Webinar Replay #103: Driver Wellness and Fitness

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Steve Kessler: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the INFINITI Fast Forward webinar series.

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Steve Kessler: My name’s Steve Kessler, and I’m going to host the program this morning.

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Steve Kessler: We have a great topic today, something as an industry I don’t think we talk about anywhere near enough.

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Steve Kessler: And that’s, the health and wellness of our drivers out there.

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Steve Kessler: I’m sure many of you are aware that drivers have a lot of health issues because of their sedentary lifestyle, the nature of what they do.

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Steve Kessler: And we’re going to spend some time today and talk with an expert about that and hopefully give you some ideas and perhaps some options on how you might be able to help your drivers out just a little bit.

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Steve Kessler: A couple of housekeeping items, and then I’m going to introduce our, our panel.

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Steve Kessler: Y’all probably know that everybody that’s joined us is muted, which means we can’t hear you, so if you’d like to make a comment or ask a question, you can use the chat feature, which is in the tray, probably at the bottom of your screen.

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Steve Kessler: And you can make comments or ask questions. There’s also a Q&A box there. If you prefer to type your question in there, that’s fine. We can see that here on our end, and we’ll be able to respond.

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Steve Kessler: We generally try to take questions at the end if we get a lot, but if we don’t, we’ll pop those in during the program.

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Steve Kessler: So, we’ll try to get your questions answered. So, why don’t y’all jump in the chat, let us know who you are, who you’re with, and where you are in the country, so we can have an idea of who’s out there.

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Steve Kessler: And while y’all are doing that, let me introduce, Mark Rhea. Mark joins us on most all of our webinars, an industry executive veteran, 35 plus years. Mark’s the Certified Director of Safety.

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Steve Kessler: And does a lot of consulting, serves as an expert witness in court cases, very much involved with the industry, and a lot of experience, over many years in the trucking industry.

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Steve Kessler: So, Mark, your thoughts about, health and wellness of drivers?

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Mark Rhea: Well, I’m looking forward to Dr. Monero’s presentation, and you mentioned briefly the legality, and I’ve certainly seen cases where the plaintiff’s attorney challenged

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Mark Rhea: the carrier on what efforts they were doing to improve the wellness and the well-being of their drivers. It’s very basic, but I think it’s part of our responsibility to do what we can to improve that. It obviously impacts

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Mark Rhea: turnover, crash frequency, compliance, it hits everything. So, I’m really looking forward to today’s Project 61 and Dr. Monera, and how can we

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Mark Rhea: Exchange information and convince our drivers to improve their lifestyles.

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Steve Kessler: Sounds great, Mark. Let me introduce our guest today. We have today, Dr. Mark Monera.

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Steve Kessler: Mark’s the President and Chief Health Officer of Project 61.

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Steve Kessler: Project 61 is a national 501c3 nonprofit that’s on a mission to rewrite the future of driver health. They’ve got a lot of ambitious plans, and wanted to get an opportunity to have,

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Steve Kessler: Dr. Monero speak to us about that today. Mark is a doctor of physical therapy. He saw firsthand the toll a lifetime of trucking can have on a person’s health.

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Steve Kessler: He founded a company called Offshift.

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Steve Kessler: Which was a digital health company that helped trucking companies cut down healthcare costs, reduce risk, and improve lives by preventing and managing obesity-related chronic diseases.

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Steve Kessler: following its acquisition by Project 61, Mark now leads the charge to put a free, proven health program and platform into the hands of every driver in North America.

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Steve Kessler: So, having said that, Mark, I’m going to turn the program over to you. Welcome.

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Mark Manera: Thank you so much, Steve. Mark, thank you so much for having me. I’m really excited for the conversation, and you know, like… like they mentioned, my name’s Dr. Mark Minera. Please just call me Mark. Like, we’re all friends here. You do not have to, you don’t have to call me doctor, and

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Mark Manera: I am the President and Chief Health Officer of Project 61, and as Steve mentioned, Project 61 is a 501c3 nonprofit in the trucking industry, and we get the name Project 61 because of the unfortunate fact that

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Mark Manera: The average life expectancy of a CDL truck driver is 61 years old.

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Mark Manera: And that’s not okay to me. 61 years old, that means the average truck driver dies

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Mark Manera: 16 years earlier than the average American. And we’re on a mission to change that, and I’ll kind of talk through how we’re doing it and why I think everyone on this webinar and everyone, you know, in this industry should get behind it, because it’s a win-win for everyone. But a little bit about my background before we get into that.

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Mark Manera: from the healthcare side of things, I, as Steve mentioned, have a doctorate degree in physical therapy, and I got into the trucking industry 5 years ago when a bunch of truck drivers walked into the clinic that I was working at.

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Mark Manera: And it was the first time that I had ever gotten to know some drivers on a personal level, but it was also the first time seeing what 20, 30 years behind the wheel can do to someone’s health, and it just threw me down this rabbit hole, and

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Mark Manera: this is a picture of me freshly out of physical therapy school, hanging out with one of the first drivers that I ever became good friends with. Her name’s Blake, and honestly, Blake’s story is one of the only reasons why I am

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Mark Manera: One of the biggest reasons why I’m sitting here today, and I’m so passionate about this problem. Blake got into the trucking industry 8 years ago. She was driving… she started driving TEAM as an over-the-road driver, for one of the larger fleets in the industry, and she was driving TEAM with this guy she’d never met before, his name’s George, and they hit it off immediately. Over the next couple of years, they

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Mark Manera: ended up becoming good friends, and then they started dating and got engaged out on the road. I always, like, joke with her that’s a true trucking love story.

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Mark Manera: But they were out on the road, and I remember, like, it was yesterday, because I was working with both of them after they got engaged, helping them get healthier, getting ready for their wedding, and…

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Mark Manera: It was 2 weeks before their wedding day, and I was, it was like a Thursday night at 8 o’clock at night, and I got a text from Blake, and it said, George just had a heart attack.

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Mark Manera: And they were out on the road.

