Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast
Calling all trucker heroes and insurance wranglers! Buckle up for another wild ride with the Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast. Two grey-bearded safety guys take their irreverent look at the trucking pitfalls, risks, and trouble with trucking insurance. They invite the trucking elite on the show to discuss.
This week, John and Chris, are swerving past potholes of peril to deliver the straight goods on keeping your rig safe and your insurance rates lower than a limbo dancer in flip-flops.
We’ll be dodging disasters, dissecting dispatches, and dishing out tips hotter than fresh asphalt. So, grab a lukewarm cup of joe, crank up the air horn of knowledge, and get ready to navigate the trucking terrain with laughter and a whole lot of “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet” stories. It’s the Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast – spilling the beans on safety and savings, one mile at a time.
You can contact us at
John Farquhar, John@summitrisksolutions.ca 1 226 802 2762;
Chris Harris, Chris@safetydawg.com 905 973 7056
Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast
29. Cognitive Testing For Truck Drivers? What the Heck! Chris Wilkinson, DriverCheck
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Chris Harris, The Safety Dawg
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Season 1
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Episode 29
Chris Wilkinson's Contact Info:
Email: cwilkinson@drivercheck.ca
Phone: 519-577-1746
Website: DriverCheck.ca
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DriverCheckCA
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/drivercheck-inc
Facebook: facebook.com/Drivercheck
YouTube: youtube.com/user/drivercheck
Here is the website for more information on the testing:
https://impirica.tech
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (0s):
In the social contract have trust is that we believe, and we trust that all people driving on the same road is known as us are fit to operate.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (11s):
And that is Chris Wilkinson from DriverCheck. And not only is he talking about the social contract have trust that we all have while driving on our roads in our highways, we are also talking about cognitive testing and how it can reduce the risk of a fleet from having a crash. So if that's something that interests you stay tuned now let's get on with the Dawg On It Trucking Pawedcast
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (35s):
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (40s):
Welcome to the Dawg On It Trucking Pawedcast I'm your host, Chris Harris Safety Dawg and When it comes to trucking safety. The dawg is on it, please. If you would show your appreciation for the podcast by leaving a thumbs up a comment or a rating, it will help me so much. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate you now. Lets get all of that.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (1m 11s):
Hey Chris.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (1m 13s):
So we got to Chris's on the show. This will be confusing me
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (1m 16s):
If it's going to get confusing. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (1m 19s):
Mr. Wilkinson welcome to the Dawg On It Trucking Pawedcast and we are here talking about cognitive testing, something that Jeremy brought up and I know nothing about, so it's awesome to have you on the show to explain this to both me and the viewers Chris come on in and tell us a little bit about yourself and how did you land at DriverCheck
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (1m 51s):
All right, so it's great to be here. Thank you so much is the first time it might be in the allowed on this show. So I take that as a privilege I've worked with DriverCheck now for just about three and a half years. Been in the fitness for duty drug and alcohol testing industry though for about eight. And I came over to DriverCheck when they bought the company I was working for So I came over with him with an acquisition. I was competing against DriverCheck before, but now I'm very happy to be part of this, a wonderful team.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (2m 21s):
So let's say that's how I got into being a part of DriverCheck and I'm my official title at DriverCheck is a program consultant, which is a sales account management and, and then also other project management, like the cognitive testing program, we are going to talk today. Yeah.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (2m 38s):
So let's not move but bit by bit yet. And I don't edit these things out, but let's get right into the Cognitive Testing because I don't know anything about it. Why would a trucking company, well explain first what it is.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (2m 58s):
All right. So cognitive assessments for commercial Drivers is just, one is one of three types of assessments that should be conducted on commercial driver's when they're being qualified for their license, they look at the CC MTA medical standards. So the Canadian council motor or transportation medical standards looks at sensory motor and cognitive function. As there are three areas to determine whether or not somebody who's fit to operate and or if somebody goes for their license, they would, they typically would get their sensory and motor or assessed.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (3m 37s):
But a cognitive functions may be missed because they're are a little bit harder to identify.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (3m 43s):
So give me an example of a cognitive function, right? So we'll cognitive functions. Yeah.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (3m 49s):
All under the law and behaviors, reaction, time, peripheral vision, short term, long term memory. So everything that you do when you're driving a vehicle and it falls into what you are, how you use it with your cognition, we take advantage of the fact that we have a healthy cognition while we do, and then we're operating even our own personal vehicle, our cognition as being overwhelmed, but we're able to balance that overwhelmed cognitive functions by overcompensating for certain things.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (4m 21s):
If there's a lot of stimuli going on while we're driving, we can overcome that stimuli by focusing on what's necessary to be safe. If there's bad weather, then we're focusing harder on a safe driving, our speed, gauging our distance. So we can do that. And we can react naturally to the elements and two, the environment, loud music, playing kids, screaming in the background, trying to tune that out while we were, while we were driving. Now, if somebody does not have a healthy cognition, they start to become overwhelmed by all that stimulus that come in and it puts somebody at a very high risk situation.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (5m 1s):
So that's, that's where the cognitive functions comes into play, where most people do have healthy cognition or can be affected in minor ways. But there are still our individuals who are not knowing that they have significant cognitive deficits and they are operating on the road. And so this program is designed to help identify, mitigate those risks, but then also to help people get maybe the medical treatment they need by identifying these underlying medical issues and then getting them back to work as a healthy contributor to the company.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (5m 33s):
Yeah.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (5m 34s):
Is this a way to root out old? Drivers like me now?
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (5m 39s):
Not at all. Thank you. Good question. No, the program has not geared towards a specific group of people. The idea is that everybody at any age can have cognitive decline. There is a natural progression starting at age 26 on where we start having this actual natural decline have cognitive functions till you are older, but the program is an age norm devaluation. So we're not assessing somebody's based on age. If your 70, you are going to be assessed against another seven year old as a healthy cognitive function.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (6m 14s):
If you're 30, you are going to be assessed against another 30 year old who has healthy cognitive assessments function. So it's age norms in that sense, that natural decline that is taken into consideration. And with the science that backs this program years of research research was first started out at the university of Alberta. It may be able to develop a science to support the fact that if you are a screening high and I have a risk that they're is maybe something a not diagnosing, but maybe identified that there, maybe it is concerned with the driver could then be removed temporarily from work identified, go there for the doctor, identify that they might have a underlying medical condition and hopefully get that resolved and come back to work and be safe.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (7m 2s):
Nope. That's kind of cool. I would say so we're talking about safe driving. Yeah,
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (7m 9s):
But the focus has Safety yeah, absolutely. When would a company use it?
