion.
Add in the fact that off-duty time, usually spent waiting between loads or at a truck stop, requires a certain amount of vigilance and maintenance of the rig—and isn’t really down time after all. Plus the fact that the human body prefers to sleep at night, in the dark, when the body’s natural rhythm calls for it. And that, to be healthy, one needs better access to healthier food than can be found at truck stops or fast food eateries—and you’ve got a whole lot of drivers barreling down the highway towards depression, exhaustion, poor-health, and the dreaded burn out.
Here are four strategies to make sure this doesn’t happen to you, whatever stage you might be at in your trucking career: