The Background Screening Report

Perhaps it's oversight, bureaucracy, or just plain refusal to face facts, but the lack of employee drug testing in the trucking industry is likely leading to the injury and death of employees and even innocent people.

Behind the wheel accidents account for the second leading cause of workplace fatality in this country. And, according to the article at Minneapolis' Star Tribune, the trucking industry isn't doing enough about it.

Employee drug testing is supposed to be enforced, but "shortcomings" in the industry are allowing some drivers to work without submitting urine samples, and allowing others to cheat.

In 2006, nearly 5,000 people were killed in crashes involving large trucks while 106,000 were injured. And, in a recent expose by Fox News, undercover investigators at 10 of 24 urine collection sites were not required to empty their pockets before providing a sample, an oversight that could easily allow for tampering of samples.

And of course, there are a lot of drivers who just don't show up for their testing, and haven't been punished for it.

By implementing stricter standards for employee drug testing countless lives could be saved, and injuries prevented; which is exactly why this aspect of background screening has become so popular in other workplace environments.

The biggest complaint that most employers make about background screening is that for quality checks they have to pay more. However, as the article at the New York Times makes clear, in many cases it costs them a lot more to skip such an important pre-hire step.

The article is full of hair-raising tales that any employer would find disturbing. One company paid $3 million dollars when they decided to skip out on background screening, and they only got $1 million of it back.

In another case, $250,000 worth of merchandise was lost over the course of several years before the managers of a hardware store figured out that something was wrong.

And with economy as it is, things could easily get worse.

This is why the article suggests that all potential hires go through quality background screening procedures, and in the case of even a "single lie" that resume should get thrown into the wastebasket.

Statistically, as layoffs increase employee theft will rise. As a result, it can cost a great deal more to skip background screening during times of economic depression, while paying for quality checks can literally save you millions.

A sudden rise in workplace accidents has legislators wondering, is OSHA doing enough to protect workers, and should employers be doing more to protect their employees?

In each case, by supplementing OSHA standards with quality background screening procedures, employers and legislator alike could rest assured that workplace safety is a top priority.

According to an article at the Las Vegas Sun, the death of 10 workers in the past 17 months reflects new pressures on the workforce, including a need for faster paced construction.

But in light of the $32 billion dollar building boom fueling the situation, isn't it also likely that background screening procedures have also been allowed to slip between the cracks?

Construction is infamously dangerous to begin with - background screening has never been as common as it should be, and the nature of the work itself has situated construction as one of the most dangerous fields of work in America.

Which is exactly why there needs to be stricter regulations in this field of work, whether that means higher fines from OSHA, or random drug testing for all employees.

In both cases, employers and employees alike could enjoy a safer workplace with fewer accidents, and even a lower rate of workers' comp claims and negligent hiring concerns.