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Mark Manera: making their final delivery, in California. Again, two weeks right before their wedding day. They were going to drop off this load at a customer’s and then head back home to get ready. And George was driving on the highway,

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Mark Manera: down a fully loaded truck, and turns to Blake in the passenger seat, and speaks.

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Mark Manera: I don’t know what’s going on, but I need to pull over. And he pulled over to the side of the road. They rushed to the emergency room, and he ended up in emergency surgery an hour and a half later and thank goodness he did. They did that, and he was able to safely get on the side of the road and make it to the hospital, because

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Mark Manera: the, the doctor said, you know, if you wouldn’t have made it there that quickly, you might not be here right now. And I’m sure a whole lot of you in the audience right now, and Steve and Mark as well, can,

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Mark Manera: have a story or two of a driver with a very similar story, and unfortunately, probably not all of them ended up as, George did, and I’m happy to say George ended up, he’s healthy, he’s safe, his wife and I, George and Blake, ended up getting married,

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Mark Manera: a couple weeks later, and my wife and I were two of 30 people at their wedding, so we were… I was, like, just, like, really honored, and it kind of shows the relationship that, I… I built, and I still have Blake and George. They are some really, good family friends on our end, and really…

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Mark Manera: their story and the relationship I built with them was one of the first times that I really recognized that, like.

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Mark Manera: these drivers are more than just, like, patients coming into the clinic that I work with. They’re more than just, like, cogs in the supply chain that, like, move freight for us so we can, you know, keep food on the shelves at the grocery store. These are…

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Mark Manera: you know, these are people. They are, you know, mothers, fathers, husbands, wives. They’re people that want to see their kids grow up, and really, I recognize it through… through their story, but also through other stories that I… over the last 5 years, that, you know, right now, the current way that the

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Mark Manera: culture of the trucking industry is and the lifestyle of drivers.

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Mark Manera: it’s taking that away from a lot of drivers. It’s really impacting and stealing the opportunity for drivers to maximize and enjoy their life outside of behind the wheel, and, it’s taken away from their career as well. And so, that really sparked me to go all in and try to figure out, like.

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Mark Manera: how do I become a solution to this health problem? And I spent the first couple of years in the industry, I say getting my MDA in trucking. I spent hundreds of hours, you know, I worked together with dozens of trucking companies, I went at the insurance level and got to pull the curtain back and look at how they look at

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Mark Manera: the risk from a driver health perspective, and then I also just spent hundreds of hours

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Mark Manera: talking to drivers, getting to know them on a personal level. I was,

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Mark Manera: the crazy guy at the truck stop, doing ride-along, hanging out and talking to random drivers. I, I still believe I am the only physical therapist in the world that, among patients, I was on the phone with drivers, talking to them, and just, like, understanding what they go through on a day-to-day basis, and

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Mark Manera: Through that experience, as I got deeper and deeper into the industry, I just started to recognize and see more headlines like these.

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Mark Manera: And they were not headlines that I was seeing, like, on a rare occasion. They were, like, weekly, monthly things that I was seeing of.

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Mark Manera: drivers having accidents or being involved in medical emergencies out on the road, and it impacting, impacting their driving ability, impacting their life as a whole, and really recognizing, for me, from a human perspective, what I saw was, like.

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Mark Manera: behind each of these headlines is, you know, a driver, it’s a family of a driver, and it’s a company who are just, like.

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Mark Manera: emotionally and financially impacted by some of these, some of these situations. And…

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Mark Manera: through that, I started talking to more and more, you know, directors of HR, driver managers, safety managers, and every single one of them, when I spoke to them, had story after story that were very similar off, unfortunately, a driver passing away that drove for them. And most of them

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Mark Manera: Had had a driver in the, the last year who,

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Mark Manera: who had passed away for them, and I became good friends with this one driver manager, and she worked at a larger fleet, and she, he looked at me and, like, made eye contact with me, and, like, just, like.

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Mark Manera: I felt it in her voice when she told me, it was like, Mark, in the last year, I’ve had 6 of my drivers pass away, and in the last one, I found slumped over, the steering wheel in the yard. He had had a heart attack.

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Mark Manera: it just…

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Mark Manera: it just, like, crushed me. Like, I can’t even imagine that. But I know for me being in the industry for 5 years, I have personally

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Mark Manera: known drivers who have unfortunately passed away because of health issues, and I know tons of friends of friends within the industry who have passed away as well. I know most people on this webinar, I’m going to… I’m going to have you guys use the chat here. Could you just give, like, a thumbs up?

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Mark Manera: or put a yes in the chat if you have had, throughout your career, had a driver who’s worked for you pass away. I always like doing this because I know I am not alone, and I know you’re not alone as well. Yes, Tiffany, throwing in yes.

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Mark Manera: And… I do that.

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Mark Manera: Because none of us want that. Like, this is not… none of us in this industry are… want that. None of us… I obviously joke here, but, like, none of us are…

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Mark Manera: are, you know, have trailers that say a carrier to die for. We’re not hiring these people for this job to impact their life, and we want them to be healthy. We want these people to show up. We want them, you know, trucking to, you know,

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Mark Manera: For them to thrive, and for it to increase their life and quality of life outside of work as well, and be there for their family, and…

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Mark Manera: So, and I think about it as, like, what other industry is that a thing? Like, can you imagine a hospital saying.

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Mark Manera: Yeah, Mark, we’ve had 6 nurses pass away on shift this year. No, obviously not. Like in every other industry.

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Mark Manera: every single employee is, you know, dreaming of retiring at 65, right? They’ve got their retirement strategy, they’re looking at their portfolio, they’re looking at, like, all these things that, you know, they’re going to do with their free time, but in trucking right now.

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Mark Manera: The average driver doesn’t even make it to 65.

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Mark Manera: And that’s where I think, you know, it’s not okay as an industry, and we can do better, and if we can do better, it’s a win-win for everyone, but it’s obviously life-changing for these drivers. And so, this whole, like, two-year, couple of years, like, journey of me learning the trucking industry, of starting with drivers coming into the clinic, and kind of me diving deep into it.