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (7m 14s):
Cognitive Testing is that at the higher? Yeah,
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (7m 18s):
So that it can be used at different parts of the employment. So it can be either a prescreening tool because of this tool looks at it, the functional capabilities have a driver, the bonafide occupational requirements of the driver to be able to safely operate a vehicle. This is a qualifying tool to see if somebody is even qualified to continue on through the recruiting process.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (7m 40s):
That's from their yeah.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (7m 42s):
Higher. Now you have a driver on board, you have a baseline tests that was done in at the preemployment stage. And then you can have periodic evaluations now with your Drivers at different stages, depending on different companies. And that's something that's really big for this program to, is that for a fitness, for duty assessments, we haven't really been able to offer companies' a periodic evaluation check to have a spot in their schedule to say every two years or every three years or every five years were gonna do an evaluation.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (8m 14s):
All of our drivers too, get an understanding of if there is something that's not going diagnosed, or if they had any performance decline that is not being identified. And then they can get this risk score and work with the Drivers two, either state that all of a competency to finding errors or trainable errors. And with those two key identifiers, then develop a return to work strategy for five or who may be. It does have some deficits in there for performance. We can also use this program for a performance declines.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (8m 45s):
So if you do have somebody who, who are seeing us as having significant performance declined, this program can be used as a discovery tool, a reasonable cause situations where dealing with drug and alcohol testing, we can use it in most scenarios, as well as a continuation to the investigation of why someone who was unfit post-incident in situations will be different for every company too. And how you define are able to use this program. But if there is somebody that maybe as in a fatality, in a situation or a very, very bad accident, incidence, the person returning to work may still be rattled from that incident.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (9m 20s):
So do you mean this evaluation gives you a score, a risk score where their cognitive functions are at before you put them back in the vehicle to hopefully avoid that second, the incident that is potentially going to happen to somebody who's still affected by that last incident. And then we have returned to work programs, follow up on an M we have a follow up testing, they have reassessment testing. And so there's a lot of little touch points for this program, but really the three keys I would say is the pre hire, the periodic evaluations.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (9m 50s):
And then performance declined really gives the company significant tool two as a predictive Risk tool to a state that before a risk incident happens, we now have something that can hopefully mitigate that risk and reduce claims. There's a significant return on investment with this program as well. So I know myself personally, I'm very excited to be championing this at DriverCheck and being a part of the program in the program is actually through a company called Impirica based out of Alberta, formerly called drive.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (10m 22s):
Abel just changed their name two Impirica. So we were actually just working with them to help get the word on this program because of how much we believe it is.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (10m 31s):
All right. So I'm confused. Still give me an example of reduced Cognitive function, I guess.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (10m 41s):
Yeah. So confusion, disorientation. So then I'll give you a couple stories maybe that might happen. Yeah. Well it's on the perspective, right? So I'm a client of mine had a driver. They were calling in to dispatch to say, I'm lost. I don't know where I am. And the company had noticed that there had been some kind of performance decline, some, a confusion leading up to this point. But now that the driver is somewhere to save it somewhere and they are now last on the highway, they had no idea where there are.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (11m 16s):
So they ended up managing the situation, having a person all over on that truck had them come back to the company. Office, went for an evaluation, which caused thousands of dollars to do a independent medical assessment on the person. And it was discovered that they were in late stages of dementia. So the driver, unfortunately it was in a position where they were no longer able to drive and there was an extreme risk for the driver to be on the road. Luckily, the dispatch were able to communicate through the safety managers ahead of time, this tool where it could've come in to maybe be a predictor of this situation happening is when they first identified some of these performance decline situations near misses.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (11m 58s):
They could have proactively done a, a, a accelerate vitals assessment, which is a cognitive computerized assessment to see what that risk score look like off of that machine alone, off of that test alone. And then there was a second component to which is a quote on quote evaluation, but it also pushes their cognitive function to see what their overall risk score is based on the functional capabilities, but is a driver who was their late stages of dementia of this program can be potentially identify a risk with that driver.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (12m 28s):
So then that could have been identified as well. Maybe it was still early stages of dimension. Another situation. Then there was a driver who was one of the top performers for a company. They were a blessing company. And as they were driving one day, they were showing lots of signs of, of swerving near misses and bad patrons contacted the company to say, this person I'm a big is fit to drive. So the company I had the driver come back to the yard, did the vitals in office, a computerized cognitive assessment and scored extremely high risk.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (13m 3s):
So the person was advised to go back to the C their doctor, the doctor sent them to the hospital the next day for some tests. And then that person end up going in for a triple bypass surgery because they were having blood clots. They weren't getting enough oxygen to the brain and now their back to work. And there is a functioning, a new employee of the company, my functioning employee in the company, there is also a sleep apnea situation. Does that come up to where somebody is suffering from sleep apnea, they are having a performance decline, confusion. They are having stress, fatigue, hours of service.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (13m 37s):
They can meet their hours of service because they're too tired. And then this whole is performance declining. Why are they are having it? Is it because of the apathy for the job? Or is it because of just, you know, sick of driving or is it a medical condition, is a drug and alcohol related? What is it so doing this test will identify a risk score. And then from there it's identified it from their doctor or a specialist, whether or not they have sleep apnea, whatever the medical condition is, they manage that. And then they're a healthy contributor coming back.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (14m 8s):
So its supposed to be a S program have support. That's the idea. He's not here to take drivers' off the road. It's Here to identify drivers. You might be at the highest risk, help them identify that, come to reason with that. And then hopefully they seek assistance from their doctor to get treatment if that's what's needed and then come back to work. Cause we want the driver's we need the drivers, but we also need safe drivers on it.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (14m 35s):
Oh we need safe drivers. And as somebody who has sleep apnea and a, I mean yeah, I use my CPAP machine every night. I know how that can affect me. So your saying that if I was a participant in the Cognitive Testing it would likely help identify my sleep apnea before my medical doctor did
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (15m 4s):
What it will do. It does. So the program doesn't diagnose medical problems or a drug and alcohol problems with her divides a risk score, two, the company to make the determination, whether or not somebody's is to hire a risk, to continue drive it at that time it's then the responsibility of the employee to go to their doctor or a specialist or whomever. They see a is available. Whoever a family doctor I think would be the easiest one to start the discovery process, they may tell the doctor, here's the idea of a risk score from this cognitive assessment program?
