Driver Selection Tests and Measurement (2012)

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3 tions) is most indicative, although nondriving behavioral history (e.g., criminal record) is predictive of risk as well (Knipling et al. 2004). Past research highlights the need for valid and usable driver selection procedures for carriers. These selection procedures seek to measure enduring individual differences relevant to driving safety. Ideally, companies could employ a battery of tests, measurements, and questionnaires designed to fairly measure these driver traits and thereby identify likely high- and low-risk drivers. Research indicates that no one test is likely to be definitive. Tests must be validated against job performance criteria such as crash, violation, and incident rates. The opportunity for improving the quality of fleet drivers is strongest when, owing to economic or other conditions, there are larger numbers of commercial driver applicants and carriers can afford to be more selective in hir- ing. A caveat, however, is that greater selectivity increases fleet driver quality only if a fleet employs valid selection procedures and devices. Multiple devices have the greatest combined benefit when they tap into different driver traits and dimensions relating to risk. One constraint on the use of selection tests in hiring commercial drivers is that all employee selection tests must meet Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) standards for test validity. These standards help to ensure that tests fairly capture job performance-related personal dimensions and do not arbitrarily discriminate based on non-performance-related applicant characteristics. There are several ways of demonstrating job test validity. This report will review these requirements as they relate to car- rier practices to help ensure fair, legal, and safety-effective driver selection. This information, together with informa- tion on the tests themselves and their use within commercial transport, can be a useful foundation for carriers to make greater use of selection devices as well as better choices among available instruments. Selection tests and measure- ments for use by carriers will be described within the overall framework of commercial driver qualifications, licensing, and federal requirements for the fair use of employee selec- tion instruments. The safe selection of commercial drivers may be seen within at least two larger contexts. The first of these is crash risk factors in general. Much of road safety research seeks to CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND Research reveals large and enduring individual differences in crash risk among commercial drivers. These differences pervade the general population of drivers as well. Most com- mercial drivers are reliable and safe, but a relatively small percentage (perhaps 10%–15%) is heavily overinvolved in crashes and incidents. This phenomenon has been termed differential driver risk. CTBSSP Synthesis 4 (Knipling et al. 2004) explored differential driver risk and high-risk drivers in particular. Evidence comes from various sources. Most compelling are naturalistic driving studies, which use instru- mented vehicles to reliably count driver involvements in at- fault driving events, including crashes, near-crashes, and other incidents. Event counts can be compared with driver exposure (e.g., driving hours) to generate rates of driver involvements in at-fault events. The observed individual differences in driver risk are far greater than could possibly occur by chance variation alone. For example, in one major large truck natural- istic driving study (Hickman et al. 2005), a subset of drivers with just 19% of driving exposure was involved in 53% of all observed at-fault driving events. The remaining drivers, with 81% of exposure, had just 47% of at-fault events. Although some drivers may change their driving styles for better or worse over time, most individual differences in driver risk are persistent (Miller and Schuster 1983; Lan- caster and Ward 2002). Indeed, many individual differ- ences in human performance and behavior are influenced by heredity (Larson and Buss 2005; Thiffault 2007). Prin- cipal correlates of differential driver risk include personal- ity dimensions such as sensation-seeking, anger/hostility, impulsivity, intensity (i.e., “Type A”), agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Individual perceptions and attitudes about risk are reflective of personality and of course affect safety-related behaviors and outcomes. Mental abilities (e.g., spatial, mathematical) are also related to commercial driving safety and other measures of employee success (Burks et al. 2009). Driver risk can also be related to driver physical and sensorimotor abilities, such as dynamic vision, information processing proficiency, and reaction time. Various medical conditions are also associated with driver risk, including cardiovascular illness, sleep apnea, other sleep disorders, diabetes, and obesity. Behavioral history (“biodata”) is also predictive of commercial driver risk (Murray et al. 2005). Driving behavioral history (i.e., crashes and moving viola-