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Mark Manera: ended with me just recognizing and seeing how massive a health problem the trucking industry has. I’m a little bit of a research nerd, so, like, I started digging into the, you know, statistics and data of drivers, and the health of drivers, and you see that 70% of truck drivers are obese.

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Mark Manera: truck drivers have the highest rates of obesity and diabetes among any other occupation, and then from a mental health perspective, because this is a conversation that I’m really excited that, like, it’s becoming more a part of the mainstream in our culture, but also I hear it more and more in trucking, is on the mental health piece of it as well.

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Mark Manera: You know, there was a study a few years ago that found that drivers have 6.2 times

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Mark Manera: Higher rates of depression compared to

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Mark Manera: all of us who work in an office, or all your employees who work in an office. And so.

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Mark Manera: In truck, in the healthcare world, all of these we consider chronic diseases.

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Mark Manera: And this is not trucking, this is a statistic for America as a whole, but in America, 7 out of every 10 deaths are caused by a chronic disease. And so, when you start looking at

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Mark Manera: a group of drivers or an industry that have pretty much the highest rates of all the lifestyle-based chronic diseases, and the statistics in America of the causes of death. What I started to really realize is the trickle-down of

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Mark Manera: Of all these health data is… is that the average life expectancy of a driver is 61 years old.

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Mark Manera: And if we want to do something about it.

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Mark Manera: You know, we need to impact the chronic disease epidemic within this industry, and the cool thing for me, and what gives me optimism, is that all of these conditions are

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Mark Manera: preventable and reversible with lifestyle changes, right? They are not just set in stone, and we’re stuck here, which gives me, like.

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Mark Manera: a lot of hope, and what gets me excited, because we can actually do something about it. And for me, I just truly, deep down in my heart, don’t believe anyone’s career should define their health, but as you start looking at some of these statistics, and you start thinking about the stories, and just, like.

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Mark Manera: your experience… my experience, and I’m sure your experience within the industry as well, like, I just realized right now that’s exactly what’s happening for these drivers, is that this career is…

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Mark Manera: is defining and impacting a lot of their health statuses, and what I really recognize is, obviously, it’s impacting their quality of life, you know, in and out of the truck, but

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Mark Manera: What it’s also impacting is, the trickle-down is the family of the drivers. So, the founder of Project 61 is a guy named Jeremy Raymer. Probably a decent amount of you might have known who he is. He was the founder of a company called Driver Reach. He’s been in the industry for 20-something years, and, is well… well known and

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Mark Manera: Like, previous life, he, was the founder of a staffing company, or driver staffing company, and he told me a story of one time as

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Mark Manera: That he had to hand the final paycheck of one of his drivers to, the dad of one of his drivers, because the week before, at 41 years old, the driver had a heart attack and passed away.

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Mark Manera: And so…

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Mark Manera: I just, like, think about the impact that some of these health statics, and obviously when drivers pass away, the impact it has, you know, generationally on kids, on grandkids, on, you know, friends and family outside of, you know, just their kids, and the impact on that end. And from an industry standpoint, and, you know, Mark mentioned this earlier when he was kind of giving his intro to the webinar, it also impacts

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Mark Manera: Safety behind the wheel.

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Mark Manera: Right? I, I…

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Mark Manera: I don’t think anyone here would argue that the healthier version of any driver is a safer driver, right? If a driver shows up physically and mentally healthier and more prepared to drive the truck safely.

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Mark Manera: there is a less likely chance that they end up in a crash or a safety-critical event, because they are just working at a higher capacity from a mental and physical perspective.

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Mark Manera: The trickle-down of that is also that it also impacts each company’s bottom line, right? You know, especially previously, you know, as we go into trucking companies and talk about, like, the ROI of improving the health of drivers, you start talking about

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Mark Manera: more trucking companies taking on more risk at the insurance level. I know insurance costs across all lines are increasing, and

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Mark Manera: the way to combat that is taking on more risk, but if you have a population of employees that are not taking control of their health, or maybe are very unhealthy, that puts on more risk from, especially healthcare costs, but work comp claims, and also safety behind the wheel and auto liability risk on that end. When you start talking about fatigue-related issues, when you start talking about

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Mark Manera: Drivers not being,

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Mark Manera: as, locked in and, you know, showing up, like I mentioned earlier at the other slide, at their highest capacity to drive the truck safely. And then you also start looking at the operation,

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Mark Manera: Impact that unhealthy drivers have.

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Mark Manera: on a trucking company, and you start looking at the amount of short-term, long-term disability issues that trucking companies face and drivers have, where they’re leaving early because of health issues. You look at health-related turnovers from having a major medical issue, and, you know, a driver has a stroke or a heart attack, and they never drive again, but you also look at DOT physicals, and the number of drivers who are sitting on temporary cards, and, you know.

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Mark Manera: the idea of going and getting, you know, a medical physical spikes their blood pressure up a little bit more, because they’re just nervous about it, right? And then.

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Mark Manera: You also look at just operational costs from day-to-day, sick days, and just drivers ending up in the ER, not being able to, you know, maximize their hours on the road. And, you know, as a company, you make money by moving freight and delivering it to customers, and when you have a driver who is sick, or on disability, or not able to perform their job behind the wheel or stay behind the wheel.

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Mark Manera: if you need them, then that impacts your top line revenue as well, because you’re not moving as much freight as you could be.

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Mark Manera: And so… That, for me, really trickles down to, like, everyone

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Mark Manera: in this industry is impacted by that number 61. Like, that number should be all our enemies. It is… should be the thing that, like, the industry rallies behind, because it’s obviously not only impacting drivers, but it’s impacting your company.

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Mark Manera: We know insurance is impacted from the risk aspect of it, and then, you know, if all three of those are impacted.

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Mark Manera: everyone who serves those people are also impacted because, they’re… they’re not running as smoothly as they possibly could be. And so, I start looking at, like, we have this massive health problem, we know it’s… we… we know that it’s preventable, and, like, these conditions are preventable and reversible, and we can do something about it.