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (15m 37s):
My, my employer's asked me to follow up with my doctor. The doctor says, well, what's going on? And they explained that they're not sleeping. That they snore that they, whatever else they come up with the doctor then hopefully will identify, okay, well we are going to send you for sleep studies. If your having cognitive deficits to the point that you've been removed from duty temporarily based on this risk score. And you're telling me that you have these medical terms of a medical condition with this sleep apnea, let's get you tested to see if that's what it is.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (16m 8s):
We, there is also scenarios where it, somebody not using their medication prescribed medication for inflection, right? Or somebody who's Mmm. Not compliant with their diet diabetes treatment. So there's, there's a lot of different reasons why somebody could screen high on this. But again, we're not looking for looking for actual cognitive decline, right? I'm looking for someone who has, who didn't sleep very well before its looking for somebody who, who was actually potentially afflicted by a medical condition or substance abuse disorder or something along those lines against aiding.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (16m 40s):
That is not a diagnostic tool. We're not diagnosing sleep apnea. It's screening Risk so that the company can use that as a predictive tool before the incident, hopefully happens' to support their employees. Right.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (16m 51s):
So what is, what's the definition of Cognitive? Is it just mental processing?
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (17m 1s):
Yeah. I'd have to look up the actual definition. Yeah. I don't know it off the top of my head. I should know it. That's one of the things I'll study. I have a toddler. Yeah.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (17m 10s):
So what is it you're testing when you mentioned there's two parts of the test I a computerized part and then I believe you can get into a road test.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (17m 22s):
That's right. So it's so the there's two components to the accelerate program, which is the Cognitive assessment program. The first one is an in office and vitals assessment. That's what it's called. And it takes a computer. It's a computer evaluation. That's all based on touch screen. So at the individual being evaluated does not have to have any computer skills. The idea as well is that there's also an instructor who was there with them explaining every single task and even providing them with an opportunity to practice the task before the actually are evaluated.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (17m 56s):
So there are six computerized assessments that are completed and they've all relate to the functional skills required to drive looking at reaction time, accuracy, memory, peripheral, vision, delayed responses. There is also a decision making as well built into this. The six tasks on a computerized assessment looks at 22 weighted measures. As it relates to the cognitive functions required to drive safe. The score that's provided from this machine is only part of the evaluation, the individual.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (18m 29s):
Then it would be required to go into an on-road evaluation. The on-road evaluation, the course that's designed is also designed to push the individual's cognitive functions. So the same 22 way that measures and the vitals assessment, we are pushing those same measures on the onboard evaluation. During the onboard evaluation we are going to be looking at as it competency defining errors or are they trainable? There is, it's a big difference between the two. If there are companies seem to be finding errors, they are going to have a much higher score, high score, high risk, low score, and a lower it's that computerized assessment that gets produced, takes those two scores and combines them together, providing the company with an overall risk score based on their on-road experience, but also the office and fight it.
2 (19m 15s):
Those, how can you discuss with them
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (19m 18s):
At the end of the company, we'll then have a decision to make, okay. Is the score high enough based on our standards and just based on the industry standards for this program that we would recommend this person go to their family doctor to provide supporting documentation, or is the score low enough? Are we just gonna look at what some of these trainable bad habit errors are focused on the reentry for the driver on these trainable at habit errors and is there an additional followup required? So it really, it does help with managing the driver and force, but also identifying the highest risk of drivers in the bucket, which, and working on that, the whole process I've got to believe the insurance industry would love something like this.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (20m 3s):
I hope so. Yeah. We've gotten a lot of a kit I'm going to speak to for insurance companies, but there's interest from a lot of different groups, a lot of companies that they have shown in Sierra, the extreme interest in this program, Impirica themselves. They have a large number of clients if their own, and DriverCheck now supporting were onboarding clients for this program to, for them. So I do for me, I do see this as a kind of assessment of the future. Right now we have it available. It's something that fills a lot of gaps that companies have explained that, you know, they've got these safety programs in place, but there's still having a significant number of incidents.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (20m 41s):
They believe that they have a good system of Safety in place, but drivers that are still having issues like heart attacks on the road or a fatality is because of sudden incapacitation and they feel well, why can't we predict this? Why don't is there not a tool that can help us identify these potential hazards? And this tool finally offers companies and organizations, a proactive tool to hopefully scream Drivers in time to be able to identify that this person is at the highest risk and manage that risk.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (21m 13s):
So reduce claims or reduce incidents, driver, retention, support and drivers that are healthy population and safety on the road is all kind of in the forefront of this program. And helping companies realize that they're not alone. They have support to manage at risk population of Drivers, which ranges from 25 years old, all the way up to 70 anybody in this age range can be at risk and just help you we're here to help. Yeah.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (21m 40s):
Is, is it more predominant in older people or, I mean, I'm an old guy. So I'm just wondering about, because our driver force is a, they'd say the average age is 55. So we are an old group.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (22m 0s):
Well, the met certain medical conditions like dementia Parkinson's disease typically fall under an older group Drivers but there are a younger group of drivers to, that could be suffering from sleep apnea that could be suffering from depression that could be suffering from other medical afflictions cancer. So there was a lot of different things that are medical conditions that somebody could be suffering through our, or having a reflection and not even know diabetes, diabetes is not age dependent.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (22m 33s):
So it really is not focusing solely on a, a, an age group of saying 55 plus are the highest risk it's not at all. And saying that 55 plus does have a natural decline to their cognitive function. Based on that model of 26, it's a natural declined down. We had the program, his age norms, or to defend that your cognitive decline, we will be there. And we identified that. But what were looking for is are you at the age of 55 scoring the same as other healthy, normal cognitive functions?
