How well do you really know the drivers you're about to hire and send out into the world in a truck with your name all over it? Can they back up? Can they do proper vehicle inspections? Are they proactive or reactive drivers? It's amazing what a thorough pre-hire driving evaluation can reveal.

Mike Fitzgerald, a retired safety director based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, has conducted hundreds of on-road driver evaluations. He shared a story about a driver he almost hired—and probably would have—had they not shared the cab for more than an hour. He was a very animated conversationalist, which might not sound like a threat, but when he talked, he expressed himself enthusiastically with his hands. Both at the same time. While he was driving.

"The driver had relaxed during our time together and was more himself than the rather stiff fellow behaving well to pass the test," Fitzgerald recalls. "As we were talking, he was taking both hands off the steering wheel, gesturing."

After 20 such occurrences, that driver had sealed his fate. He became one of the few drivers Fitzgerald had ever failed outright on a driving test.

A potentially fatal habit could have gone unobserved if that driving test was limited to a trip around the block. It might have come up later if the fleet used driver-facing cameras or lane position sensors, but there would need to be some trigger to record it—or a reason for the alerts. Or maybe not, until it was too late.

Fitzgerald's road tests of newly hired or rehired drivers were approximately an hour long, covering about 35 miles. They included an evaluation of the driver's skills in operating on narrow surface streets as well as controlled access highways. They also included multiple backing maneuvers, including straight-line backing, parallel parking, sight-side and blind-side 45- and 90-degree backing, and reversing between two fixed objects such as parked trailers.

It would be tough to fake your way through an evaluation like that.

Five tips for better pre-hire driving evaluations

Explain to the candidate precisely what will happen on the test and what the driver is expected to do. This serves two purposes: It eliminates surprises for the driver and provides clues on how well the driver follows instructions.
Conduct the evaluation in accordance with company policy to set the bar for the driver. Taking shortcuts or not following policy sends a message that the company will tolerate noncompliance.
Be tolerant of some minor mistakes, but call them out so the driver knows the problem. Offer a second chance.
Ask the driver to self-evaluate their skills and industry knowledge before the test and compare their assessment with their actual performance. This can provide clues on what future remedial training might be required.
If the company uses technology-based safety systems, explain their function and purpose to the driver and how they are used to monitor driver performance.

Driving test jitters

Knowing the road evaluation affects the outcome of their successful onboarding, most drivers will be a little nervous during the test. It's good for the examiner to try alleviating the nerves by being relaxed and cordial and offering thorough explanations of what the test entails, the route, and how he or she will be evaluated.

"I'm not necessarily expecting a perfect performance, as driver skill levels vary," Fitzgerald told FleetOwner. "I obviously expect them to be competent, but I'm also looking for their willingness to take instruction and do what's asked of them."

Rather than a road test, he calls it a training session. He explains that if a mistake is made, he'll stop the driver and explain what should have been done, adding: "The chances of failing this road test are pretty low, unless you run a red light, run a stop sign, or have a crash."

That, he said, almost always put the drivers at ease and allowed them to get into their rhythm.

Brian Riker, director of transportation and compliance at Worldwide Equipment Sales of Rockdale, Illinois, takes a similar approach. He gets all the legal necessities out of the way before the road test, such as motor vehicle record and previous employer checks, the FMCSA PSP check, the Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse checks, as well as a search of the driver's social media footprint.

"Social media will tell you a lot about any new hire long before you hire them," Riker said, cautioning there are some restrictions on taking direct adverse action based solely on those findings.

His road tests are at least 30 miles and 45 minutes and include a truck stop visit for refueling to see how they handle pressure and courtesy toward other drivers.

"I have found that the portion of the trip after the fuel stop will show their true driving style as they get more relaxed after the short break at the fuel pump," he said.

The pre-hire driver evaluation is your one chance to see how drivers behave in the wild. A comprehensive road test should include both city and highway driving.

What the pre-trip reveals

Drivers become pretty lackadaisical about vehicle inspections if previous employers haven't enforced the regulations. Fitzgerald, again, didn't expect perfection but watched for the drivers who understood what they were inspecting and why.

