Truck drivers die at 61? Jeremy Reymer breaks down the driver health crisis, mental health tools, sleep, nutrition and the 5 axles of health. In this FreightWaves Today interview, the Project 61 founder explains why trucking works against nearly every basic rule of long-term health—and what drivers, fleets and the industry can do about it. He also talks about veterans in trucking, the reality of isolation on the road and why sleep may be the most overlooked risk in the cab.
The average professional truck driver dies at age 61 — a statistic cited across the industry for roughly 12 years and traced to a study published around 2014. That figure is the driving force behind Project 61, a nonprofit that just expanded its free mobile app with mental health resources aimed at the more than 3.5 million commercial drivers whose daily routines work against nearly every known determinant of a long life.
“If I were to ask for the top five things that we could do as people to give us the best chance of longevity, you would probably say it’s important to eat good and hydrate, it’s important to exercise regularly, it’s important to get good sleep, it’s important to make sure that you’re dealing with mental health,” said Jeremy Reymer, founder and CEO of Project 61. “This is the exact opposite of all of those.”
The app, available free on Android and Apple devices, is built around what Project 61 calls the “5 axles of health”: fuel (food and nutrition), move (physical activity), recharge (sleep and recovery), mental health, and preventative maintenance — defined as routine medical checkups and tracking key health numbers. Reymer said nutrition is the most actionable lever because drivers eat roughly 20 times per week, creating frequent opportunities to improve outcomes.
“The lack of connection to humans, to your mental health, and to premature death is the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day.” — Jeremy Reymer, founder and CEO of Project 61, citing Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s book Together
Sleep deprivation is a compounding factor. Reymer noted that while most workers have a 15-hour window between the end and start of a workday, drivers operating under federal hours-of-service rules have only a 10-hour off-duty period — time that must also cover meals, showers, parking, and personal tasks. The result is that most drivers average fewer than five hours of sleep per night, well below the six-to-eight hours recommended for sustained health.
Mental health, and specifically social isolation, rounds out what Reymer described as a compounding crisis. Over-the-road drivers can spend weeks away from family and friends, and Reymer pointed to research showing that chronic disconnection from other people carries health consequences equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. The newly added mental health tools inside the app are designed to provide coping resources and links to outside professional support when needed.
For fleets, Reymer argued the app has direct business implications beyond driver wellness. Carriers that roll out Project 61 to their drivers can run company-wide health challenges, build a health-forward culture, and improve driver retention — a priority at a time when the industry faces persistent turnover pressures. The app and its fleet features are free, and fleets can reach the organization at project-61.org. About one in 10 professional truck drivers is a veteran, according to Census Bureau data, a population Reymer said tends to enter the industry healthier and more disciplined — advantages that erode without deliberate attention to the conditions unique to life behind the wheel.
- Project 61’s free app added mental health tools addressing isolation, sleep loss, and nutrition across its ‘5 axles of health’ framework.
- Truck drivers average fewer than 5 hours of sleep per night within a constrained 10-hour off-duty window, far below the recommended 6–8 hours.
- Social disconnection carries health risks equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, compounding the mortality crisis reflected in the average driver lifespan of 61 years.
This Summary is generated thanks to a transcription of the interview, for the full interview please enjoy the video above.