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (23m 6s):
I don't send any two 55 and basing using that as a baseline and then determining where you fall on that scale. So it's not looking at the group, have an older driver population. It's looking at every single person and what they may not know about themselves or something they might not be disclosing, like decided not to use their medication that does come off as well.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (23m 29s):
A and you mentioned depression, mental illness. I got to believe we're, we're recording this in the middle of COVID and I've got to believe its a real tough job right now for truck drivers, especially who cross a border and even their family's have to be effected with mental stress at the moment. So this would help identify a driver.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (23m 59s):
Who's suffering a little bore from the stress.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (24m 4s):
If yeah, if they are affected enough by the stress of what's going on, you would hope that companies would have proactive programs in place like the FAP program. We are live in employee and family assistance program to provide a confidential Avenue for their employees to seek out a support. But then you don't have to tell their employer. They are using it. They were just use it on their own time. Before something gets to the point where the company has identified a significant performance issue or some type of Risk on the road.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (24m 36s):
But then if somebody is identified to have significant performance decline and maybe it is due to depression, the score high on the test on their vitals assessment, beyond the evaluation, they are scored high as well. The risk score is above the threshold. The company has set based on industry standard, a flight through Impirica the individual, then be recommended to go seek a specialist of their doctor or somebody's to address whatever it is afflicting. Then again, not diagnosing what it is, but just giving them a tool to say the risk level that's identified is, is higher than what were able to take on or here to support you in the next steps and recommendation R and then here's the recommendations is the person then goes two other doctor and says, I am depressed.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (25m 23s):
They finally now have talked to somebody in sometimes talking to somebody that is more than anything, a new medication or anything else that people can offer. Just being able to get that off your chest, then I'm depressed. I have a substance abuse disorder or, you know, I have this affliction that I'd been hiding for years or something to get off your chest, to talk to somebody's sometimes to bring us to the forefront, then you don't want it to, but it sometimes just having the opportunity to discuss it, isn't enough to get the gift, the person going in the right direction.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (25m 53s):
All right, lets go back to Cognitive Testing I'm really interested as a risk manager, the road test part, how would I be trained if I'm a road test or how do I become a Cognitive road tester? Or if that's the right. I don't know what the right. Yeah.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (26m 12s):
Right. Well that's fine yet. So if the idea of behind the program, when it comes to the road, evaluation is we start with your horse. Every trucking company has there own rope route or mapped out area where they want to take the Drivers to evaluate them even have their own road evaluators. It has the driver evaluators write. So the idea of behind the program has to take that course that your company is already developed, evaluate it and add to it.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (26m 42s):
If the Impirica team feel that there is a components that are missing, that are required to push someone's cognitive function. So the courses that develop for the company, which standardized is the road course evaluation. So there's not a variance by a driver to driver or a evaluator to evaluate it's a standard course design for that company. So there's a standardization, the rote evaluators. Then you decide to buy the company or the driver evaluators. They would then be trained by the Impirica team on the course on the scoring system as well.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (27m 17s):
And the subjective part as well. So really they're not they're to evaluate somebody's cognitive function. They're not trained to state that this person is cognitive to be effected. They are only trained to be able to fill out the new form because it's going to be a different form than what they're used to, how to fill it out properly. How to do the evaluation, how to upload the information into the computerized system and the subjective part. Where does that come in and identifying whether it conditions, certain things that do you play a factor into the motivation they become certified through Impirica as Rhode evaluators that are trained on the program.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (27m 54s):
It doesn't still mean that their a hundred percent qualified and he wrote a value is I've heard jokes from other trucking companies saying that there should be more training or a road evaluators a any of every month to evaluator, but they upload the score into the system, the check marks and Actually and this the system score's the driver not be evaluated. So it takes it away. A lot of that subjective opinion that companies also have admitted that really does leave them in a position where a terminal in Ontario will score differently than a terminal in Quebec or out in Alberta that there's no consistency to their onboarding driver evaluators or all different as well, really to standardize the program and then takes that a subjective, only opinion.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (28m 39s):
I will go to the process and makes it a scientifically validated objective score that the company uses to identify risk. So that is where the role of course comes up.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (28m 51s):
That's pretty cool. So what else do I need to know to understand this whole thing about Cognitive Testing
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (29m 2s):
You read the 289 page Canadian council or a motor transportation's the fitness to drive document they're there is a 269 times in that document and a 284 page document. I think it is it references the word cognition or Cognitive 269 times, just to give you an idea about how involved cognition is in driver dilations and eight years of being in the industry and the working with DLT trucking companies and a nine year two trucking companies.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (29m 37s):
This is really the first time in the last 10 minutes. Now that I've really, truly started understand this part of the, of evaluations, this So I. I think one of the easiest things to do with just reach out to DriverCheck asked for some more information, their self education tools. You can go too. You can even go to the impirica.tech T E C H. So Impirica Don tech. Website, there's a lot of great tools on their to look at it. The videos of the actual in an office, computer assessments, explanation of the program, case studies that they've done with companies also, they have Interviews they've done like this.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (30m 18s):
They go to Interviews posted on their website as well. How are you? You can contact, DriverCheck asked for Chris. Wilkinson not to pluck myself there, but yeah, I think that might be the easiest spot to start. If you want to just start touching on what does cognition really mean for the commercial Drivers and what do companies or should they know when they're considering this type of program?
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (30m 39s):
That's cool. And of course we've got your contact info in the show notes below. So if somebody is interested, if you've got your a, I believe you supplied the phone number and you're email and all that kind of stuff, a will put a link to the website that you just named. And so if somebody wants to do that, that will be in the show notes below. chris' awesome. This is a topic that fascinates me because I'm a risk manager and with my background and insurance and everything, its one hell of a risk to drive a truck at any time and all these tools, if we can help identify drivers and help them become just better at their profession.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (31m 26s):
That's a great thing.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (31m 30s):
All right.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (31m 30s):
The last word, what would you need? Anything else?
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (31m 36s):
Ah, sure. Yeah, the last word. So there's a something that we use in the presentation when you are talking about the accelerating program and its the a social contract of trust when we're driving on the road and a social contract have trust is that we believe, and we trust that all people driving around the same road, it's not as us are fit to operate, including their vehicles, but also themselves and trucking companies spend a lot of money on making sure that there fleet is maintained and manage.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (32m 12s):
Some companies will every three years they get, they get rid of the road vehicles and they get new trucks every six years are. And they have huge a shops in a mechanic shop is to work on there. Trucks. I know during COVID, a lot of companies were saying, they've got the whole fleet in, we have the yard there or fixing up every single Truck during this time. Well spent a lot of money on making sure their trucks are fit and ready to go, but not a lot of time and energy spent on. Drivers not, it's not meant to spent on the mental health of Drivers. It's not spend it on the health of Drivers just the physical health.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (32m 45s):
I know there's a lot more programs out there, but there's not a lot of programs that actually look at the periodic wellness of their drivers. So that's something that I would say to companies is not, you know, when we were looking at how to improve your risk in your, your pains and your, and your incidents that maybe it's the truck's might be in working order, but really it's a community started focusing more on your Drivers and making sure that they're, that is to drive,
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (33m 8s):
Right? And this is the beauty of DriverCheck you do a lot more than drug testing because that's what I think of when I hear DriverCheck all you do, the random is you do the preemployment and then in the post accident, but this is way beyond the services provided here for cognitive testing. And some of the other things that DriverCheck now provides is way beyond drug testing.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (33m 37s):
All right. That's what we're getting to. Yeah. We're definitely expanding in our service offerings now. Here's my last look drivercheck.ca think that is going to be on the blog on two. Right. Do I have to take.ca a and you'll see those a lot of great information and we're constantly updating our websites, especially with COVID related services and support we have going on, uhh, were involved in the Ontario pilot for a COVID testing for the trucking industry, with the Ontario health. So it has a lot of information that can find on our website for that.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (34m 7s):
And very soon were going to be in launching the accelerate program. This one were talking about cognitive assessments, all on the website as well. So that's going to be there too.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (34m 16s):
Awesome. Chris thanks so much for taking the time to come on the doggone it. So I appreciate it very much. And your contact information will be in the show notes below.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (34m 28s):
Thank you. Thanks for having me is the first time and I hope I get invited back. Let's say yeah.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (34m 35s):
Hope you loved the show. As much as I did, please leave us a, like a thumbs up a review or a comment, a reading it. Thank you so much, but I do really appreciate you're time and join us again next week for another
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (34m 51s):
Exciting.