"The vehicle inspection can be seen as a confrontational exercise, with me standing there with my clipboard check boxes," he observed. "I wanted to avoid that, so I'd praise what they did properly and question them on what they missed. I viewed this part of the evaluation as a training session too, getting the driver back up to speed on proper inspections."

Fitzgerald saw his role in the driver evaluation as setting the benchmark for what the company expected in terms of performance and compliance, so emphasizing the need for a thorough and proper vehicle inspection set the tone for the driver. Fully aware that many drivers wouldn't follow through in the coming weeks and months, he says the company could use this opportunity to demonstrate what it expects of the driver.

"I made sure they understood our company policies on pre-trips," he said. "They'd been told, and they'd been warned. If they didn't do it, that gave us the ability to enforce some sort of consequence."

This part of Fitzgerald's evaluation was also an opportunity to weed out any driver physical mobility issues.

"We had some workers' comp problems with people being injured on the job related to the truck, so I wanted to ensure these people could walk and climb and bend and stoop and crawl," he said. "I wanted to let them know that those were things I expected them to do, and simply walking around the truck standing up vertically and doing an inspection wasn't going to work."

Fleets using electronic driver vehicle inspection reports have an easier time monitoring trip inspection compliance, but even that isn't perfect. Drivers can simply check the "no defects" box and move on. For Fitzgerald, the exercise wasn't just checking boxes but ensuring the vehicle was roadworthy and wouldn't get sidelined in a roadside inspection.

Much of the work Riker does involves specialty equipment, such as auto transport or tow truck drivers, oil field operations, etc. He asks a lot of probing questions about the specific types of equipment they have used to gauge their actual experience level.

"If they can't tell me any real details about the specialty part of their job, then they likely did not have great attention to detail," he said.

A familiar exercise like fueling up the truck or stopping for a coffee can put drivers at ease. They are more likely to drive as they usually would when relaxed and comfortable.

The driving test

The actual driving portion of the evaluation needs to be of sufficient duration to allow the driver to get over the jitters and perform as they will in real life. Two right turns, two left turns, one back, and you're done isn't going to cut it.

Fitzgerald admits it took some arm twisting at a couple of the companies he worked for to allow a 60- to 90-minute driving test, but as the director of safety, his reputation was on the line for every driver he hired.

"I don't feel 10 to 15 minutes is anywhere near what's needed to properly evaluate a driver and, just as importantly, set them up for success and ensure they are up to the company standard," he explained.

His road test evaluates the driver's abilities for speed control; following distance; lane positioning; hand position on the steering wheel; eye movement; mirror use; spatial awareness; situational awareness; short-, medium-, and long-range scan of the roadway; and overall demeanor while driving—whether he or she is aggressive and proactive or reactive.

It's not easy sitting in the right seat watching the driver go through the motions to figure out what's going on inside their head, but Fitzgerald used a little trick called Smith System driving commentary. He'd get the driver to speak out loud what he was thinking and observing while driving.

"With marginal drivers, I would sometimes demonstrate this myself while driving to illustrate the thought process," he says. "Basically, it's just an oral running commentary: 'I'm positioning myself here because of these things that are in existence in the operating environment. I don't want to be too close to this vehicle. I've got an on ramp coming up. I've got a really complicated interchange. We've got cars going from left to right or right to left trying to get to their exit ramp.'"

That offers tremendous insight into how the driver observes and manages the on-road environment, Fitzgerald stresses.

Benefits of a thorough road test

Obviously, the company wants to ensure the driver is sufficiently skilled to reduce the possibility of a crash—at least a crash due to inexperience or poor judgment. A longer test also allows the driver to relax a little and return to familiar ways, which can be disguised for a short period.

Some bad habits can be caught after the hire through various technologies, such as cameras, telematics data from ABS, stability control systems, and even the e-DVIR (consistently clean inspections might indicate the driver is just checking the boxes, or failing to observe detectable defects).

The road test is one brief opportunity to see that driver in action. Make the best of it.