During those discussions, she learned that the drivers often “feel left behind by the society they serve.” They also told her they want healthier food, and many are affected from the physical effects of sitting in a car for so many hours at a time. “They know that their backs and elbows and knees aren’t feeling like they should,” said Welby.

For starters, RFX plans to give each driver would a tablet loaded with logistical information along with tricks and tips for getting physical exercise and finding healthy foods such as eggs and oatmeal. The program, called “road hacks” is still in development, as Welby and her team want to ensure that the tablet is something drivers will actually use rather than tossing in the glove compartment. The plan is to keep the hacks simple, but “highly effective.” Tablets will be stocked with short videos that demonstrate an exercise, stretch, meditation, or breathing technique.  The title of the video will include the benefit of the exercise—such as energizing or stress reduction—so drivers know immediately how it might help them.

As Jann Hedrick sees it, getting experienced drivers to change their approach to food and wellness isn’t going to be easy. “You have to figure out a way to make drivers want to do it,” he says. “I’m guessing that almost all truck drivers are money-motivated, period. There is some pride to driving a truck, but most people are trying to earn money to send home.” He suggests a “nutrition bonus,” in which drivers would track wellness efforts, and maybe get a five percent bonus—or whatever the company is comfortable with—for their successes. “Make it easy for them,” he adds.

Welby admits that feeding drivers food that they want and is good for them on long rides will be a challenge. To this end, she often asks herself: “Where is the balance between getting live, spiritually light-filled foods out to everybody, and getting enough calories to people when they need them?”

Aside from food and wellness, Welby wants to apply permaculture principles to solving other vexing trucking industry problems. Toby Hemenway, a permaculture teacher and author of Gaia’s Garden and The Permaculture City says, he likes the the idea of applying permaculture to the trucking industry. But doing that might mean shifting away from cross-country transport in order to re-localize food systems. “If we could create more locally resilient trucking networks—where things are grown locally and shipped locally—truckers wouldn’t have to make such long hauls,” he says.

Welby agrees. She says she is in “absolute alignment with building locally resilient trucking networks”—for the benefit of the environment, but also for truckers who get to stay closer to their families, and consumers who might gain better access to local foods.

A recently announced partnership between RFX Forward and Daily Table—a nonprofit grocery store focused on providing under-served populations with food that might otherwise go to waste—could mark a move toward a more local focus for the company. Welby connected with Daily Table founder Doug Rauch at a conscious capitalism summit last year. Then, in April, RFX officially signed on as the “strategic” logistics partner to assist the grocery company by transporting foods like excess produce. The store is located about 16 miles from the RFX headquarters.

Welby acknowledges that the truck driver wellness programs and local logistics partnerships are only the beginning of a larger dialogue about the trucking industry—and about how permaculture principles might be used to solve larger problems.

“There are all sorts of issues with how goods move across the U.S.,” she says. “All of the healthiest foods, and all of the unhealthiest foods, get trucked around the U.S. Everything we consume, from a nutritional perspective, goes on a truck at some point. Even for that last mile of the farmer bringing his kale to the farmers’ market, it goes on a truck.”