In the social contract have trust is that we believe, and we trust that all people driving on the same road is known as us are fit to operate.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (11s):
And that is Chris Wilkinson from DriverCheck. And not only is he talking about the social contract have trust that we all have while driving on our roads in our highways, we are also talking about cognitive testing and how it can reduce the risk of a fleet from having a crash. So if that's something that interests you stay tuned now let's get on with the Dawg On It Trucking Pawedcast
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (35s):
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (40s):
Welcome to the Dawg On It Trucking Pawedcast I'm your host, Chris Harris Safety Dawg and When it comes to trucking safety. The dawg is on it, please. If you would show your appreciation for the podcast by leaving a thumbs up a comment or a rating, it will help me so much. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate you now. Lets get all of that.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (1m 11s):
Hey Chris.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (1m 13s):
So we got to Chris's on the show. This will be confusing me
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (1m 16s):
If it's going to get confusing. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (1m 19s):
Mr. Wilkinson welcome to the Dawg On It Trucking Pawedcast and we are here talking about cognitive testing, something that Jeremy brought up and I know nothing about, so it's awesome to have you on the show to explain this to both me and the viewers Chris come on in and tell us a little bit about yourself and how did you land at DriverCheck
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (1m 51s):
All right, so it's great to be here. Thank you so much is the first time it might be in the allowed on this show. So I take that as a privilege I've worked with DriverCheck now for just about three and a half years. Been in the fitness for duty drug and alcohol testing industry though for about eight. And I came over to DriverCheck when they bought the company I was working for So I came over with him with an acquisition. I was competing against DriverCheck before, but now I'm very happy to be part of this, a wonderful team.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (2m 21s):
So let's say that's how I got into being a part of DriverCheck and I'm my official title at DriverCheck is a program consultant, which is a sales account management and, and then also other project management, like the cognitive testing program, we are going to talk today. Yeah.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (2m 38s):
So let's not move but bit by bit yet. And I don't edit these things out, but let's get right into the Cognitive Testing because I don't know anything about it. Why would a trucking company, well explain first what it is.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (2m 58s):
All right. So cognitive assessments for commercial Drivers is just, one is one of three types of assessments that should be conducted on commercial driver's when they're being qualified for their license, they look at the CC MTA medical standards. So the Canadian council motor or transportation medical standards looks at sensory motor and cognitive function. As there are three areas to determine whether or not somebody who's fit to operate and or if somebody goes for their license, they would, they typically would get their sensory and motor or assessed.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (3m 37s):
But a cognitive functions may be missed because they're are a little bit harder to identify.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (3m 43s):
So give me an example of a cognitive function, right? So we'll cognitive functions. Yeah.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (3m 49s):
All under the law and behaviors, reaction, time, peripheral vision, short term, long term memory. So everything that you do when you're driving a vehicle and it falls into what you are, how you use it with your cognition, we take advantage of the fact that we have a healthy cognition while we do, and then we're operating even our own personal vehicle, our cognition as being overwhelmed, but we're able to balance that overwhelmed cognitive functions by overcompensating for certain things.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (4m 21s):
If there's a lot of stimuli going on while we're driving, we can overcome that stimuli by focusing on what's necessary to be safe. If there's bad weather, then we're focusing harder on a safe driving, our speed, gauging our distance. So we can do that. And we can react naturally to the elements and two, the environment, loud music, playing kids, screaming in the background, trying to tune that out while we were, while we were driving. Now, if somebody does not have a healthy cognition, they start to become overwhelmed by all that stimulus that come in and it puts somebody at a very high risk situation.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (5m 1s):
So that's, that's where the cognitive functions comes into play, where most people do have healthy cognition or can be affected in minor ways. But there are still our individuals who are not knowing that they have significant cognitive deficits and they are operating on the road. And so this program is designed to help identify, mitigate those risks, but then also to help people get maybe the medical treatment they need by identifying these underlying medical issues and then getting them back to work as a healthy contributor to the company.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (5m 33s):
Yeah.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (5m 34s):
Is this a way to root out old? Drivers like me now?
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (5m 39s):
Not at all. Thank you. Good question. No, the program has not geared towards a specific group of people. The idea is that everybody at any age can have cognitive decline. There is a natural progression starting at age 26 on where we start having this actual natural decline have cognitive functions till you are older, but the program is an age norm devaluation. So we're not assessing somebody's based on age. If your 70, you are going to be assessed against another seven year old as a healthy cognitive function.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (6m 14s):
If you're 30, you are going to be assessed against another 30 year old who has healthy cognitive assessments function. So it's age norms in that sense, that natural decline that is taken into consideration. And with the science that backs this program years of research research was first started out at the university of Alberta. It may be able to develop a science to support the fact that if you are a screening high and I have a risk that they're is maybe something a not diagnosing, but maybe identified that there, maybe it is concerned with the driver could then be removed temporarily from work identified, go there for the doctor, identify that they might have a underlying medical condition and hopefully get that resolved and come back to work and be safe.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (7m 2s):
Nope. That's kind of cool. I would say so we're talking about safe driving. Yeah,
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (7m 9s):
But the focus has Safety yeah, absolutely. When would a company use it?
