Truck drivers are swapping Chiko Rolls and potato scallops for fruit cups and salad sandwiches in a bid to stay healthy as they deliver Queensland's wheat harvest, and it's creating new opportunities for rural businesses.
As experts warn the poor health of drivers could cost the economy billions, some communities are coming up with creative ways to offer better options for the workers slogging it out in a tough season.
Rural doctors say truckies face a "perfect storm" of long hours, high stress, and limited food options, and more needs to be done to help those living life on the road lead a healthier lifestyle.
Breaking the servo food cycle
Sarah Paton normally runs her coffee trailer business in Toowoomba, but is currently parked at the Inglestone Hall, between Westmar and Meandarra, five hours west of Brisbane.
Her father Adrian Paton, a truck driver himself, encouraged her to make the move out west to cater for the hungry helpers crying out for meat and vegetables at dinner time.
"They don't want hotbox food anymore, they want something that's healthy," Mr Paton said.
He said having access to better food and coffee had been a hit with his fellow drivers.
"I've never seen so many truck drivers with cappuccinos for breakfast.
"That guava stuff Sarah makes up for breakfast, it's incredible how many fellas take that.
"Some of that muesli stuff with yoghurt is a real hit. A lot of blokes are really keen to take that with them, put it in the fridge and have it for breakfast."
Serving 50 to 80 people a day, Ms Paton said she was surprised to find out the average truck driver was actually "really concerned" for their health.
"We have a big contact list that we send out a text to each day saying this is on the menu tonight … and then they … start rolling in anywhere between 6pm and sometimes we get them up to 10pm," she said.
It's not just the drivers who worry about their health — a recent Monash University-led study found if nothing changed, 6,067 lives and $2.6 billion in productivity could be lost over the next 10 years due to poor truckie health.
The researchers found it could cost $485 million in healthcare and more than 21,000 lost years of life, as a result of work-related diseases or injury in the truck-driving industry.
With all of his staff more than 50 years old, Mr Paton said many drivers were taking the threat to their health seriously.
"We've all been to the doctors and told that we've got fatty livers or gall bladders that have got dramas," he said.
"I think most blokes have been told by the doctors you've got to eat a bit more healthy."
Rural Doctors Association of Queensland president Matt Masel, who practises in the rural town of Goondiwindi, said the lack of sleep and unhealthy food options were a "perfect storm" for poorer health outcomes.
"We just don't see them [harvest workers] at all at this time of year because they're so busy, they're so under the pump and stressed, but we do see them at other times," he said.
"This year the harvest is later, there's a bit more stress trying to get things done, there are anxious graziers trying to get their crops off and delivered.
"There's certainly a higher incidence of being overweight and obesity, which I guess relates to dietary challenges and the difficulty is getting adequate exercise and then what follows from that which is high blood pressure, diabetes, sleep apnoea."
Dr Masel said efforts like Sarah's and others had been helpful, but there needed to be "bigger levers pulled" to prioritise and incentivise businesses to provide healthier options in rural and remote areas.
He said Medicare rebates had not risen with inflation and therefore, healthcare for those who needed it most had become more expensive.
"The important thing is to make it very clear that at high and government levels, decisions to do this is not a cost," he said.
"It's an investment in the good health of these people who are doing all this work and that's ultimately better for everyone."
