The road of silence: the solitude of the truck driver.

Special MOBS2 Series — Managing Emotion in the Transportation Sector

Have you ever stopped to think about what goes on inside the cab of a truck when the lights of the road are the only company for hundreds of kilometers? The radio plays, the wind cuts through the sound of the engine, but inside there is a human being trying to maintain focus, patience, strength — and, often, their own emotional balance.

Truck drivers are the beating heart of the Brazilian economy. According to the National Confederation of Transport (CNT), more than 65% of all cargo in the country travels by road, driven by professionals who endure exhausting journeys, face delays, risks, and above all, loneliness. With each trip, these workers overcome not only physical distances but also emotional barriers that few realize.

A new perspective: NR1 and emotional care.

Starting next year, all Brazilian companies will need to adapt to the new version of Regulatory Standard No. 1 (NR1) from the Ministry of Labor, which establishes the obligation to identify and manage psychosocial risks — that is, to take care of the emotional health of workers, including drivers and transport operators.

This is a historic milestone. For decades, we've talked about safety only from a technical perspective—helmets, seatbelts, maintenance, speed. But now the country officially recognizes what psychology has always known: there is no safety without emotional balance.

Carl Gustav Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist and father of analytical psychology, said that "whoever looks outside dreams; whoever looks inside awakens." On the roads, drivers have plenty of time to look outside—the horizon, the asphalt, the accumulating kilometers. But they rarely have the opportunity to look inside. And it is in this inner space, of silence and isolation, that unmanaged emotions can transform into fatigue, anxiety, irritation, and, in more severe cases, depression.

Loneliness in the driver's seat: what the data says

The International Labour Organization (ILO) points out that truck drivers and long-distance drivers are among the professionals most vulnerable to mental health problems. Research published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology revealed that road transport workers report levels of loneliness up to 40% higher than the average for other professions—and, worse, have less access to psychological support.

In Brazil, a survey by SEST/SENAT (2023) identified that 68% of truck drivers report feeling lonely frequently during trips. More than half of them reported mood swings, irritability, and sleep disturbances after long periods of isolation. The study also points to a direct relationship between loneliness, fatigue, and increased risk of accidents: the longer the time spent alone on the road, the greater the likelihood of inattention and cognitive lapses.

Psychologist and professor Maria Helena Tricoli explains that prolonged loneliness "is not the absence of people, but the absence of connection." And in the case of drivers, the connection is broken not only with family, but also with social routines, schedules, and the sense of belonging. With each trip, the driver "leaves a little bit of themselves."

Cause and effect: when isolation becomes a risk

Loneliness is not just a feeling. It's an operational risk factor. It unfolds into a chain of psychological and physiological effects that directly impact safety and productivity.

• Isolation → Emotional fatigue: lack of human contact reduces dopamine and serotonin — neurotransmitters of pleasure and emotional stability. The result is apathy and slow reaction time.

• Emotional fatigue → Physiological stress: the body enters a state of constant vigilance, releasing cortisol, the stress hormone, which impairs sleep and reasoning.

• Prolonged stress → Operational errors: delays in decision-making, impulsiveness in traffic, irritability, and reduced risk perception.

• Human error → Accidents and losses: the cycle is completed with accidents, high costs, absences, and decreased performance.

In other words, loneliness can be costly. It doesn't show up on fuel spreadsheets or maintenance reports, but it's there—eroding the driver's productivity, mood, and health.

The invisible weight of silence

Imagine the routine: Entire days on the move, sleeping in rest stops, eating alone, listening to the same song on the radio to ward off boredom. At each stop, a bittersweet feeling: physical rest comes, but emotional rest doesn't. The road is too long to allow for lasting bonds and too short to forget the distance from home.

Loneliness, when not acknowledged, becomes a kind of internal noise—silent, but constant. And the more the driver gets used to it, the more disconnected they become from themselves. It's the kind of noise that no engine sensor picks up, but that MOBS2's human telemetry has begun to observe.

How MOBS2 is helping to take care of those who move the country.

At MOBS2 - Intelligence that moves, we believe that data only makes sense when it also takes care of the people who generate it. That's why, in addition to driving telemetry and AI-powered education, the MYMOBS app now offers a tool that is unprecedented in the sector: the Emotionometer.

With the Emotionometer, drivers can record their emotional state daily—whether it's tiredness, anxiety, irritation, or tranquility—and, based on this information, the system sends short socio-emotional support videos with practical guidance, breathing techniques, focus, and self-control. After all, taking care of the driver means taking care of the entire journey.