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (7m 14s):
Cognitive Testing is that at the higher? Yeah,
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (7m 18s):
So that it can be used at different parts of the employment. So it can be either a prescreening tool because of this tool looks at it, the functional capabilities have a driver, the bonafide occupational requirements of the driver to be able to safely operate a vehicle. This is a qualifying tool to see if somebody is even qualified to continue on through the recruiting process.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (7m 40s):
That's from their yeah.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (7m 42s):
Higher. Now you have a driver on board, you have a baseline tests that was done in at the preemployment stage. And then you can have periodic evaluations now with your Drivers at different stages, depending on different companies. And that's something that's really big for this program to, is that for a fitness, for duty assessments, we haven't really been able to offer companies' a periodic evaluation check to have a spot in their schedule to say every two years or every three years or every five years were gonna do an evaluation.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (8m 14s):
All of our drivers too, get an understanding of if there is something that's not going diagnosed, or if they had any performance decline that is not being identified. And then they can get this risk score and work with the Drivers two, either state that all of a competency to finding errors or trainable errors. And with those two key identifiers, then develop a return to work strategy for five or who may be. It does have some deficits in there for performance. We can also use this program for a performance declines.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (8m 45s):
So if you do have somebody who, who are seeing us as having significant performance declined, this program can be used as a discovery tool, a reasonable cause situations where dealing with drug and alcohol testing, we can use it in most scenarios, as well as a continuation to the investigation of why someone who was unfit post-incident in situations will be different for every company too. And how you define are able to use this program. But if there is somebody that maybe as in a fatality, in a situation or a very, very bad accident, incidence, the person returning to work may still be rattled from that incident.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (9m 20s):
So do you mean this evaluation gives you a score, a risk score where their cognitive functions are at before you put them back in the vehicle to hopefully avoid that second, the incident that is potentially going to happen to somebody who's still affected by that last incident. And then we have returned to work programs, follow up on an M we have a follow up testing, they have reassessment testing. And so there's a lot of little touch points for this program, but really the three keys I would say is the pre hire, the periodic evaluations.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (9m 50s):
And then performance declined really gives the company significant tool two as a predictive Risk tool to a state that before a risk incident happens, we now have something that can hopefully mitigate that risk and reduce claims. There's a significant return on investment with this program as well. So I know myself personally, I'm very excited to be championing this at DriverCheck and being a part of the program in the program is actually through a company called Impirica based out of Alberta, formerly called drive.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (10m 22s):
Abel just changed their name two Impirica. So we were actually just working with them to help get the word on this program because of how much we believe it is.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (10m 31s):
All right. So I'm confused. Still give me an example of reduced Cognitive function, I guess.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (10m 41s):
Yeah. So confusion, disorientation. So then I'll give you a couple stories maybe that might happen. Yeah. Well it's on the perspective, right? So I'm a client of mine had a driver. They were calling in to dispatch to say, I'm lost. I don't know where I am. And the company had noticed that there had been some kind of performance decline, some, a confusion leading up to this point. But now that the driver is somewhere to save it somewhere and they are now last on the highway, they had no idea where there are.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (11m 16s):
So they ended up managing the situation, having a person all over on that truck had them come back to the company. Office, went for an evaluation, which caused thousands of dollars to do a independent medical assessment on the person. And it was discovered that they were in late stages of dementia. So the driver, unfortunately it was in a position where they were no longer able to drive and there was an extreme risk for the driver to be on the road. Luckily, the dispatch were able to communicate through the safety managers ahead of time, this tool where it could've come in to maybe be a predictor of this situation happening is when they first identified some of these performance decline situations near misses.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (11m 58s):
They could have proactively done a, a, a accelerate vitals assessment, which is a cognitive computerized assessment to see what that risk score look like off of that machine alone, off of that test alone. And then there was a second component to which is a quote on quote evaluation, but it also pushes their cognitive function to see what their overall risk score is based on the functional capabilities, but is a driver who was their late stages of dementia of this program can be potentially identify a risk with that driver.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (12m 28s):
So then that could have been identified as well. Maybe it was still early stages of dimension. Another situation. Then there was a driver who was one of the top performers for a company. They were a blessing company. And as they were driving one day, they were showing lots of signs of, of swerving near misses and bad patrons contacted the company to say, this person I'm a big is fit to drive. So the company I had the driver come back to the yard, did the vitals in office, a computerized cognitive assessment and scored extremely high risk.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (13m 3s):
So the person was advised to go back to the C their doctor, the doctor sent them to the hospital the next day for some tests. And then that person end up going in for a triple bypass surgery because they were having blood clots. They weren't getting enough oxygen to the brain and now their back to work. And there is a functioning, a new employee of the company, my functioning employee in the company, there is also a sleep apnea situation. Does that come up to where somebody is suffering from sleep apnea, they are having a performance decline, confusion. They are having stress, fatigue, hours of service.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (13m 37s):
They can meet their hours of service because they're too tired. And then this whole is performance declining. Why are they are having it? Is it because of the apathy for the job? Or is it because of just, you know, sick of driving or is it a medical condition, is a drug and alcohol related? What is it so doing this test will identify a risk score. And then from there it's identified it from their doctor or a specialist, whether or not they have sleep apnea, whatever the medical condition is, they manage that. And then they're a healthy contributor coming back.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (14m 8s):
So its supposed to be a S program have support. That's the idea. He's not here to take drivers' off the road. It's Here to identify drivers. You might be at the highest risk, help them identify that, come to reason with that. And then hopefully they seek assistance from their doctor to get treatment if that's what's needed and then come back to work. Cause we want the driver's we need the drivers, but we also need safe drivers on it.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (14m 35s):
Oh we need safe drivers. And as somebody who has sleep apnea and a, I mean yeah, I use my CPAP machine every night. I know how that can affect me. So your saying that if I was a participant in the Cognitive Testing it would likely help identify my sleep apnea before my medical doctor did
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (15m 4s):
What it will do. It does. So the program doesn't diagnose medical problems or a drug and alcohol problems with her divides a risk score, two, the company to make the determination, whether or not somebody's is to hire a risk, to continue drive it at that time it's then the responsibility of the employee to go to their doctor or a specialist or whomever. They see a is available. Whoever a family doctor I think would be the easiest one to start the discovery process, they may tell the doctor, here's the idea of a risk score from this cognitive assessment program?
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (15m 37s):
My, my employer's asked me to follow up with my doctor. The doctor says, well, what's going on? And they explained that they're not sleeping. That they snore that they, whatever else they come up with the doctor then hopefully will identify, okay, well we are going to send you for sleep studies. If your having cognitive deficits to the point that you've been removed from duty temporarily based on this risk score. And you're telling me that you have these medical terms of a medical condition with this sleep apnea, let's get you tested to see if that's what it is.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (16m 8s):
We, there is also scenarios where it, somebody not using their medication prescribed medication for inflection, right? Or somebody who's Mmm. Not compliant with their diet diabetes treatment. So there's, there's a lot of different reasons why somebody could screen high on this. But again, we're not looking for looking for actual cognitive decline, right? I'm looking for someone who has, who didn't sleep very well before its looking for somebody who, who was actually potentially afflicted by a medical condition or substance abuse disorder or something along those lines against aiding.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (16m 40s):
That is not a diagnostic tool. We're not diagnosing sleep apnea. It's screening Risk so that the company can use that as a predictive tool before the incident, hopefully happens' to support their employees. Right.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (16m 51s):
So what is, what's the definition of Cognitive? Is it just mental processing?
