Mental Wellness on the Move: A Truckers’ Guide to a Healthy Mind
Always on the move, the logistics sector rarely has time to slow down. But as Mental Health Awareness Week begins on the 13th of May, we at Barnes would like to take time, reflect, and open conversations about mental wellbeing in our own industry. At times, working in logistics is a highly demanding job and so it’s important that we proactively put in place the right support, so our HGV drivers feel seen and valued.
The Cause for Concern in Logistics
The cost-of-living crisis, anxiety, illness, and grievance are just some of today’s pressures on an employee’s mental health, and that’s before taking on work-related responsibilities. The logistics industry in particular, faces a hidden crisis of poor mental wellbeing. In fact, 30% of self-reported and work-related illnesses in the industry are due to stress, depression or anxiety.
Logistics is the backbone of global commerce and plays a pivotal role in facilitating the worldwide movement of goods and services. However, as the industry focuses on efficiency and productivity, mental health is often overlooked.
The Most Common Causes of Stress for HGV Drivers Are:
- Having irregular working hours
- Working in isolation
- Meeting stringent schedules
- The physical demands of loading and unloading
- Job insecurity
Poor mental health affects not only employees, but their families, co-workers, and employers too. What’s more, if a truck driver has poor mental wellbeing, then this can lead to unsafe driving.
Having the right wellbeing support in place is shown to boost productivity, drive staff retention, build a strong ethos and, most importantly, make employees feel heard, valued, and happy at work.
Here’s Our Trucker’s Guide to a Healthy Mind
Keep in Touch
It’s very important that you stay connected with friends and family whilst on the road. Consider using your breaks to call, FaceTime and message friends.
Balance Your Diet
Healthy eating and mental well-being go hand-in-hand. Whilst this can be difficult on the road, try to maintain a balanced diet with plenty of fruit, vegetables, protein, and whole grains. Bulk prepping meals in advance is a great way to keep to this.
Take Active Breaks
Utilise your breaks well and keep your mind active. During your breaks you may want to take time to read a book, do a sudoku or even practice a musical instrument that you can take on the job with you – it’s all about finding what works for you.
Sleep Well
Lack of sleep can very much impact your mood, performance at work, and stress levels. Making sure to have around 7-9 hours of good quality sleep each night is the key to setting yourself a strong framework for having a healthy mental wellbeing. With irregular working schedules, this may be difficult to keep to. So, do things that you know that help you to relax so that when you can sleep, you’re having good quality sleep.
Keep Organised
Tidy room, tidy mind goes along way. Keeping your space organised and decluttered is shown to improve focus and help you feel more in control of your surroundings. Making sure to clean regularly seems small but is really a significant move to help improve your mental wellbeing.
Self-Reflect
Knowing yourself and your own personal signs of when it’s time to reach out is one of the most important aspects of safeguarding your mental health. These signs may be feeling teary, feeling irritable, responding sharply to others, feeling frustrated or angry. Recognising these signs will help you seek help faster and allow you to take control of your mental health.
Open-Up
Keeping negative thoughts and feelings bottled-up is unhealthy. Speaking to friends and family is a great support network to turn to, but also consider one-to-one therapy or online support services.
If you feel as though you need immediate support, the following helplines are available:
Mind | https://www.mind.org.uk/ | 0300 123 3393
Samaritans | https://www.samaritans.org/ | 116 123
OCD UK | www.ocduk.org | 0333 212 7890
Anxiety UK | www.anxietyuk.org.uk | 03444 775 774
CALM | www.thecalmzone.net | 0800 58 58 58
Men’s Health Forum | https://www.menshealthforum.org.uk/beatstress.uk
NHS | https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/mental-health-helplines
We have many more blogs on driver health and wellbeing over on our website. If you have any more advice you’d like to share, please let us know on Twitter or LinkedIn, we’d love to hear from you.