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Mark Manera: And it’s impacting everyone in this room, you know, everyone in this webinar, it’s impacting everyone in this industry, and how do we create, like, a win-win situation that

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Mark Manera: Just helps the industry grow. And I said, Ari, I’m going to take a stab at it. And so, I started, my… I started a company,

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Mark Manera: I started going and talking to trucking companies about, alright, like.

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Mark Manera: we have these health problems, how are you trying to solve this? How are you doing it? And every single company I spoke to, they understood that healthy drivers are… unhealthy drivers are a risk to them. But the question I kept getting was, like.

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Mark Manera: All right, we get it, we want our drivers healthier, but what do we do about it? Like, I don’t know what to do about it. And the problem I recognized was that all the health benefits trucking companies have available to offer their drivers

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Mark Manera: They’re all industry agnostic, and what that really means is that they’re built for someone who works in a cubicle. They’re built for a lawyer, an office worker, and a computer.

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Mark Manera: engineer who sits in a cubicle is a white-collar employee, and then trucking companies are really handcuffed to say, well, these are the only solutions that I have available.

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Mark Manera: I don’t want to not give my drivers anything, so I guess I’ll give them it.

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Mark Manera: And these programs and health benefits, they don’t speak the language of drivers, they don’t understand the culture of the industry, and a lot of the time they don’t fit into the lifestyle either. And drivers just don’t resonate with them. And when drivers don’t resonate with something, they don’t use them. And so, the problem that I was seeing was that

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Mark Manera: a lot of these benefits that trucking companies were offering were just collecting more dust throughout the year than actual usage, and from that 61 number perspective in the statistics and a human, like, how do we help these people? If no one’s using it, no one’s getting healthier.

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Mark Manera: And then also from an ROI and showing the value for trucking companies and being able to prove that, like, you implemented… you had this cost of this program, here’s the value, or the reduction in claims or reduction in cost that you had. It’s hard to show that when less than 1% of your employees are using any of these benefits.

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Mark Manera: And so, I saw a big opportunity to, build an industry-specific solution, and I started a company called Offshift, and we were the first

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Mark Manera: Trucking industry-specific health benefit that helped drivers exercise and eat healthier, and really focus on targeting them to lose weight, manage their diabetes, and really prevent and manage those obesity-related chronic diseases.

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Mark Manera: I’ll talk a little bit more about how, how the program and everything was built, but at the end of the day, we built the whole solution around the lifestyle of a driver, and that

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Mark Manera: was exciting for a lot of trucking companies. We started talking to more companies, started working with them, but

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Mark Manera: The next problem that I ran into was, as I was going and talking to these companies, because of the history of all the benefits that these companies have offered and kind of have fallen flat because they weren’t built for trucking, they didn’t understand the industry, the question I got was, like.

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Mark Manera: do my drivers even want this? Like, do drivers even want to be healthier? They’re not using the solutions we’re already providing, like, do drivers even want to be healthier? And…

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Mark Manera: I get that mindset, I understand why that question was asked, but what I can tell you is that, you know, just, like, from a personal level of, like, working with thousands of drivers over the last couple of years, and getting to know them on a personal level.

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Mark Manera: drivers want to be healthier, like we all do. We, its human nature, we want to be healthy. But Attree ended up doing a study last year

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Mark Manera: Where they asked this exact question. So, they surveyed thousands of drivers, both male and female, and they asked drivers and said, what is the number one problem that you face on a daily basis?

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Mark Manera: I start thinking about, like, a daily life of a driver, there’s a whole lot of problems that they face, and there’s a… there’s a whole lot of problems. If you ask a driver what problems they have, they’ll tell you a long list of problems as well. But, when they… when you look at this,

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Mark Manera: I was excited, and when I first read this, I jumped out of my seat and was, like, running around my house, because anytime health is talked about in the industry, I’m all about it. And the number one problem that female drivers said

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Mark Manera: And just barely the number two problem that a male driver said was the limited… no or limited access to exercise facilities.

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Mark Manera: the inability to exercise out on the road. The number 6 one was, no or limited mental health resources, which was really encouraging to me as well.

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Mark Manera: But you start thinking about that, and it’s like, these drivers want to be healthier. They’re looking for it. It’s a daily problem that they’re trying to figure out, how do I exercise out on the road? How do I eat healthier out on the road? How do I get these resources to help me from a mental health perspective out on the road? And the CCJ actually did another study last year where they surveyed thousands of their drivers who read their articles, and they found that 47% of them

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Mark Manera: Had their physical health as one of the top 3 problems that they’re facing right now in their life.

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Mark Manera: And so, to me, it was, like, very obvious that, you know, from my personal experience, that drivers want this. They want to be healthier. When you look at the research, and you look at the studies that have surveyed drivers, drivers want this.

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Mark Manera: And then we started getting messages at Project 61 from drivers that looked like this. This is an email I got a few weeks ago, or that Jeremy, Project 61 got a few weeks ago, of a driver saying, like.

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Mark Manera: Man, my health is going downhill.

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Mark Manera: I need help. These drivers are screaming out, they’re wanting help, and

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Mark Manera: It was like this accumulation of, you know, a lot of drivers, at the end of the day, to make a change, it’s a behavior change. They have to make that decision on their own.

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Mark Manera: But for us as an industry and you as a company, you’re able to create that environment that allows drivers to take the leap and have the resources that speak to them and fit their lifestyle. And so, I saw this, like.

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Mark Manera: Huge problem from a health perspective. Massive amount of chronic disease, the average driver’s dying at an age of 61 years old. Again, this problem is all chronic… lifestyle-based chronic disease, so it’s preventable and reversible. We can do something about it.

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Mark Manera: it’s impacting not only the drivers, but it’s impacting, like, everyone in this industry. And I sat to myself, I’m like.