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (17m 1s):
Yeah. I'd have to look up the actual definition. Yeah. I don't know it off the top of my head. I should know it. That's one of the things I'll study. I have a toddler. Yeah.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (17m 10s):
So what is it you're testing when you mentioned there's two parts of the test I a computerized part and then I believe you can get into a road test.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (17m 22s):
That's right. So it's so the there's two components to the accelerate program, which is the Cognitive assessment program. The first one is an in office and vitals assessment. That's what it's called. And it takes a computer. It's a computer evaluation. That's all based on touch screen. So at the individual being evaluated does not have to have any computer skills. The idea as well is that there's also an instructor who was there with them explaining every single task and even providing them with an opportunity to practice the task before the actually are evaluated.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (17m 56s):
So there are six computerized assessments that are completed and they've all relate to the functional skills required to drive looking at reaction time, accuracy, memory, peripheral, vision, delayed responses. There is also a decision making as well built into this. The six tasks on a computerized assessment looks at 22 weighted measures. As it relates to the cognitive functions required to drive safe. The score that's provided from this machine is only part of the evaluation, the individual.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (18m 29s):
Then it would be required to go into an on-road evaluation. The on-road evaluation, the course that's designed is also designed to push the individual's cognitive functions. So the same 22 way that measures and the vitals assessment, we are pushing those same measures on the onboard evaluation. During the onboard evaluation we are going to be looking at as it competency defining errors or are they trainable? There is, it's a big difference between the two. If there are companies seem to be finding errors, they are going to have a much higher score, high score, high risk, low score, and a lower it's that computerized assessment that gets produced, takes those two scores and combines them together, providing the company with an overall risk score based on their on-road experience, but also the office and fight it.
2 (19m 15s):
Those, how can you discuss with them
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (19m 18s):
At the end of the company, we'll then have a decision to make, okay. Is the score high enough based on our standards and just based on the industry standards for this program that we would recommend this person go to their family doctor to provide supporting documentation, or is the score low enough? Are we just gonna look at what some of these trainable bad habit errors are focused on the reentry for the driver on these trainable at habit errors and is there an additional followup required? So it really, it does help with managing the driver and force, but also identifying the highest risk of drivers in the bucket, which, and working on that, the whole process I've got to believe the insurance industry would love something like this.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (20m 3s):
I hope so. Yeah. We've gotten a lot of a kit I'm going to speak to for insurance companies, but there's interest from a lot of different groups, a lot of companies that they have shown in Sierra, the extreme interest in this program, Impirica themselves. They have a large number of clients if their own, and DriverCheck now supporting were onboarding clients for this program to, for them. So I do for me, I do see this as a kind of assessment of the future. Right now we have it available. It's something that fills a lot of gaps that companies have explained that, you know, they've got these safety programs in place, but there's still having a significant number of incidents.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (20m 41s):
They believe that they have a good system of Safety in place, but drivers that are still having issues like heart attacks on the road or a fatality is because of sudden incapacitation and they feel well, why can't we predict this? Why don't is there not a tool that can help us identify these potential hazards? And this tool finally offers companies and organizations, a proactive tool to hopefully scream Drivers in time to be able to identify that this person is at the highest risk and manage that risk.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (21m 13s):
So reduce claims or reduce incidents, driver, retention, support and drivers that are healthy population and safety on the road is all kind of in the forefront of this program. And helping companies realize that they're not alone. They have support to manage at risk population of Drivers, which ranges from 25 years old, all the way up to 70 anybody in this age range can be at risk and just help you we're here to help. Yeah.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (21m 40s):
Is, is it more predominant in older people or, I mean, I'm an old guy. So I'm just wondering about, because our driver force is a, they'd say the average age is 55. So we are an old group.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (22m 0s):
Well, the met certain medical conditions like dementia Parkinson's disease typically fall under an older group Drivers but there are a younger group of drivers to, that could be suffering from sleep apnea that could be suffering from depression that could be suffering from other medical afflictions cancer. So there was a lot of different things that are medical conditions that somebody could be suffering through our, or having a reflection and not even know diabetes, diabetes is not age dependent.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (22m 33s):
So it really is not focusing solely on a, a, an age group of saying 55 plus are the highest risk it's not at all. And saying that 55 plus does have a natural decline to their cognitive function. Based on that model of 26, it's a natural declined down. We had the program, his age norms, or to defend that your cognitive decline, we will be there. And we identified that. But what were looking for is are you at the age of 55 scoring the same as other healthy, normal cognitive functions?
