What Trucking Can Learn from Maritime Health & Wellness

When it comes to wellness in trucking, let’s be real: the bar is low. A free app no one uses, a one-off webinar, maybe a dusty gym membership no one knows they have, that’s what passes for “driver wellness.” Meanwhile, in maritime, the conversation is miles ahead. Seafarers face many of the same challenges as truck drivers, long stretches away from home, irregular sleep, isolation, and stressful daily work, but the way shipping companies approach health and wellness puts most trucking outfits to shame.

I sat down with Claudia Paschkewitz, Columbia Group’s director of sustainability, diversity, and inclusion. Columbia Group is the largest maritime, logistics energy leisure and offshore platform, responsible for the welfare of over 20,000 seafarers. Columbia has built structured wellness programs that blend physical health, mental health, nutrition, and connection. Trucking could learn a lot from how maritime has tackled these same problems.

The Basics: Sleep, Food, and Staying Connected

Both truck drivers and seafarers deal with a lot of the same things: irregular schedules, relentless time crunches, fatigue, and loneliness. The difference is that companies like Columbia have put real thought into how to make a seafarer’s day-to-day experience a little more manageable, through food, scheduling, and connection. Truck drivers, meanwhile, are largely left to fend for themselves.

Claudia pointed out some similarities:

“There are often no regular sleeps because you have this time pressure… So there are sleep deficiencies, which the immune system might suffer from..”

Food is a big area where the divide is clear. Seafarers may be far from home, but they usually have a cook onboard, and Columbia goes as far as to ensure those cooks are trained to prepare balanced meals and, importantly, dishes from a mariner’s home country.

“You have to make sure that [the cook] is well educated and guided… Also make sure that you cook recipes from the home countries of the seafarers, that's also very important.”

This isn’t left to chance either, maritime partners like MCTC (Marine Consultancy & Training) also provide training and consultancy to galley teams, making sure meals are not only balanced but familiar. Because let’s be honest, a plate of comfort food from home can be as important to wellbeing as the nutritional value of that food.

Truck drivers, by contrast, are often stuck with fast food or convenience options that only make fatigue worse.

Connectivity and separation from loved ones is another huge common factor. Both groups are isolated, but at least seafarers have a crew onboard, drivers are almost always alone. But as Claudia notes, seafarers struggle more here:

“When you ask the seafarers, what do you need? They always say free Wi-Fi…to contact my loved ones.”

For truck drivers staying connected is easier thanks to phones and data, and most can get home every few days or weeks. Seafarers, on the other hand, can be away for six to nine months at a time. As Claudia mentions: “Nine months is a pregnancy.”

Safety & Wellness Are the Same Thing

Trucking tends to treat “wellness” as fluffy HR stuff. In maritime, it’s been directly tied to safety, as it should.

“Neglecting wellness will have an impact on every profession… If we don’t feel well, we have less concentration. We are distracted. And for sure, there is a higher possibility for safety incidents.”

Columbia runs integrated programs: 24/7 mental health support in 50 languages, training the captains to recognize when someone may need support, and there are even gyms on most vessels now. Much of this is powered through partnerships like OneCare Group, which takes wellness beyond box-checking and into everyday life at sea. As they explain: ‘Our mission is to proactively empower seafarers and maritime professionals by delivering integrated health, wellbeing, and continuous development solutions… fostering a culture of genuine care, where medical and mental health support, physical fitness, and professional growth are accessible anytime, anywhere.’ 

And this isn’t just corporate talk, it shows up in the data. OneCare says crews and companies consistently report ‘peace of mind and tangible improvements in wellbeing onboard.’ Shipping companies that have partnered with them have seen noticeable improvements in crew retention and engagement, with many seafarers saying they feel more valued and supported than ever before.

Project 61 in trucking is trying to take a step in that same direction. Its mission is blunt: North American truck drivers are dying at an average age of just 61 years old, nearly two decades younger than the general population. This nonprofit offers a free app for drivers with tools around nutrition, rest, and simple workouts designed for life on the road. It’s a meaningful start, especially in an industry where 70% of drivers are obese and heart disease, depression, and diabetes are twice as common as in the general population.

But Project 61 is only a start. What maritime teaches us is that wellness can’t just be an app or an add-on. It has to be embedded in company culture and treated as a safety requirement, not a perk.

Culture vs. Checkbox Wellness

This is where trucking really needs to listen. Wellness only works if it’s embedded in company culture, not bolted on. Claudia reminds us:

“It must be really embedded in the culture of the company. It must become a routine for everyone. It must become a normality. Management must lead by example.”

That’s why groups like MCTC go beyond nutrition, they work with leadership teams to build a culture where wellbeing is woven into daily operations. Maritime leaders participate alongside crews, showing wellness is a company-wide priority. Trucking can learn here: a dusty benefit nobody promotes isn’t wellness, it’s lip service.

Mental Health & Stigma

Both trucking and maritime are male-dominated and carry stigma around talking about feelings. Maritime has invested in normalizing the conversation.

“We also as a society have to get rid of the stigma… More and more people are prepared to talk and to call these mental health hotlines.”

Whenever I suggest therapy to anyone in trucking, I typically get an eye-roll or a vague mumble “I don’t need that”. And those responses come from all levels including leadership, if that’s the kind of response a leader is giving, how do you expect truck drivers to feel comfortable asking for the help they need?

Recognition: It’s Not Just a Job

Drivers and seafarers both suffer from lack of respect. People forget that without them, nothing moves.

“The profession of seafarers and truckers must be given a high status. It's very meaningful work… Seafarers and truckers must finally get the recognition in society that they deserve.”

Maritime has created programs that make workers feel seen, through career planning, mentoring, even culturally tailored meals. Trucking still largely treats drivers as disposable and easily replaceable.

The Road (or Sea) Ahead

So what does perfect wellness look like? Claudia put it simply:

“Everyone needs to feel valued. Psychological safety is deeply embedded. Everybody needs to feel safe to speak up… Mental health is embedded. Everybody must feel part of the team, [part] of the community.”

Maritime isn’t perfect. But they’re already leaps ahead of trucking in how they approach wellness: sleep, food, connectivity, safety, mental health, culture, recognition, all tied together.

In trucking, initiatives like Project 61 show there’s appetite and momentum, but they’re still scratching the surface. Apps and awareness campaigns matter, but the real lesson from maritime is this: wellness has to be built into the culture, led from the top, and treated as essential, not optional.

Because at the end of the day, a physically and mentally healthy driver is a safe driver, and that’s good for everyone.