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Mark Manera: the craziest thing that we can do as an industry is nothing. Like, do we all agree? Like, I think…

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Mark Manera: everyone agrees on that, right? Yes in the chat? Do we… do we agree? Any questions? Any…

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Mark Manera: Yeah, do we… do we agree, like, the craziest thing we can do is nothing?

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Mark Manera: Absolutely, I love it, Mike, I appreciate it.

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Mark Manera: And so…

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Mark Manera: I would like to charge… I’d like to talk… shift the conversation around, you know, what is Project 61 now doing about that? And I would also like you all to be a part of this as well, to help and start making the change

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Mark Manera: not only as a part of this community that we’re building within the industry, but also within each of your companies as well. And so, has anyone in here seen or heard of the Trucker Health Pledge? And so, Project 61 launched this earlier this year. It was just a

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Mark Manera: pledge that said, Hey,

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Mark Manera: We’re tired of 61 being the status quo. We want to do something about it. We want to build a community of other people in this industry who say, alright, I want to see, you know, I care about drivers, I care about this industry, I care about this health problem, and I want to be a part of the change. This was the pledge, and

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Mark Manera: What ended up happening is, over the next couple of, over the first couple of weeks, we ended up getting 575 trucking companies signing, trucking companies, industry executives, and just other people, industry leaders in the industry, including INFINITI, and, and, Vertical Alliance Group, signing the pledge and saying, yes, we want to do something about it.

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Mark Manera: And, it… it was really encouraging. It was really exciting to see, so many people, get behind it. You might have seen on… on LinkedIn this,

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Mark Manera: this social media post, a lot of people who were signing it were, were going through and, posting that on LinkedIn, but what I would like to do is I would love, it takes 10 seconds, I would love to give you all the opportunity to go and, sign

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Mark Manera: the Trucker Health Pledge. I would love to just, like, take 30 seconds. I just sent the link in the chat, or you can use this QR code, but I would love for you all

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Mark Manera: To go sign the pledge. Again, it takes 10 seconds. All it is is an acknowledgement of

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Mark Manera: hey, I care about this problem, I care about drivers, and I want to be a part of the solution. And would love to give you a second to fill that out.

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Mark Manera: I feel like, should’ve put… brought,

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Mark Manera: elevator music while I gave them a second to, to fill that out here, but

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Mark Manera: But yeah, so I would… I would love for you all to… to be a… to fill this out and be a part of it. Again, it’s very quick, and you can use this QR code on that end, or in…

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Mark Manera: the chat here.

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Steve Kessler: Mark, in our follow-up, emails, where we’ll send out a link to the replay of this, we’ll include the link to your pledge.

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Steve Kessler: So if people don’t have a chance to…

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Mark Manera: That would be…

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Steve Kessler: See it here live, we’ll make sure that they get it.

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Mark Manera: Awesome, awesome. Well…

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Mark Manera: Thank you. I saw some people already… I get the notification on my phone when someone fills it out, so I appreciate the people who already filled it out, and yes, when you get the email over, or after the webinar, would love for you to fill it out. Obviously, when we start talking about how do we solve this health problem.

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Mark Manera: getting a bunch of people to sign the pledge, sign a pledge is not going to change the current trajectory of the health of drivers. But for us, what we believe is it’s step one of bringing awareness to the problem.

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Mark Manera: But to do that, we also now have to turn that awareness into actionable resources and solutions and start doing something about it. And so.

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Mark Manera: Jeremy Raymer, the founder of Project 61 and I, came together a few months ago.

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Steve Kessler: Hey, Mark, I just wanted to interrupt you real quick. What you put in the chat.

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Steve Kessler: Was only going to the host and the panelists.

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Mark Manera: Oh, shoot.

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Steve Kessler: So you may want to pop that in there again and make sure it goes to everybody.

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Steve Kessler: I noticed that, so…

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Mark Manera: No worries.

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Steve Kessler: Sorry to interrupt.

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Mark Manera: Sorry about that. Well, whoever used the QR code, thank you, you are awesome. And, and, I will,

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Mark Manera: I will figure out the technology later down the road. But, Steve, you’ll also send that in the… in the follow-up email, that would be amazing. I appreciate that.

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Mark Manera: Well, back to how do we actually solve this, is Project 61, two and a half months ago, acquired my company, Offshift.

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Mark Manera: And the goal of that, and really what brought me, got me excited about the pathway of going all in on Project 61 was

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Mark Manera: Jeremy and I came together and said, alright, if we’re going to actually change that 61 number, if we’re actually going to do something about this, we have to, number one, leverage technology, because it needs to be able to scale out across

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Mark Manera: the 3.5 million truck drivers that are, you know, in America, and plus Canada up there, if you’re… or, you know, in Mexico as well, across North America, to be able to give these resources out to drivers. And Offshift has a driver health app. We also have some other technology that helps trucking companies really implement this.

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Mark Manera: But the other piece of it is we have to make it accessible.

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Mark Manera: Right? And you can’t just make it accessible to the trucking companies who… or to the drivers whose companies raise their hand and say, hey, I want to do something about this. You have to make it completely free and accessible to any trucking company that,

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Mark Manera: that wants to, that wants to offer these resources, and it’s not a financial barrier, to them. And so, what we are doing now is we have taken what I was going out and selling to trucking companies through offshift.

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Mark Manera: And we are giving away completely for free to any trucking company, to any driver who wants access to the program.

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Mark Manera: And so, we have a driver-specific health program, and through our app, On the driver’s phone.

