Consider your health as well as wages in picking a career

When most of us think about career choices, chances are we're thinking about potential earnings, job stability, expected vacancies and work responsibilities. We're probably not thinking life expectancy.

But it's something to consider.

It turns out that truck driving, one of the hot, in-demand and well-paying jobs in the Houston area, can be hazardous to your health.

The life expectancy of truck drivers is 12 to 19 years less than the average worker, said Daniel Brown, technical director of transportation services at Travelers, who gave a presentation in Houston recently on the health and safety costs associated with truck driving.

Chalk it up to a stationary job with limited opportunities for exercise, unpredictable sleep schedules and unhealthy eating habits. Truck stops are better known for burgers, fries and vending machines rather than organic food and exercise machines.

Fifty-three percent of truck drivers are obese, compared to 34 percent of the overall population, said Woody Dwyer, second vice president for workers compensation at Travelers. That boosts the likelihood of diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic health conditions.

Truckers also suffer disproportionately from sleep apnea, a sleeping disorder associated with obesity and high blood pressure. About 28 percent of truckers have sleep apnea, a Department of Transportation study found.

Sleep apnea, in turn, leads to poor quality sleep. A study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that drivers who sleep six to seven hours a night are twice as likely to be involved in an accident than their co-workers who sleep eight hours or more a night.

Then there's the grim fact that the highest percentage of workers killed on the job perish in transportation-related accidents, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The most recent data available show 40 percent of the 4,405 worker fatalities in 2013 were transportation-related, although many workers who died in wrecks weren't truck drivers but were driving between job sites or sales calls or killed while walking across the street.

While companies are boosting safety procedures and holding daily meetings on the importance of safe habits, they've also turned their attention to improving their underlying chronic health problems. That growing realization comes at a time when demand for truckers is growing.

The Greater Houston Partnership has launched a focus on "middle skills" jobs - those that typically require more than a high school degree but less than a four-year college degree - that pay well and offer plenty of opportunities.

At the top of the list is truck driving, which is expected to add 2,877 jobs each year in the Houston area through 2017. The median hourly earnings of heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers is $16.97 an hour or about $34,000 a year, according to the partnership data.

Truckers in the Houston area are also older than average with 25 percent of them 55 years of age or older.

While bad health habits are commonplace, there are things truckers can do to make the job less dangerous.

Some long-haul drivers have made healthy eating a priority, said Erin Mabry, senior research associate at the Center for Truck and Bus Safety at Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. Some have fashioned little cooking stations in the back of their cabs, complete with a refrigerator and hot plate.

But that takes a lot of advance planning for drivers who can be on the road for two to four weeks at a time, Mabry said. It's a lot easier to pull into a truck stop for fuel and get fast food at the same time.

And cost is a factor, said Mabry, who has seen from her own experience that apples and bananas are available at truck stops but they're often $1 each and don't look too good. Alternatively, truckers can buy two bags of chips for $1.

Truckers would likely make more healthy choices if the food was inexpensive and fast, said Mabry.

You can coach drivers all you want but until there is an infrastructure shift at truck stops, you won't make an impact, she said.

One truck stop chain tried to get it started by installing 24-hour fitness centers around the country. For a low price, drivers could swipe a card and exercise at any time of the day or night.

But drivers didn't use them, said Mabry, which didn't come as a big surprise. When drivers are behind the wheel eight hours a day and working an extra three hours a day loading, unloading and handling paperwork, the last thing they say they want to do is go hit the gym.

It's a really tricky population to make healthy lifestyle changes, Mabry said.