03/2010 RAMP Media Gets In Touch with the Trucking Industry’s Health Needs

LOUISVILLE, KY – RAMP Media Group is connecting health conscious companies with health conscious drivers during their sponsorship of the Mid America Recruiting and Wellness Center at the Mid America Truck Show. The truck show is March 25-27 at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center in Louisville, Ky.

 

The Recruiting and Wellness Center will be open the duration of the truck show for companies actively recruiting and those interested in health and wellness to meet with the drivers attending the show.

 

“With the implementation of CSA 2010, companies are going to have to be more selective in who they hire.  Generally speaking, healthier drivers are more productive and incur far fewer problems.  Companies are going to have to start hiring healthy drivers or at least someone who wants to get healthier,” said Marvin Shefsky, publisher at RAMP. “We want to help the truck drivers and the trucking companies. The trucking companies want to help, but they are in the trucking business, not health and wellness.  It is a learning curve for all of us, and this is just the beginning.  We started working on this concept four years ago and are now positioned to lead the way.  I really have a passion for what we’re doing, and it needs to be done.”

 

RAMP has been sponsoring the highly-trafficked recruiting center for more than 20 years but has recently recognized the need for a health focus. The average age of death for a truck driver is 61-years-old or less, 16 years younger than the average American according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2007, RAMP’s recruiting exhibit first took on a health and wellness theme with the addition of four blood pressure kiosks. 

 

“We heard about the poor shape drivers were in and brought in four blood pressure machines,” Shefsky said.  “During the course of the show, more than 2,000 drivers took their blood pressure and over 20 were sent to the emergency room. One driver even had a heart attack on the way there.”

 

RAMP Media Group is the premier communication link between people who drive trucks and people who want to do business with them. They focus on the interests of professional over-the-road truckers and make themselves available through quality distribution and electronic media. RAMP is an active sponsor of the Healthy Trucking Association of America and publishes Driver HEALTH Magazine, the official magazine of the HTAA,  Over the Road Magazine, and Inside Trucking online (available on-line). For more information about RAMP, visit www.rampmediagroup.com or contact Andy Shefsky at andy@driverhealth.org or 678-739-0928.