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Mark Manera: We give them daily workouts, we give them weekly nutrition and other lifestyle habits, and then we do, monthly or quarterly

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Mark Manera: group challenges that are fun and really build a community around the driver to show them that they’re not alone in this. And we’ve built the whole experience to be really trucking-specific, and I’ll give it… I’ll give some examples of what that looks like, and

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Mark Manera: how it’s different than a lot of the other benefits that you’ve maybe tried in the past. And an example of that is

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Mark Manera: You know, a typical health benefit that maybe wasn’t built for the trucking industry would give a driver, you know, an hour-long workout that they have to go find their, find a gym to park their truck at, then go in the gym, work out, get back on the road, and

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Mark Manera: either keep driving, or figure out the truck parking situation after… after they’re done with all their hours for the day, and

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Mark Manera: A lot of times, that’s really unrealistic for drivers. Also, what we found is that,

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Mark Manera: there’s a lot of drivers who are not quote-unquote gym people, and so even if there was a gym accessible at the truck stop, or there was an easy gym that had nice truck parking, they wouldn’t go to that, because they don’t feel comfortable, that’s just not their vibe, that’s not their… that’s not their area that they’re comfortable in. And so what we do is we give drivers 5, 10, 15-minute workouts they can do in the back of their truck.

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Mark Manera: or outside of their truck, if it’s a beautiful day in Dallas, I know that’s where Steve’s at. Or if it’s,

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Mark Manera: Or if, they’re on home time, they can even do it in their living room. And we show them videos in each of those environments, so it feels very customized to their lifestyle, they resonate with it, and they can do it when they’re waiting at a customer’s to get reloaded or at the truck stop right at night. Our most popular program is actually the inside the back of the cab in the truck workouts.

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Mark Manera: A lot of drivers just like doing that,

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Mark Manera: They like doing it, right, in their comfort, where

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Mark Manera: they’re not being stared out at the truck stop, or they don’t have to find a gym like we spoke about. And then, on the nutrition piece of it, we don’t give drivers… we don’t hand them a meal plan and say, hey, flip your whole lifestyle upside down, like, let’s go in the pantry, throw everything away, we’re going to start this massive diet tomorrow, because

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Mark Manera: That’s really unrealistic for anyone, but you add trucking into the equation, and it makes it really unrealistic. And so what we do is we take a habit-based approach.

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Mark Manera: And we give them one small change that they can work on on a weekly basis. So, like, this example is, like, I ate a serving of protein at breakfast today. Then we educate them on how to do that habit.

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Mark Manera: at the truck stop or McDonald’s attached to it.

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Mark Manera: And so, for us, our approach is not shaming them for the fact that the truck stop or fast food restaurant attached to it is where a lot of these people end up eating, and maybe the environment they find themselves in. But how do we help them make the healthiest decision anywhere they drive, anywhere they stop, and not shame them, or, you know, make them feel like, they’re… they’re done for, because that, you know.

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Mark Manera: They drive a truck for a living, they sleep at truck stops, or, you know, live a really unique lifestyle compared to maybe some other people who work a normal 9-to-5 in an office. And, this is how these people, you know, keep a roof over their family’s head.

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Mark Manera: you know, shaming them or saying that they’re screwed because they’re a driver from a health perspective is not helping anyone, and so we’re really just focused on meeting them where they’re at and giving them a resource that fits their lifestyle and gives them bite-sized pieces that they can fit out on the road, into their day-to-day life out on the road. And so.

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Mark Manera: we found it’s ending up working really well. And so, here’s a couple of examples of drivers that have done, like, some amazing changes out on the road. We have a driver, his name is Mark. He’s been on the program for, I think, 18 months, maybe closer to 20 months now, and

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Mark Manera: In that time, he has lost 135 pounds and 10 inches off of his waist.

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Mark Manera: I joke with him that, he jumps up in the truck and just, like, floats up there, because he’s not holding on to, not holding on to a full-grown human, extra, extra weight now, and, you know, you start talking to him about just the energy levels that he has. It’s,

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Mark Manera: it’s pretty crazy. It’s been an amazing ride to watch him, and I’m so happy for him and his family as well.

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Mark Manera: This is, this is another example of, Steve and Gina. They both drive, OTR as a team, and they both are on the program, and they both, in the last, I think, year and a half or so, have lost weight. Steve’s under 190 pounds for the first time in his life, in the first time,

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Mark Manera: In the first time since,

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Mark Manera: in the last 20 years, which is really cool. And, they both actually, through Offshift’s program, or Project 61’s program.

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Mark Manera: Craned and did a 50-mile march.

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Mark Manera: For veterans’ mental health. And they did the whole thing while training and still driving over the road as an OTR driver as a team. And so, I thought that was really cool. I’ve never done the 50-mile march myself, so I’m jealous, and now I’ve got something I need to go to add to my bucket list, but I thought it was really cool to see, like.

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Mark Manera: These people pushing themselves and not having to change what they do from a career perspective to, you know, do these really incredible things, obviously for a really amazing

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Mark Manera: mission as well and purpose. And then, Joe, is another driver, and, you know, with the boom of GLP-1s and Ozempic, we’re seeing a bunch of drivers, get on the GLP-1s and get Ozempic, which has been amazing. I think these are

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Mark Manera: amazing drugs, you know, I’m not here to talk about that, and I’m a physical therapist, not a… not a MD or a pharmacist, so I won’t even… it’s out of my area of expertise, but

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Mark Manera: What Joe did was he joined our program and made lifestyle changes, and actually, through those changes, ended up getting off of Ozempic and off of his blood pressure medicine, and he was able to reverse his diabetes, which basically just means he was able to normalize his blood sugar and his A1C numbers without any medication. And he was really excited about that. He…

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Mark Manera: He talks about how this is the only program he’s ever stuck with, because it’s, like, the first time out on the road that he felt like it actually fits his life, and…

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Mark Manera: he was here right now, he’d, he’d say his favorite part about it is his old man abs, but I’ll let him talk about… talk about that now.

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Mark Manera: But my goal, and, you know, the whole thing, and the reason why I’m here right now is, like, I would love to help your drivers

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Mark Manera: have, you know, the similar experiences as Mark, as Gina, and Steve, and as Joe. Maybe they don’t have to be as… that is extreme, right? These are really edge cases of drivers who have made huge changes, but I’d love to help your drivers

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Mark Manera: you know, lose 5 or 10 pounds, have more energy, you know, for behind the wheel, but also for time at home, and just feel better on a day-to-day basis, and we want to do that

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Mark Manera: completely for free. It’s the whole mission of our nonprofit, is to give this program out to as many trucking companies as possible for free. I always say it is the right price, so I think that’s a really good resource that any trucking company can offer, and I mentioned this earlier, but I think it’s really good to kind of re-bring back, is that

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Mark Manera: To have any health changes.