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (23m 6s):
I don't send any two 55 and basing using that as a baseline and then determining where you fall on that scale. So it's not looking at the group, have an older driver population. It's looking at every single person and what they may not know about themselves or something they might not be disclosing, like decided not to use their medication that does come off as well.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (23m 29s):
A and you mentioned depression, mental illness. I got to believe we're, we're recording this in the middle of COVID and I've got to believe its a real tough job right now for truck drivers, especially who cross a border and even their family's have to be effected with mental stress at the moment. So this would help identify a driver.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (23m 59s):
Who's suffering a little bore from the stress.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (24m 4s):
If yeah, if they are affected enough by the stress of what's going on, you would hope that companies would have proactive programs in place like the FAP program. We are live in employee and family assistance program to provide a confidential Avenue for their employees to seek out a support. But then you don't have to tell their employer. They are using it. They were just use it on their own time. Before something gets to the point where the company has identified a significant performance issue or some type of Risk on the road.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (24m 36s):
But then if somebody is identified to have significant performance decline and maybe it is due to depression, the score high on the test on their vitals assessment, beyond the evaluation, they are scored high as well. The risk score is above the threshold. The company has set based on industry standard, a flight through Impirica the individual, then be recommended to go seek a specialist of their doctor or somebody's to address whatever it is afflicting. Then again, not diagnosing what it is, but just giving them a tool to say the risk level that's identified is, is higher than what were able to take on or here to support you in the next steps and recommendation R and then here's the recommendations is the person then goes two other doctor and says, I am depressed.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (25m 23s):
They finally now have talked to somebody in sometimes talking to somebody that is more than anything, a new medication or anything else that people can offer. Just being able to get that off your chest, then I'm depressed. I have a substance abuse disorder or, you know, I have this affliction that I'd been hiding for years or something to get off your chest, to talk to somebody's sometimes to bring us to the forefront, then you don't want it to, but it sometimes just having the opportunity to discuss it, isn't enough to get the gift, the person going in the right direction.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (25m 53s):
All right, lets go back to Cognitive Testing I'm really interested as a risk manager, the road test part, how would I be trained if I'm a road test or how do I become a Cognitive road tester? Or if that's the right. I don't know what the right. Yeah.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (26m 12s):
Right. Well that's fine yet. So if the idea of behind the program, when it comes to the road, evaluation is we start with your horse. Every trucking company has there own rope route or mapped out area where they want to take the Drivers to evaluate them even have their own road evaluators. It has the driver evaluators write. So the idea of behind the program has to take that course that your company is already developed, evaluate it and add to it.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (26m 42s):
If the Impirica team feel that there is a components that are missing, that are required to push someone's cognitive function. So the courses that develop for the company, which standardized is the road course evaluation. So there's not a variance by a driver to driver or a evaluator to evaluate it's a standard course design for that company. So there's a standardization, the rote evaluators. Then you decide to buy the company or the driver evaluators. They would then be trained by the Impirica team on the course on the scoring system as well.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (27m 17s):
And the subjective part as well. So really they're not they're to evaluate somebody's cognitive function. They're not trained to state that this person is cognitive to be effected. They are only trained to be able to fill out the new form because it's going to be a different form than what they're used to, how to fill it out properly. How to do the evaluation, how to upload the information into the computerized system and the subjective part. Where does that come in and identifying whether it conditions, certain things that do you play a factor into the motivation they become certified through Impirica as Rhode evaluators that are trained on the program.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (27m 54s):
It doesn't still mean that their a hundred percent qualified and he wrote a value is I've heard jokes from other trucking companies saying that there should be more training or a road evaluators a any of every month to evaluator, but they upload the score into the system, the check marks and Actually and this the system score's the driver not be evaluated. So it takes it away. A lot of that subjective opinion that companies also have admitted that really does leave them in a position where a terminal in Ontario will score differently than a terminal in Quebec or out in Alberta that there's no consistency to their onboarding driver evaluators or all different as well, really to standardize the program and then takes that a subjective, only opinion.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (28m 39s):
I will go to the process and makes it a scientifically validated objective score that the company uses to identify risk. So that is where the role of course comes up.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (28m 51s):
That's pretty cool. So what else do I need to know to understand this whole thing about Cognitive Testing
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (29m 2s):
You read the 289 page Canadian council or a motor transportation's the fitness to drive document they're there is a 269 times in that document and a 284 page document. I think it is it references the word cognition or Cognitive 269 times, just to give you an idea about how involved cognition is in driver dilations and eight years of being in the industry and the working with DLT trucking companies and a nine year two trucking companies.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (29m 37s):
This is really the first time in the last 10 minutes. Now that I've really, truly started understand this part of the, of evaluations, this So I. I think one of the easiest things to do with just reach out to DriverCheck asked for some more information, their self education tools. You can go too. You can even go to the impirica.tech T E C H. So Impirica Don tech. Website, there's a lot of great tools on their to look at it. The videos of the actual in an office, computer assessments, explanation of the program, case studies that they've done with companies also, they have Interviews they've done like this.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (30m 18s):
They go to Interviews posted on their website as well. How are you? You can contact, DriverCheck asked for Chris. Wilkinson not to pluck myself there, but yeah, I think that might be the easiest spot to start. If you want to just start touching on what does cognition really mean for the commercial Drivers and what do companies or should they know when they're considering this type of program?
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (30m 39s):
That's cool. And of course we've got your contact info in the show notes below. So if somebody is interested, if you've got your a, I believe you supplied the phone number and you're email and all that kind of stuff, a will put a link to the website that you just named. And so if somebody wants to do that, that will be in the show notes below. chris' awesome. This is a topic that fascinates me because I'm a risk manager and with my background and insurance and everything, its one hell of a risk to drive a truck at any time and all these tools, if we can help identify drivers and help them become just better at their profession.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (31m 26s):
That's a great thing.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (31m 30s):
All right.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (31m 30s):
The last word, what would you need? Anything else?
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (31m 36s):
Ah, sure. Yeah, the last word. So there's a something that we use in the presentation when you are talking about the accelerating program and its the a social contract of trust when we're driving on the road and a social contract have trust is that we believe, and we trust that all people driving around the same road, it's not as us are fit to operate, including their vehicles, but also themselves and trucking companies spend a lot of money on making sure that there fleet is maintained and manage.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (32m 12s):
Some companies will every three years they get, they get rid of the road vehicles and they get new trucks every six years are. And they have huge a shops in a mechanic shop is to work on there. Trucks. I know during COVID, a lot of companies were saying, they've got the whole fleet in, we have the yard there or fixing up every single Truck during this time. Well spent a lot of money on making sure their trucks are fit and ready to go, but not a lot of time and energy spent on. Drivers not, it's not meant to spent on the mental health of Drivers. It's not spend it on the health of Drivers just the physical health.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (32m 45s):
I know there's a lot more programs out there, but there's not a lot of programs that actually look at the periodic wellness of their drivers. So that's something that I would say to companies is not, you know, when we were looking at how to improve your risk in your, your pains and your, and your incidents that maybe it's the truck's might be in working order, but really it's a community started focusing more on your Drivers and making sure that they're, that is to drive,
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (33m 8s):
Right? And this is the beauty of DriverCheck you do a lot more than drug testing because that's what I think of when I hear DriverCheck all you do, the random is you do the preemployment and then in the post accident, but this is way beyond the services provided here for cognitive testing. And some of the other things that DriverCheck now provides is way beyond drug testing.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (33m 37s):
All right. That's what we're getting to. Yeah. We're definitely expanding in our service offerings now. Here's my last look drivercheck.ca think that is going to be on the blog on two. Right. Do I have to take.ca a and you'll see those a lot of great information and we're constantly updating our websites, especially with COVID related services and support we have going on, uhh, were involved in the Ontario pilot for a COVID testing for the trucking industry, with the Ontario health. So it has a lot of information that can find on our website for that.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (34m 7s):
And very soon were going to be in launching the accelerate program. This one were talking about cognitive assessments, all on the website as well. So that's going to be there too.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (34m 16s):
Awesome. Chris thanks so much for taking the time to come on the doggone it. So I appreciate it very much. And your contact information will be in the show notes below.
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (34m 28s):
Thank you. Thanks for having me is the first time and I hope I get invited back. Let's say yeah.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg (34m 35s):
Hope you loved the show. As much as I did, please leave us a, like a thumbs up a review or a comment, a reading it. Thank you so much, but I do really appreciate you're time and join us again next week for another
Chris Wilkinson, Driver Check (34m 51s):
Exciting
