It is imperative for a motor carrier to maintain its safety fitness certificate(s) in good standing at all times. Failure to do so could jeopardize its operations. Much of this depends on its ability to hire and retain great drivers, which means that a carrier should make it a top priority to have robust hiring practices. One unsafe driver could cause a carrier’s safety rating to change from satisfactory to conditional, or from conditional to unsatisfactory, triggering higher insurance costs, lost customers, or worse. In this article, we list the top 10 hiring tips for carriers when selecting drivers.
1. Draft a written hiring policy for drivers
A hiring policy should set out the carrier’s company values (such as its safety-first culture) and its approach to discovering desirable candidates who share those values. In this process, management should reflect on the company’s past and present drivers to determine the characteristics, qualities and qualifications which lead to long-term success of a driver within the company. A carrier generally wants to employ hard working, responsible, and safe drivers and during the hiring process. Once the hiring policy is drafted, a carrier should appoint one person in the leadership team to supervise the entire hiring process and this person should be well-acquainted with the carrier’s hiring policy and any applicable laws.
2. Hiring practices should be consistent with applicable laws
Each step of the hiring policy must be consistent with human rights, employment laws, occupational health and safety requirements and all other applicable laws. This means that, while it is highly recommended that a carrier have hiring criteria, the criteria must not be based on any grounds for discrimination, including race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, family status, genetic characteristics, disability, and conviction for an offence for which a pardon has been granted or in respect of which a record suspension has been ordered.
3. Be consistent in all communications
Once the carrier’s standards are established through its hiring policy, it is important that all verbal and written communications are consistent throughout each step of the process, from advertisements and job postings to the actual interviews. The high standards of a carrier should be emphasized in all communications to ensure the candidates are aware of its standards.
4. Collect application materials from each driver candidate
The carrier should consider how it can uncover the information it needs in the hiring process to vet its candidates more accurately and efficiently. The following application materials should be requested from each driver candidate: (1) a résumé; (2) references; (3) a commercial driver’s license in the correct class for the type of vehicle they will be required to drive; and (4) a current driver abstract. These documents will assist a carrier in its assessment of a candidate.
5. Prescreen the candidates before the interview
Candidates’ application materials should be verified and reviewed very closely in advance of the interview. This step will quickly eliminate candidates who fail to meet basic criteria such as having an unexpired driver’s license. A carrier should also conduct internet searches to verify information contained in a candidate’s application materials. For example, a carrier should ascertain whether the references provided by the candidate actually hold the stated positions at the stated company in the candidate’s application materials.
6. Ask intentional questions
Once a carrier determines it would like to interview a candidate, it should determine which questions the interviewers should ask every candidate and questions based on that specific candidate’s application materials. Where the references and positions previously held on the applicable materials aligned, it is still important to ask questions that will uncover the candidate’s responsibilities of the positions they held previously, expanding on their written application materials. These types of questions will allow the carrier to better understand the candidate’s experiences at a higher level of detail and help the carrier determine if the candidate is well equipped. Furthermore, a carrier should try their best to ask investigative questions to determine if the candidate held any position that required the candidate to be responsible for another carrier’s compliance with regulatory and safety issues, such as being an owner, director, officer or safety manager of another trucking company. If so, the carrier should conduct additional research by taking a look at that company’s carrier abstract or safety rating to determine if the candidate did not prioritize safety.
7. Test the candidate’s skill
The driver selection process should not stop after the interview process. A road test will help evaluate whether a candidate is capable of driving in accordance with the carrier’s standards, including any road conditions in which it expects the driver will need to drive. For example, the carrier should evaluate if the candidate can drive on two- and four-lane highways, city driving, yard backing, parking, shifting lanes, turning, mirror usage, speed, and general awareness. The carrier can also require the candidate to take a written knowledge test to assess whether the candidate has any knowledge the carrier deems relevant, including the identification of workplace hazardous symbols or road signs.
8. Training
Once a carrier has hired a candidate as its driver, the carrier should train the driver on its safe driving practices, as they may be different from the driver’s previous company.
9. Regular review
A carrier’s review of a driver should not stop after the driver has been hired. The carrier should regularly review each driver’s driver abstract (preferably once a quarter), as well as make sure that the driver’s medical records are up-to-date. In other words, the carrier should regularly check that its drivers are still performing to the carrier’s standards.
10. Recordkeeping
A carrier should keep a file of every candidate, including the candidates that do not get hired by the carrier. Every step of the hiring and training process should be documented and kept in each candidate’s file.
Hiring great drivers requires a carrier to do a great deal of due diligence and follow its hiring policy. Carriers should work with transportation counsel to ensure that the best practices are used in its driver selection process and to ensure the carrier is covered in the event there is an incident or accident, or a human rights complaint or an alleged discriminatory hiring practice in the future.
If you have any questions regarding driver selection best practices or safety programs generally, please feel free to reach out to any member of Miller Thomson’s Transport & Logistics Team.