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Mark Manera: These drivers have to personally know their why, and they need to make the changes and behavior changes themselves. But you as a company, and us as an industry, we are able to foster and create an environment that allows drivers to more easily take that leap and make those changes.

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Mark Manera: And I really believe Project 61 is the easiest and best way for a trucking company to create that environment at your organization.

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Mark Manera: And it’s at the right price. Again, it’s free. We… it’s…

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Mark Manera: given at no cost, we are supported fully by, sponsors and corporate partners. Actually, INFINITI and Vertical Alliance is a, is a, corporate partner and sponsoring our upcoming, 61-Day Step Challenge, which is starting in November. We’re going to have about 200 trucking companies participating in it, and it’s, something that is just a great way to get people moving more, and

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Mark Manera: would love, any of you all to be able to… to… I’ll have on this next slide, if you would like your company to participate in that step challenge, or get, get Project 61’s

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Mark Manera: free resources, those are available to you. But, you know, for me, I just… our dream at Project 61 is to change the way the trucking industry looks at drivers’ health, and I want to create a world where, you know, driving a truck and just, like, keeping America moving

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Mark Manera: does not impact a driver’s lifespan, but just, like, helps them thrive. And I believe we are on that path, and I think there’s an opportunity for you all at this time

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Mark Manera: To, you know, start that path at each of your organizations, and really be the spark of change for a lot of your drivers within your fleet. And so, I will, I will stop talking right now. Here’s the… here’s the link, to…

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Mark Manera: to that form, if it’s easier just to click on that and join.

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Mark Manera: And I would, any questions that people have, I’m trying to catch up on the chat and see if there has been any questions, or… yeah, any…

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Mark Manera: Any thoughts? I’m open.

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Steve Kessler: If y’all out there have questions, you know, now’s a good time to pop them in the chat, and we’ll give Mark a chance to

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Steve Kessler: answer those. Meantime,

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Steve Kessler: We’re big supporters of this program, and those of you that are current customers out there know that we have a really simple way through our LMS to deliver information. I’ve already thought a simple piece of custom content with a link to this program y’all could put out there right away.

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Steve Kessler: So if you’re not a current customer and you’d like to learn more about how we do that, you know, feel free to answer the poll that I popped up on the screen.

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Steve Kessler: And also, I know we have a lot of safety directors out there that join us, and if you want to collect your NATME recertification points, please mark yes there, and we’ll make sure you get a certificate for having attended the program.

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Steve Kessler: We have some pretty decent, driver health and wellness, content already, so…

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Steve Kessler: our customers out there, make sure you look that up and get some of that assigned out. And if you’re not a customer, we’d be happy to talk to you about how we could help you get that going.

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Steve Kessler: Looks like you do have one question there, Mark.

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Mark Manera: I love it. What’s the best way to talk to drivers about this opportunity to get in better shape? So, Project 61 has, we’ve…

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Mark Manera: we have a whole, employee marketing strategy, so when you roll out the program, we have, our head of customer success, she’s awesome, her name’s Alex, she will, basically customize that

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Mark Manera: all the messaging and everything to how you communicate with your fleet. So, if you use, you know, ELD messages, if you use email, if you use text message, if you use your LMS system, or if you…

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Mark Manera: You know, whatever those channels of communication, we customize how to speak to drivers, and

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Mark Manera: Really, the high level is,

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Mark Manera: I don’t think it’s beneficial to drivers to force them to use a program like this, right? I think you need to make this voluntary and position this as, this is a free resource that’s driver-specific, and we want it to be, you know, we want you to have access to this when you’re ready, and, you know, it’s here for you to take the leap.

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Mark Manera: Two is…

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Mark Manera: We also, we found that doing giveaways and rolling out with these challenges, like our 61-day step challenge, is a great way to get a lot of engagement. You know, you’re going to have a percentage of your drivers who are all in, and like, I’m ready to

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Mark Manera: put my whole lifestyle upside down, make a change, this is my coming to Jesus moment, and I’m ready to go. But you also are going to have a lot of drivers who, that’s not really where they’re at, but…

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Mark Manera: if you do a step challenge, and they see Steve and Mark are in there, and I’m trying to beat them, because I want to get more steps from them, and I’m a little competitive, and my buddies are doing it, they will join the program. And that could be a really great foot in the door to say, alright, I’m doing something about my health.

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Mark Manera: let me take the next step, let me take the next step, let me take the next step, and kind of builds the snowball from there. And so, I would love to talk to you, and get you working in those resources, and

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Mark Manera: Do you have any posters or materials to post? Yes, we’ve got… we’ve got, posters and material that we can send you. If you… if you email me, or fill out that form. We’ll get it, for you, and… and we’ll be able to have some posters that…

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Mark Manera: Your drivers can then go download our app for free and see all the resources that we have available.

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Steve Kessler: Fantastic. Any other questions out there? Mark, do you have any, comments? You’ve been in the business a long time.

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Mark Rhea: Well, yeah, I’ve got one quick question for Dr. Monero. What’s the cost of this program one more time?

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Mark Manera: Yeah, I don’t know if I mentioned it, but it’s free, it’s completely.

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Mark Rhea: Completely free.

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Mark Manera: And… and again, feels like a… it honestly feels like a no-brainer for trucking companies to do this. I really see in, like, the next year or two that

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Mark Manera: This is just going to be the status quo for trucking companies. Again, we’re not trying to make you add another cost, we just want you to have a driver-specific resource and let everyone else in the industry, like Vertical Alliance Group, like INFINITI, support it and, you know, be able to allow us as a nonprofit to give it to you for free.

