7 Serious Health Problems Indian Cab and Truck Drivers Develop From Long Driving Hours

Sitting in a fixed position for 10 or more hours, absorbing road vibration through a seat that rarely offers lumbar support, is one of the fastest routes to spinal degeneration. A 2019 study published in the Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that professional drivers in India had significantly higher rates of low back pain than the general working population, with prevalence rates exceeding 60 percent among long-haul truckers. The lumbar discs compress under sustained load. Muscle groups that should share the work, glutes, core, hamstrings, switch off completely during prolonged sitting, leaving the lower spine to carry what those muscles abandoned. Over years, this produces disc herniation, sciatica, and early-onset spondylosis.

Night driving on poorly lit national highways, constant exposure to oncoming high-beam headlights, and hours of fixed-distance focus combine into a specific kind of visual stress. The eyes lose their ability to shift focal length efficiently, a condition called accommodative fatigue. Glare from trucks without properly aligned headlights causes repeated pupil contraction and dilation, stressing the ciliary muscles. Drivers who run overnight routes between cities like Nagpur and Hyderabad frequently report worsening near vision and persistent eye strain within five years of starting the job. Dry eye syndrome is common too, because drivers blink less when concentrating on the road.

Sedentary work combined with high-stress conditions, traffic, delivery deadlines, passenger complaints, toll queues, creates a sustained cortisol load that raises blood pressure over time. The American Journal of Epidemiology has documented elevated cardiovascular mortality among professional drivers compared to other occupational groups. In the Indian context, the diet compounds the problem: highway dhabas serve meals high in refined oil, salt, and simple carbohydrates, and drivers rarely have the time or access to eat differently. Hypertension develops quietly. Many drivers discover it only during a routine medical check for license renewal, by which point it has been running unchecked for years.

Irregular shift patterns, night runs, and the pressure to cover maximum distance in minimum time systematically destroy sleep quality. Truck drivers in India frequently work 16 to 18 hours before taking rest, well beyond safe limits. This produces chronic fatigue that does not resolve with a single night's sleep. More seriously, the combination of obesity, sedentary hours, and disrupted sleep cycles puts drivers at high risk for obstructive sleep apnoea, a condition where the airway partially collapses during sleep, causing repeated micro-awakenings. A driver with undiagnosed sleep apnoea behind the wheel is a documented road safety hazard. The Volvo Trucks India road safety report flagged driver fatigue as a factor in a significant proportion of highway accidents involving heavy vehicles.

The gut needs movement to work properly. Prolonged sitting slows peristalsis, the muscular contractions that push food through the intestine. Drivers who eat large meals and then sit motionless for hours develop chronic constipation, acid reflux, and irritable bowel symptoms at higher rates than sedentary office workers, partly because office workers at least walk to meetings, climb stairs, and move between floors. Highway food is also erratic: a driver might eat nothing for eight hours and then consume a heavy meal at a dhaba, which spikes blood sugar and overloads digestion simultaneously. Over years, this pattern contributes to fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes.

Gripping a large steering wheel for hours, particularly in heavy trucks where steering effort is higher, creates chronic tension in the trapezius, rheumatoid, and rotator cuff muscles. Cab drivers navigating city traffic hold their shoulders elevated and tense through stop-and-go driving, which is mechanically different from highway cruising but equally damaging. Cervical spondylosis, degeneration of the neck vertebrae, shows up in drivers earlier than in most other occupational groups. The pain often radiates into the arms, causing numbness in the fingers that drivers frequently dismiss as tiredness until nerve compression becomes the diagnosis.

Long-distance truck drivers spend days or weeks away from family, sleeping in their cabins, with minimal social contact. Cab drivers in cities like Mumbai and Delhi deal with a different but equally grinding stress: aggressive passengers, GPS pressure, platform ratings, and the economic anxiety of variable daily income. Both groups show elevated rates of depression and anxiety in occupational health surveys, though mental health in the transport workforce is rarely discussed or addressed. The isolation of the highway and the hypervigilance of city traffic both tax the nervous system in sustained ways that accumulate over a career.

The back gives out first, the eyes follow, and the heart runs quietly hot, but what ties these conditions together is not the hours alone. It is the complete absence of recovery built into the job. A driver's body is the vehicle's suspension system, absorbing every kilometre the machine travels, with no service interval scheduled for the person inside.