With truck drivers being responsible for transporting nearly two-thirds of the country’s freight, safeguarding their health and improving their well-being is critical to sustain India’s economic growth momentum in the foreseeable future

With road transport accounting for 71% of India’s freight traffic, the domestic trucking industry is largely responsible for ensuring last-mile connectivity and sustaining supply chains across the country. Truck drivers play a pivotal role in ensuring the timely supply of goods to both urban and rural centres; with most working long hours on a daily basis and staying away from their family for extended periods of time. What’s more, the heightened risk of road accidents, changing weather conditions and lack of comfortable resting facilities makes their working conditions even tougher. This not only highlights the urgent need for collective action to alleviate these struggles, but is also a call to India’s corporate sector to channel their CSR efforts towards improving health and social outcomes for India’s truck driver community.

Occupational hazards that are putting truck drivers at extreme risk

Considering the country’s future economic prospects, the number of trucks plying on Indian roads is expected to increase from 12.5 million currently to reach 15 million by 2028, necessitating a proportionate increase in the number of truck drivers over the next four years. However, there is an acute shortage of trained long-haul truck drivers that is not only bogging down India’s logistics sector, but also detrimentally impacting the lives of the 3.6 million strong Indian truck driver community today. In fact, the recently released Project Abhay report alluded to the adverse health effects caused by stressful working conditions, with 57.4% of the 50,000 truck drivers screened having elevated blood pressure levels. Moreover, 18.4% of the respondents reported borderline or high blood sugar levels and 55.1% suffered from poor vision. Sitting for long hours in the same posture also causes pain in the posterior cervical region and if untreated, can result in chronic shoulder, neck and lower back pain that can lead to the development of kyphotic posture.

Mitigating health-related issues and lifestyle-based challenges through health clinics

Understandably, very few truck drivers have access to quality health services, with many hailing from Tier 2 & 3 towns that lack proper health care facilities even today. It has therefore become imperative to provide them with access to important services like free health checkup and physiotherapy services at prominent transport hubs spread across the country. Recognizing the need for these essential healthcare services, a few corporates have shown the way by allocating a major chunk of their CSR funds towards setting up well-being clinics that specifically cater to truck drivers, with experienced medical practitioners checking them for musculoskeletal disorders, chronic back pain, leg pain and other physical conditions that arise due to long hours of driving. These clinics have now sprouted up in key transport hubs including Sanjay Gandhi Transport Hub-Delhi, Heeranagar-Ludhiana, Transport Nagar-Indore, Gandhidham, Kalamboli-Navi Mumbai and Namakkal-Tamil Nadu among many others; serving over 1,00,000 truck drivers since inception with quality general and physiotherapy treatments. Additionally, free Physiotherapy camps are also being organized at other transport hubs to expand outreach and support India’s ‘highway heroes’ with the care they deserve to lead healthy and fulfilling lives.

Supplementing governmental efforts with corporate action

On its part, the Indian government has implemented several measures that are aimed at improving working conditions for truck drivers and reducing lifestyle-related disorders through preventive action. These include mandating air-conditioned cabins for all newly manufactured trucks in India from October 2025, establishing 1,000 Driver Resting Centers along major highways, offering mental health support through dedicated programs and expanding registered apprenticeship programs to professionally train truck drivers on how to better manage the demands of their arduous jobs. Still, with India’s trucking market expected to more than quadruple by 2050 and logistics companies focusing on improving the truck-to-driver ratio in the near term, there will be a large influx of new truck drivers over the next few years. As a result, governmental efforts will have to be complemented with greater contributions from India’s corporate sector, underscoring the need for more healthcare-focused CSR programs in collaboration with leading NGOs and social welfare organisations throughout the country. By improving access to quality healthcare services and providing timely counselling, Corporate India could play a key role in safeguarding India’s truck driver community and propel the nation towards realizing its ambitious economic ambitions.