Summer Drink Drug Campaign – More drink and drug drivers caught during the summertime than at Christmas. What can businesses do to safeguard their businesses and employees?
You might already be aware that police forces across the UK focus on drink and drug driving over the Christmas period. The campaign is known as Operation Limit.
For years it was left to individual police forces do their own thing. However, more recently, the initiative has been coordinated centrally by the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC).
The result is a much more concerted and joined up approach to catching drink and drugs drivers – and it’s working!
The latest initiative which took place over a 4-week period from 1st December 2023 resulted in 56,000 drink and drug tests being conducted at the roadside and over 6,600 arrests. In England and Wales, an astonishing 48.5% of drug tests conducted were positive compared with less than 10% for alcohol.
Operation Limit has been so successful, that this summer will see the first nationally coordinated Summer Drink Drug Drive Campaign.
What might come as a surprise to you is that there are more drink and drug driving arrests made during the summer months than there are during the festive period. However, a nationally coordinated approach is likely to result in even more summertime arrests for driving under the influence of drink or drugs or worse still, both.
Drink and drugs are very emotive subjects to address, especially for businesses. Road transport businesses have an even bigger headache because many of their workers are not confined to the safety and comfort of their own sites and offices.
They are instead on public roads, interacting with the general public whilst driving heavy goods vehicles, coaches, light commercial vehicles and cars.
Where these mobile safety critical workers are concerned, its more about the law than company policy. Making sure that they are legally fit to undertake their duties is critically important to any business which takes its moral, legal and reputational responsibilities seriously.
Focussing our attention on drug driving, if we ask our ourselves how exposed road transport businesses are to the risks, the answer most will come up with is significantly.
This is because the facts speak for themselves. For example, in some parts of the UK, over half of those caught drug driving are driving to work or for work. Further, 3 in every 4 (75%) of illegal substance users are in full-time employment.
The likelihood of someone on your workforce being unfit to work through drugs, whether that be during the summer, Christmas or any other time of year, is therefore higher than you might think.
As we approach the summer, and police forces from across the UK increase their focus on catching drink and drug drivers, it’s the ideal time to consider whether your business has the right policies, procedures and protections in place.
These solutions are not just about screening either – far from it in fact. They are as much about having the right policies in place, providing education and creating an effective deterrent as they are about detecting and addressing improper drug and drink use.
As well as being the UK distributor for DrugWipe, the global leader for police roadside driver drug screening and supplying all 43 police forces in England, Wales and Scotland, we also provide solutions to hundreds of safety conscious businesses.
Do you have the right policies, procedures and protections in place?
You perhaps won’t know if you don’t know what to look for. Contact our team today to find out about our unrivalled Drug and Alcohol Safety Service supported by experts who understand the challenges in protecting your business from the potential consequences for not addressing this sensitive subject.