Drivers Die at 61. A Free App and Federal Incentives May Change That.

Why do truck drivers die so young?

Truck drivers in the United States die at an average age of 61, decades short of the general population's life expectancy. Jeremy Reymer, who founded driver recruiting platform DriverReach before selling it last year, launched a nonprofit called Project 61 to address the problem through free education, a mobile app, and a nascent federal partnership to incentivize healthier eating. The organization is working with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services on a program to financially incentivize drivers to purchase healthier food options, though Reymer said details are still being developed.

The safety cost of unhealthy drivers

Reymer described a recurring exercise he conducts when speaking to groups of fleet owners: he asks how many have lost a driver (meaning a driver died) in the past year, and every hand in the room goes up. Medical emergencies in the cab represent a significant and underappreciated crash risk. Reymer pointed to the ongoing litigation surrounding the Lucas Superior case, described as the largest nuclear verdict in trucking history to be paid out by an existing company, in which the driver had reportedly said he was not feeling well days before the fatal accident.

"The main operating system of that truck, the driver, is an area that we just kind of look the other way when it's so important," Reymer said. "When you've got a driver who's tired, who's cranky, who hasn't moved or hasn't slept, their ability to react quickly isn't there when they're operating at maybe what, somewhere in the neighborhood of 30%, 40% of what they could be otherwise."

Three factors that shorten driver life expectancy

Reymer identified poor nutrition as the single biggest lever available to drivers, citing three compounding factors: less than five hours of sleep per night on average, near-constant sedentary time during 11-hour driving shifts, and limited access to whole food at truck stops and travel centers.

Project 61 structures its guidance around what it calls the "five axles of health": fuel (nutrition), move (exercise), recharge (sleep), mental drive (mental health), and preventative maintenance. All five are tracked through a free mobile app available at project-61.org.

What the free Project 61 app tracks

Daily nutrition targets inside the app include three servings of protein, three servings of vegetables, two servings of fruit, whole grains, and healthy fats, along with hydration reminders. The app is free to download and use.

Truck stop operators, Reymer added, have been supportive of Project 61's mission, but acknowledge that healthier options go unpurchased when drivers aren't educated on why the choices matter. The federal incentive program under development with FMCSA and HHS is intended to close that gap by making healthier food financially attractive, not just available.

What changed in driver recruiting after COVID

Reymer ran a truck driver staffing company for more than 15 years before founding DriverReach. He described the period from roughly summer 2020 through the first quarter of 2022 as "some of the strongest environment for the demand for recruiting and hiring drivers" he had seen in a long time, followed by four years of correction. The industry has been "right-sizing" excess capacity that built up after a post-COVID pendulum swing brought a flood of new entrants and private equity into trucking. He sold DriverReach last year and has since shifted his focus full-time to driver health through the nonprofit.

The takeaway for owner-operators

If you run a small fleet, the math is simple: a driver who dies at 61 instead of 78 costs you 17 years of institutional knowledge, customer relationships, and recruiting savings. The Project 61 app is free. Download it at project-61.org, walk your drivers through the five axles of health, and watch for the FMCSA food-incentive program details when they're announced. Changing daily habits costs nothing and may keep your best driver in the seat another decade.