"In Safety There Are No Secrets"
Three VP's of Safety share insights on drug testing in an online panel discussion
A one-hour panel discussion, broken into viewer selectable sections.
About the Panel
Executives in the trucking industry face two diametrically-opposed challenges. On the one hand, trucking firms are some of the most safety-sensitive businesses in any industry. On the other, they also experience one of the highest turnover rates of any business. The need to constantly recruit and hire at exceptionally high volumes but hire drivers that don’t bring risk into the business create a delicate balancing act.
Insurance rates are on the rise, damage awards in accidents where trucks are involved are reaching stratospheric amounts, and the daunting fact that in an accident where a truck driver is impaired verdicts have gone in favor of the plaintiff 100% of the time. Add all these together and the need to hire drug-free drivers becomes obvious.
In this panel discussion, Vice Presidents of Safety from KLLM Transport Services, Maverick USA, and US Xpress discuss their drug testing programs, show data comparing side-by-side hair and urine test results, share the reasons that they are using Psychemedics hair testing over and above required DOT testing, and deliver insights on what this has done for their businesses.
Some questions answered by this Panel
“Why absorb extra costs to add Psychemedics?”
“What is the difference in positive rates?”
“Is Psychemedics more cost-effective than urine testing?”
“Do you seen positive rates fall after starting?”
“Are there negative impacts on ability to Recruit?”
Preview
This short video familiarizes the viewer with the technology selected by our panelists and information on how the science works. It also provides information on cost-effectiveness versus urine testing. After watching this video, the viewer will have good baseline knowledge that helps put the panelists’ comments into context.
“Why did you add Psychemedics and absorb more cost?”
In this section, the panelists detail the reasons that they have elected to absorb the extra cost of hair testing over and above required Department of Transportation drug testing with urine. They provide background on what influenced them to start and insights on why they will sustain the additional testing over time.
“Is Psychemedics more effective than urine testing?”
This section contains side-by-side comparative results of hair and urine tests.
These companies administer two drug tests to each applicant simultaneously. One is the required DOT urine test, and the other is the Psychemedics hair test. In this section they will share the actual data from those tests, conducted on the same subjects at the same time. They will discuss positive rate differences between hair and urine testing, deterrent impacts of Psychemedics and the effects that Certainty of Detection appear to have on positive rates over time.
“Does the high detection rate impact Recruiting?”
This is a MUST SEE section for any talent recruiter or HR professional.
With exceptionally high turnover and a constant need to recruit, there were concerns among Human Resources and Recruiters teams that Psychemedics’ high detection rate could negatively impact their ability to recruit. In this section, the panelists talk about short and long term impacts on recruiting when more applicants were eliminated from the recruiting pool for drug usage. The impacts are not what you might expect.
“What is the industry doing about driver drug use?”
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) established the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse as a safety initiative at the beginning of 2020. Any driver that tests positive for substance abuse is flagged by the system and any trucking firm has access to that information. The panelists talk in this section about this and other steps being taken to ensure safer roadways and drug-free cabs. It contains best practices of use in any safety-sensitive industry.
Q&A
Panelists respond to several questions from viewers of the online event. They cover topics from impacts on Worker Comp claims to Cost Effectiveness of the testing protocols.
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