4 are to achieve high safety performance and stable work- forces. Selection methods must assess the various endur- ing driver characteristics known to be related to risk, which include driver demographics, driving knowledge and skills, personality, risk perception and attitudes, psychomotor skills, medical status and conditions, behavioral history, and mental abilities. The text box, adapted from a DOL report (DOL 2000) lists assessment procedures that may be consid- ered under the rubric “tests and measurements” for purpose of improved employee hiring. The best carrier driver recruitment and selection sys- tems are those that attract a large number of highly qualified applicants and have the highest and most accurate standards for selection. High selection “accuracy” requires the use of valid selection tests and other procedures to assess endur- ing driver characteristics relevant to safety (Cascio 2004). This study reviews motor carrier driver selection methods in general, with a focus on the scientific basis and validity of various driver selection tools. PROJECT OBJECTIVES, METHODS, AND SCOPE This report reviews the academic, commercial, and industry literature on tests, measurements, and other procedures used identify crash risk factors and reduce risk. For example, the U.S.DOT Large Truck Crash Causation Study (LTCCS) was performed to “identify associations between various factors and an increased risk of crash involvement in either relative or absolute terms” (Blower and Campbell 2005). The fol- lowing box presents a taxonomy of potential crash risk fac- tors based on multiple sources (Evans 2004; Starnes 2006; Shinar 2007; Thiffault 2007; Knipling 2009a; Murray et al. 2009). The principal focus of this project is on the category of persistent driver characteristics, though other categories were also addressed in the project survey and in interviews. Enduring human characteristics are also known as traits, in contrast to temporary characteristics, also known as states. The second broader context for commercial driver selec- tion is that of employee selection in general. Employee per- formance differences permeate the workplace and create the need for valid employee assessments and, in particular, selection procedures. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL 2000) points out various work situations where employee selection is particularly important for organizational suc- cess. Among these situations are (1) when employee errors can have catastrophic consequences and (2) when there is high employee turnover. Both of these conditions character- ize commercial motor vehicle (CMV) transport. Carriers must therefore emphasize driver selection and hiring if they Potential Crash Risk Factors Enduring Driver Factors • Demographics (e.g., age, gender) • Driving knowledge and skills • Personality (e.g., aggressiveness, sensation-seeking, stress level) • Risk perception and attitudes • Psychomotor skills (e.g., reaction time) • Medical status and conditions, including fatigue susceptibility • Behavioral history • Mental abilities Temporary Driver Factors • Recent sleep • Time-of-day and circadian rhythms • Time awake (e.g., > 16 hours) • Time-on-task (hours working and driving) • Short-term illnesses • Moods and recent stress • Recent food and fluids • Drugs, medications, and alcohol • Familiarity with road Vehicle Factors • Vehicle design and configuration • Mechanical condition • Safety features and technologies Roadway and Environmental Factors • Mileage exposure in general • Divided vs. undivided roads • Level of access/types of intersections • Traffic density • Curves and ramps • Intersections • Lane restrictions • Construction zones • Weather and road surface condition Carrier Operations and Management Factors • Organization and operation type • Driver selection • Fleet-based driver training • Communications and dispatching • Driver performance monitoring and evaluation • Rewards and discipline • Pay and benefits Government Policies and Practices • Driver qualifications and licensing • Hours of service (HOS) • Enforcement practices • Information and education programs.

5 by motor carriers to select safe commercial drivers. It pres- ents evidence relating to individual driver trait differences relevant to safety, and describes ways that those differences can be assessed as part of hiring decision making. Surveys and interviews were used to obtain information from motor carrier safety managers and other experts on selection proce- dures and tests and on underlying driver characteristics rele- vant to risk. The report also describes important and prevalent carrier selection practices, discusses barriers to more wide- spread use of various selection tools, and identifies research and development needs relating to driver selection by carriers. This Driver Selection Tests and Measurements synthesis project has been based on the following information-gather- ing activities: • Research literature review – Safety-relevant individual differences – Retention- and performance-quality-relevant indi- vidual differences – Tests and measurements • Vendor product review • Surveys – Carrier safety manager questionnaire – Other expert (e.g., research, government, trade association) questionnaire • Carrier safety manager interviews (for case studies) • Review of federal regulations – FMCSA – EEOC hiring guidelines (EEOC 2003). The survey and interview methodologies are each described in chapters focusing on those efforts. The research literature and vendor product review methodology is described here. Searches were performed using websites, academic data- bases, books, trade press publications, and articles. The fol- lowing databases were used to conduct the reviews: • Transportation Research Information Services: The largest online bibliographic database of transporta- tion research, containing more than 650,000 records of published research. • Business Source Premier: Features the full text for more than 2,200 journals. Full text is provided back to 1965, and searchable cited references back to 1998. • PsycINFO: From the American Psychological Asso- ciation, contains nearly 2.3 million citations and sum- maries of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations, all in psychology and related disciplines • PsycARTICLES: From the American Psychological Association, contains more than 45,000 articles from 57 journals, 46 published by the association and 11 by allied organizations. • EconLit: From the American Economic Association’s electronic database, covers economic literature, with more than 735,000 records. These databases were searched using a variety of topic- related key words and phrases, often in combinations to improve focus. Key words included trucking, safety, screen- ing, driver, commercial trucking, driving measurements, driving behaviors, personality factors, retention, driver characteristics, hiring, traits, job performance, and tests. The material in this report requires three disclaimers: • Although there may be regulatory issues and activities relating to some study topics, the study did not address them in that context and does not make recommenda- tions relating to government regulations. • No product or service was formally evaluated for this report. Company and brand names are provided to illus- trate available products and services. Neither TRB nor this report endorses any company, product, or service. • The project survey data presented in chapter four and cited elsewhere are based on convenience samples of responding safety managers and other experts. Survey data represent the opinions and practices of the respondents, not larger populations such as “all carrier safety managers.” Safety manager respon- dents were generally from larger fleets with sufficient resources and safety interest to participate in national industry organizations and meetings, through which they were contacted. The remaining chapters of this report review basic com- mercial driver qualifications, examine safety-relevant individ- Candidate Assessment Procedures • Observations • Resume evaluations • Application forms • Questionnaires • Observations • Resume evaluations • Application forms • Questionnaires • Public records review • Biodata • Interviews • Work samples • Performance tests • Mental ability tests • Physical ability tests • Personality inventories • Honesty/integrity inventories • Work interest inventories • Medical histories • Medical examinations • Drug/alcohol tests • Probationary periods Source: Adapted from DOL (2000).

6 ual differences, summarize typical carrier hiring procedures, describe various tests and measurements to assess driver safety, present the project surveys and report their results, present several carrier case studies, and state conclusions and research needs. Report appendices provide the project survey forms and supplemental information on commercial driver hiring and selection.