Health and transport
Transporters, like other mobile populations isolated from their homes, families and communities, are more likely to engage in high-risk activities, such as having unprotected sex with multiple partners. In doing so, they put themselves and the communities with which they interact at risk. For example, HIV prevalence rates among long distance truck drivers and communities living along major transport communities are thought to be twice as high as the general population.
The challenges
The vulnerability of transporters and their role as a vector of HIV and other disease transmission poses two main challenges to the transport industry and those dependent on it for commercial, public and humanitarian purposes:
- Human resources: many transporters are losing skilled employees to AIDS faster than they can train new employees; a direct threat to business sustainability;
- Social responsibility: in the process of delivering goods, people or aid, in many settings transporters are faced with the unpleasant reality that they risk introducing HIV and other disease to recipient communities.
In attempting to respond to these challenges transporters are faced with a different set of challenges:
- Reaching the mobile employees: truck drivers spend the majority of their working hours on the go and thus outside the direct sphere of control of their employers;
- Limited resources: in a low-margin industry, mounting a comprehensive response outside of the traditional workplace setting (i.e. office, depot) is well beyond the capacity of even the largest transport organizations.Health and transport
