Go-Ahead London is a provider of bus services throughout the capital with over 7,000 colleagues across 16 locations. They currently employ over 6,000 bus drivers.
1. Challenge
Go-Ahead London do all they can to ensure their employees are capable of providing a safe, professional and customer-focused service to London’s travelling public.
Safety is of the utmost importance, and duty of care is part of their DNA. Go-Ahead London have robust safety practices in place to ensure that colleagues do not report for duty, or drive, whilst under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
They continually seek ways to help monitor and manage colleagues to ensure this is the case.
3. Benefit
The introduction of the programme of random screening means that any colleague could be tested at any time and this acts as an effective deterrent to individuals. Employees find the test to be simple to use and quick to administer as the kit returns a result in just five minutes.
When carrying out “for cause” testing, this allows Go-Ahead London to quickly identify whether a driver was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
2. Solution
Go-Ahead London believed the introduction of a robust drug and alcohol screening solution was a vital step in ensuring their drivers were fit, capable and competent to carry out their duties. This meant randomly testing a percentage of all colleagues in line with TFL guidelines. The random screening was applicable to all employees across their driver, engineer or office-based workforce. D.tec assisted with policy development and went on to provide DrugWipe Dual screening kits to allow Go-Ahead London to implement their screening programme in a safe, scalable and reliable manner. DrugWipe Dual screening kits and Drager alcohol breath screening devices were also used for dignified and efficient “for cause” testing immediately following an incident at work.
4. Result
Go-Ahead London believe the introduction of random testing of all employees has led to a reduction in risk-taking across their workforce. Colleagues are mindful of the fact there is a possibility they could be tested when they arrive for their shift. This could be a random screen or a “for cause” screen if a manager believes their behaviour is of concern.
It has also been hugely beneficial to understand if any on road incidents have been linked to drug and alcohol misuse so the business can ensure employees are educated on the dangers of carrying out their duties whilst under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
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In-house, quick and reliable testing in just 5 minutes
Brand that has Home-Office drug-screening devices approved for police use
Any OH nurse or manager can test anyone at any time
Fully scalable, single or multiple site drug and alcohol screening solution