All too frequently I come across someone that doesn’t understand Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP). The lack of understanding is evident because if they did understand the program, they would be using it all t. Yes, all of the time. Even here in Canada, for each and every new hire PSP Report has to be utilized. It will protect you and your company, competently when used.
What is a PSP Report?
That is a great question. The Pre-Employment Screening Program is a database that can be used by registered companies to obtain individual data on a prospective hire. Only before the hire can PSP be used. The information gathered from the program will help you make an informed hiring decision. Informed Hiring Decisions are the basis for hiring safe operators. This database contains the violations found during inspections while the driver was operating a commercial vehicle. The violations may be the vehicle, load or driver related. Items such as an insecure load, or brakes out of adjustment and driver not haveing a current logbook are all examples of the types of violations found in PSP. Canadian drivers that have been stopped by a US officer will have a record. The good news is that all inspections are on the report. Even the clean or violation free checks.
All inspection information will be available for three years or thirty-six months on the PSP Report.
It is not just the inspections that you will find on the PSP. It also contains collisions. All crashes reported to DOT will appear on the report. Yup, accidents that are your fault will appear, and collisions are not at fault also appear. All crashes reported to the DOT will make it onto the PSP regardless of the situation.
All crash data remains on the report for five years or sixty months on the PSP Report.
The PSP report in now the interactions that the individual has had with law enforcement which is typically sorted by company. This way you are searching the CSA information by a person rather than a company.
Here is a sample of a PSP Report.
Look at all the information that is known. The names of past employers! Wouldn’t that be helpful when trying to get accurate references completed? Certainly, makes it easier because the DOT number is right there. Now you can look up the past employers contact info via the DOT number. At least if the applicant doesn’t remember all the details, you can get many of them from the system.
The post is “What You Didn’t Know About Your PSP.” So far I have indicated that even Canadian will have a PSP Record. You may not have to know that. All DOT holders can have access to the reports if they sign up and pay the $25.00 annual fee (99 truck and less) or $100.00 if you are larger than 99 power units. Small price to pay annually. Each search is $10.00. The financial outlay is well worth the information received. This information will allow you to hire good drivers. You will be more confident that you have all the details of the applicant. In this way, you can make the best hiring decisions.
Remember that the lawyers will certainly be able to get similar information in case of legal action. They will either use it to defend the great hiring decision or to nail you to the cross for the poor decision. This information will be utilized, so you had better have it first and make good use of it by way of defendable hiring decisions. Negligent Entrustment and Negligent Hiring are frequent legal cases that result in much grief for carriers.
That is what you didn’t know. The small cost of PSP, but the enormous importance of using PSP to make great hiring decisions and defendable hirings.