At the Mid-America Trucking Show (MATS) in March 2026, Project 61 helped gather survey responses from 75 active CDL drivers as part of a broader driver health research effort with Northern Arizona University (NAU) and San Diego State University (SDSU).
Respondents included both company drivers and owner-operators who self-selected into the survey while attending the event.
This sample is not intended to represent all CDL drivers, and a more formal analysis will come from the university research teams. But even as a directional snapshot, the responses reinforce what Project 61 hears from drivers regularly: health on the road is shaped by long hours, disrupted sleep, limited healthy food options, low movement, stress, pain, prevention, and the daily realities of the job.
For fleets, that matters.
Driver health is not separate from safety, retention, engagement, culture, or workforce sustainability. It sits underneath all of them.
The drivers who participated brought real experience from the road.
In this sample, 65% of respondents were OTR drivers, and 80% spent at least three nights per week in the truck. The average respondent was 53.5 years old, had more than 22 years of driving experience, and reported working nearly 60 hours per week.
That context matters. These were active CDL drivers who understand the long hours, time away from home, irregular routines, and day-to-day realities of professional driving.
One of the clearest takeaways is that drivers are not unaware of the health risks they face.
When asked about the most harmful health risks facing long-haul professional drivers, respondents pointed most strongly to poor nutrition, poor sleep or long hours, and mental health stress.
In this sample, 71% rated poor nutrition as very or extremely harmful, 68% said the same about poor sleep or long hours, and 55% said the same about mental health stress.
Those findings are important because they shift the conversation.
The challenge is not simply awareness. Many drivers know these things matter. The harder question is how to make healthier choices more practical and repeatable inside the reality of the job.
The survey responses also pointed to several everyday barriers.
Roughly one quarter of respondents reported waking during their rest period at least once or twice per week, and one-third said this happened three or more times per week. At the same time, 82% rated their overall sleep quality as very good or fairly good.
That contrast is worth paying attention to. It may suggest that disrupted sleep has become so common in the profession that many drivers learn to define “good sleep” differently.
Nutrition tells a similar story. Nearly a third of respondents reported eating fast food at least twice per week, and 23% reported eating fast food four or more times per week. More than 60% reported drinking one liter of water or less per day, and two-thirds said they sometimes or always substitute water with other drinks when thirsty or dehydrated.
Those numbers should not be read as a lack of care. They reflect the reality of the road: limited time, limited parking, limited food options, fatigue, and changing schedules.
That is why driver health support has to be practical, not perfect.
Movement and pain also showed up as important themes.
In this sample, 33% of respondents reported never exercising, and another 28% reported exercising only one to two times per week. 88% of respondents reported some level of current pain, and 53% rated that pain at 5 or higher on a 0 to 10 scale.
For drivers, pain is not just discomfort. It can affect sleep, movement, mood, work, family life, and career sustainability.
Preventative care showed both encouraging signs and clear gaps. Most respondents reported having health insurance, having a primary care physician, and having a physical or checkup within the past year. But 40% reported never having had a cancer screening, and 19% said they had delayed or avoided cancer screening because of work schedules or time on the road.
That is why Project 61 talks about Preventative Maintenance. Drivers understand maintenance better than anyone. The same mindset matters for the body.
Mental health stress was another important theme.
54% of respondents rated mental health stress as very or extremely harmful for long-haul professional drivers. 41% said their work sometimes or always affects their mental health. At the same time, only 8% reported using mental health or counseling services since becoming a professional driver.
That gap matters.
Drivers may recognize mental health stress as a serious issue, but formal support can still feel hard to access, hard to talk about, or disconnected from the realities of the job.
For fleets, this is not about turning every company into a counseling provider. It is about creating a culture where mental health is acknowledged, support is easier to find, and drivers know they are not expected to carry everything alone.
The MATS survey responses do not tell the whole story of driver health, and they are not meant to.
But they reinforce an important truth: drivers are living with health challenges inside one of the most demanding work environments in the country.
For fleets, the takeaway is not that every company needs to solve every driver health issue overnight.
The takeaway is that driver health deserves a place in the conversation about safety, retention, culture, engagement, and workforce sustainability.
Small steps matter.
Making free resources available matters. Encouraging movement matters. Creating space for conversations about sleep, stress, nutrition, and preventative care matters. Helping drivers access tools built for the road matters.
That is where Project 61 can help.
Our mission is to help truck drivers live longer, healthier lives through awareness, education, and free resources built for life on the road.
Driver health is not a side issue.
It is part of the foundation of a strong, safe, and sustainable workforce.
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