Heavy Duty Trucking, June, 1998

Meet Michael Cantor, an Atlanta-based experimental psychologist, who has developed a four-minute written test that will tell you with amazing accuracy about a driver's ability to process information that affects driving skills and the likelihood to have accidents.

Cantor heads up WayPoint Research, Inc., specializing in performance improvement that measures a driver's ability and assesses the risk level of collisions/accidents without the person even getting behind the wheel.  The test can be given as part of the pre-hire screening process to tell you which candidates are high- or low- risk.  Objective: Hire only "star" drivers.

It can also be given to drivers during safety meetings as a way to tell you and each driver about his risk potential.  No reading is required to complete the test.  Based on his findings to date, Cantor says some fleets actually cut crash liability costs by an average of 25%.  Eastern Services Corp., a Columbus, GA-based trucking company, gave the test to 20 of its drivers.  Cantor identified eight as high risk.  He says a check of their records showed those eight had 18 accidents costing $22,000.  The other 12 had three accidents costing $600.

The test measures two variables.  The first is what Cantor calls channel capacity (how fast a driver can process information) :  "A copper wire  has low channel capacity compared to fiber-optics,"  says Cantor.  The test also measures situational awareness (the ability to get the big picture, like a great basketball player's ability to instantly "read" the whole court).

To have a low collision rate, there must be a match between channel capacity and situational awareness.  Cantor told me, as an example, that young drivers---especially teenagers---tend to have high channel capacity and, therefore, drive too fast for conditions because they don't have the situational awareness of senior experienced drivers.

When driving is generally fast and steady, typical of many over-the-road jobs, high channel capacity drivers are best.  For slower speeds and traffic congestion, low channel capacity is best.  In general, to reduce accidents, the type of driving a driver does should be matched to the driver's information processing profile.

In selecting new drivers, the WayPoint system ranks driver potential for over-the-road or local driving on a scale and identifies high-risk individuals who shouldn't be hired at all.  For existing drivers, the tests show which are high or low for the type of driving they're doing.  From that, fleet managers can direct training accordingly to help make drivers aware of their strong and weak characteristics.

"The test is about 80% accurate in picking out the high-collision driver," Cantor told me.  "The collision rate of drivers that WayPoint rejects is more than double those it accepts.  The profile of safe longhaul drivers differ from safe local delivery or urban drivers," he said.

The test is remarkably simple.  There are a series of numbers and letters on a blank background.  The test-taker must draw lines in a quick progression connecting "1" to "A" to "2" to "B" and so on.

"We're each born with a fast or slow ability to process information.  We can't change that rate, but once identified we can show you what to do to help become safer.  We're even identifying drivers who have backing accidents and others who take costly shortcuts such as jumping off loading docks."

If you are interested in getting more details, Michael Cantor, Ph. D. would be glad to talk with you.  You can mail him at WayPoint Research, Inc. 538 Burlington Road, Ste. B, Atlanta, GA  30307.  His phone is (404) 982-0011. Or you can e-mail him at mbcantor@waypointresearch.com.