Carriers are Not Prepared for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Drug & Alcohol Regulations

Driver iQ Releases Results of Q2 2019 Trends In Truckload Recruiting and Retention Survey

Driver iQ, provider of comprehensive and reliable background screening and driver monitoring services to the trucking industry,  announced that carriers taking part in its Q2 2019 Recruitment & Retention Survey indicated they are not prepared to implement the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse Driver Registration regulations.

“Three-fourths (75%) of the recruiters surveyed indicated they are not prepared for the new Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse Driver Registration that begins January 6, 2020,” said Lana Batts, Co-President of Driver iQ. The law requiring the Clearinghouse was passed in 2012. FMCSA did not publish the basic rules for implementing the Clearinghouse until April 19, 2019. “Eight months is simply not enough time for carriers to understand the rule, start an implementation plan, develop and test the plan, and implement the plan. I’m expecting mass chaos as drivers try to register for a program that no one has seen even a demo, fully understands, and can clearly articulate to worried drivers,” Batts said.

Batts also noted that while technology is a part of recruiters’ every day lives to accelerate the hiring process and make the process easy, fast, and straightforward for the driver applicants, second quarter results show that 28% of the recruiters surveyed do not see any new technology on the horizon that will make their lives easier or more productive. The highest ranking new technology was Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) at 17%, which has been around for more than a decade and not really “new.”

The survey also had a number of firsts:

· For the first time since Q4 2017, more recruiters expect that driver turnover is going to remain about the same (46%), rather than increase (30%) or decrease (25%).

· For the first time, an overwhelming majority of the recruiters (74%) expect that future driver compensation is going to remain the same.

The Q2 2019 Trends in Truckload Recruitment and Retention Survey from Driver iQ is the latest in a planned series of quarterly surveys designed to better understand and measure recruiting and retention experiences and expectations in the truckload sector. The results of the survey are coupled with observations of Driver iQ personnel engaged in the background screening industry. The survey represents the views of recruiting managers who operate over 75,000 trucks and the majority of the responses came from dry van carriers with over $100 million in gross operating revenues.

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