C R England and Omega Laboratories Inc have announced a drug screening partnership that will test the hair samples of driver applicants. This program will enhance England’s pre-employment drug screening process with the end result of putting safer drivers on the road.
“The industrywide impact of being able to conduct a pre-employment drug test that reviews a longer screening history is a tremendous improvement over the current federally mandated requirements,” said Dustin England, vice-president of safety and compliance for C R England. “With hair testing, we are able to detect months of time rather than the handful of days checked with standard urine tests. We found our hair testing positive rate was over three times higher than the required DOT urine test alone.”
During the trial, both urine and hair samples were collected. After a year of research, the C R England management team became convinced that hair testing was a superior methodology for pre-employment drug screening and offered a much more effective screening process than urine testing. England will continue to conduct standard urine drug testing for all applicants as required by the DOT.
Results of the trial program clearly show its effectiveness. Out of 2,000 candidates, more than 150 tested positive that would have otherwise passed the current federally mandated testing. In total, more than 11% tested positive with hair testing, versus 2.8% testing positive with DOT urine testing.
Besides providing refrigerated trucking services, Salt Lake City UT-based C R England operates four driving schools across the United States.
“By operating our own schools, we can provide the best training for our future professional truck drivers and their safety,” England said. “By hair testing, we can better control the quality of successful applicants.”
For more information, visit www.crengland.com.