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Mark Manera: And yes, Mike, this is in the App Store. If you, if you download it, it’s, our app is,

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Mark Manera: Offshift by Projects… Project 61 is the name of the app, and…

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Mark Manera: The big thing at the company level is, within our system, we can create custom teams, and we would create a team for each of your company, where then you can have access to which drivers have downloaded it, and then when we’re doing the step challenge, you’ll have a custom leaderboard of

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Mark Manera: All your drivers or all your staff at your company on our app, so it builds more of a community within your organization.

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Steve Kessler: Yeah, I can see some competitions getting going pretty quickly if you.

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Mark Manera: Yes!

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Steve Kessler: Get some people started.

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Mark Manera: And I always say, like, the safety piece of it, we need to be serious, right? This is, like, we are in a safety-critical industry, this could be life or death.

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Mark Manera: But…

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Mark Manera: health does not always have to be, you know, super serious. We can have some fun, we can make it, you know, make it engaging, and you know, we can, you know, I think build friendships, and, you know, build co-working relationships through this as well. And, you know, I know there’s a lot of drivers who don’t know a ton of other drivers at their fleet, so this could be a great way to build that, you know,

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Mark Manera: interaction as well.

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Steve Kessler: Very good.

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Mark Rhea: Yeah, just another quick thought,

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Mark Rhea: I know a lot of… a lot of these companies have, you know, monthly safety bonuses, and, which include, you know, completion of certain content, backing, distracted.

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Mark Rhea: I would think including something on health would be a pretty good idea as a condition to your monthly or quarterly safety bonuses. And one other thought that came to mind is,

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Mark Rhea: You talked briefly about nuclear verdicts, or huge verdicts that I work with all the time, and the reptile theory that they use to make you look bad.

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Mark Rhea: as a defense, I can certainly say that a company that participates in

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Mark Rhea: and assists their driver health, both mental and physical, can certainly be used as a benefit in the court of law, on a lawsuit. Huge benefit. So, I’ll just throw that out there for you.

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Mark Manera: Yeah, I completely agree, and Mark, I’m going to have you come, I’m going to get you on the payroll and have you come to all the conferences with me, and I’ll just let you, let you say that, alright? Because I completely agree, right? And, the, the other aspect to it, that, that you brought up earlier,

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Mark Manera: I lost my train of thought. I don’t even remember what the first.

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Mark Rhea: Content for a safety bonus, yeah.

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Mark Manera: Safety bonus, exactly. Yes, if any company wants to incorporate this into their safety bonus, we can get you any data or engagement metrics that you need.

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Mark Manera: And Susan, you’re spot on. We don’t only help drivers, we also help people in the office. This is not…

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Mark Manera: This is an industry-wide thing. Obviously, drivers are kind of at the center of it, because of the alarming stats, but we have resources for everyone under the umbrella of a company. If they’re in the office, if they’re in your fleet, if they’re a maintenance worker, they can be in the program.

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Steve Kessler: Fantastic.

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Mark Rhea: Steve, we have a lot of content on the mental aspects of health. I know Horatio.

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Steve Kessler: We do have content about that. It’s interesting, when we first brought that out, we were kind of asking ourselves, will anybody ever look at any of this? But, turns out to be one of the most designed content that we have in our catalog, so…

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Steve Kessler: there’s a desire for it, and I think if it can be delivered without… You know, people are…

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Steve Kessler: I guess they don’t want people to know they may be depressed or have anxiety, but if it’s offered, and they can consume it if they choose to, then I think that goes a long way. It gives people a level of comfort that I’m doing this on my own, and I’m not…

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Steve Kessler: being forced to do something, so…

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Steve Kessler: I think this is an outstanding program. Thank you for all the information. Looks like we… Paul’s got another question there for you, Mark.

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Mark Manera: Yeah, Paul, I speak at a ton of conferences. Jeremy Raymer as well does. If there’s any conferences that you participate in and you want us to go talk, I would love to participate in that. I know Jeremy is really, actually really well,

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Mark Manera: very engaged at… with the Tennessee Trucking Association. I believe he was just in, Destin a few weeks ago at maybe their… at their annual conference, and maybe that one’s the same… I don’t… I don’t know which one it was, but he was sending me pictures of the beach, and I was jealous. That’s all I remember, and but… but yes, we are very well

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Mark Manera: connected, within the associations and continuing, if there’s any state associations or any other organizations that want to have a conversation around drivers’ Health and talk about Project 61, please fill out this form, please email me, we love, we love that stuff.

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Steve Kessler: That’s great.

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Steve Kessler: I don’t see any other questions coming in, but let me just say this to those of you still in the audience. This is a non-profit organization, so if you have the wherewithal to support this group, they’re doing great work. I loved everything that I heard about this today.

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Steve Kessler: And, I think it’s, something that can make a big difference in the future. I really, truly think so, but it’s going to take…

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Steve Kessler: Us in this industry to support this.

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Steve Kessler: And, provide the resources necessary to make sure everybody can take advantage of it.

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Steve Kessler: So, think about that, think about supporting Project 61.

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Steve Kessler: let your drivers know it’s out there and available, that it can help them, and I think, you guys are kicking off something really great here, Mark, and I think it’s going to get a big foothold, I really do, because…

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Steve Kessler: It’s a serious issue, and it’s a safety issue, and it’s a personal human being issue.

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Steve Kessler: So, I think everybody that was on today will get behind it, at least I think so.

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Steve Kessler: But having said that, Mark,

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Steve Kessler: Thank you so much for, giving us this information today, and

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Steve Kessler: You know, we’ll, as this thing progresses and moves on, we’d like to have you back and talk to you some more about your successes and, what else you might have going on that’s going to, get us all…

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Steve Kessler: A little healthier and happier.

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Mark Manera: I love it. I love it. Well, thank you so much for having me on.

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Steve Kessler: Great, thank you all, for joining us today, we appreciate it. Thank you, Mark Ray, for, being here, and,

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Steve Kessler: We’ll look forward to having you all on our next webinar, so, we always look forward to having you here. Mark, Dr. Mark, thanks for coming, appreciate you, sir, and we’ll see everybody else real soon. Thank y’all much.