The Structured Health Intervention For Truckers (Short-SHIFT): implementation within a mandatory truck driver training programme

Background: To target truck drivers’ health inequalities, we created the ‘Structured Health Intervention For Truckers’ (SHIFT), a health promotion programme designed to promote physical activity and positive lifestyle changes. As no national-level health education resources exist for UK truck drivers, we translated SHIFT into a scalable 1-hour short course (Short-SHIFT), to embed within industry-delivered mandatory driver training. UK truck drivers must undertake 35-hours of mandatory training over 5-years to maintain their licences. ‘Short-SHIFT’ is designed to raise drivers’ awareness of healthy lifestyle behaviours. This study provides an initial evaluation of the implementation of Short-SHIFT within a compulsory driver training module delivered by a UK logistics operator to their 7000-truck driver workforce.
Program Delivery: Sixty-five truck driver trainers were trained to deliver Short-SHIFT. Upon completion of Short-SHIFT, drivers were invited to complete an online questionnaire, providing qualitative and quantitative feedback. Quantitative feedback received to date was summarised using descriptive statistics.
Evaluation: To date, ~1000 drivers have experienced Short-SHIFT. Questionnaire responses have been received from 147 drivers (14% of attendees; sample characteristics: 97% male; mean(±SD) age: 50±10 years; BMI 29.3±5.3kg/m2). 83% found the session interesting and informative; 83%, 83% and 79% agreed it raised their awareness of the benefits of physical activity, reducing/breaking up sitting, and a healthy diet, respectively. After experiencing Short-SHIFT, 74% reported that they intended to make healthier lifestyle changes.
Conclusions: Findings suggest Short-SHIFT is scalable into truck drivers’ mandatory training and appears to be effective in raising drivers’ awareness of benefits of adopting healthy lifestyle behaviours. Course engagement appears to motivate drivers to want to make healthier lifestyle changes.
Practical implications: The positive feedback received to date suggests Short-SHIFT has potential to be mandated nationally as a module component, increasing its reach to ~250,000 UK truck drivers, filling a void in drivers’ health literacy.
Funding: The Colt Foundation