NAL Insurance has announced the launch of a new health and wellness program, developed specifically for the Canadian trucking industry.
The new program will be piloted by a handful of Canadian fleets, including: Bison Transport; Challenger; FTI; Quick X; ICI; ITS; and Doug Coleman Trucking. Several individuals from the industry, including Truck News executive editor James Menzies and associate publisher Kathy Penner have also agreed to pilot the 13-week weight loss portion of the program and will blog and/or tweet their results. The program, according to NAL, is designed to be effective and affordable, yet also practical for professional drivers.
"The industry has always struggled with driver retention, but we are losing far too many good drivers and owner/operators due to failing health," said Aaron Lindsay, fleet services manager with NAL.
The pilot launches July 15 and will include drivers, owner/operators, executives, media members and trucking company staff. Participants will begin by completing a questionnaire, which will be analyzed by registered dieticians.
Participants then will be assigned a dietician who will create special meal plans that will help facilitate healthy change. The dieticians will educate members on portion sizes, nutritional profiles and share healthy recipes that will enable success. Together, dieticians and participants will develop daily goals.
Throughout the program, dieticians will continue to provide support and advice, helping to motivate participants to achieve their goals.
For their part, participants agree to: follow a health program that may require changes to their eating and activity habits; participate in bi-weekly phone calls with a registered dietician and NAL health coach, who'll monitor their progress; and complete a daily food journal.
"Although there are a number of off-the-shelf health and wellness programs available today, there really isn't anything specifically designed to fit the lifestyle of our O/Os and drivers," said Lindsay. "The goal will be to use the information and data from our pilot project so that we can create a program that will work for the entire trucking industry, which should be ready by late fall."
