Freight start-up Trucksters has teamed up with healthcare app Cristobal to provide lorry drivers with a programme to improve their mental health. Trucksters said it was also putting together a driver experience team whose job is to ensure that drivers achieve a better life-work balance, spend more quality time with their families and that they have access to clean, safe and well-serviced rest areas.

The Cristobal app provides a menu of services, including longer-term support like therapy sessions or nutritional and posture advice, as well as immediate help such as rehabilitation assistance.

“We have direct responsibility to improve the wellbeing of drivers, and mental health is crucial in achieving this. Changing the inner workings of the sector takes time but while we are working in this direction, we are happy that we can at least be of help to drivers. This initiative encapsulates our desire to help, and we are very happy that these objectives are aligned and shared by Cristobal,” said Luis Bardají, chief executive of Trucksters.

Trucksters said data showed 42% of accidents in freight transport are caused by human error, blackouts, drug use or heart attacks, many of which are caused by health disorders or mental illnesses. It said the app had received the Innovation Award from Spain’s Foundation for Bio sanitary Research and Innovation in Primary Care and was presented at the World Congress of Family Medicine WONCA Europe 2022 in July. It is free for drivers and is available for iOS and Android smartphones.

Trucksters is revolutionising road transport allowing drivers to have a better work-life balance and spend more quality time with their families. Hauliers drive only sections of a longer route and at certain AI-calculated relay points, they exchange the semi-trailers to take the goods in the opposite direction. Thanks to this system, they are able to sleep more nights at home and have a better quality of life. Customers, in turn, receive a service which is up to twice as fast as traditional road transport and up to four times safer, as goods are constantly on the move, reducing the risk of thefts.