ASBURN, Va. Faced with an industrywide driver shortage, some motorcoach operators might be tempted to relax their hiring practices to get someone behind the wheel of their coaches quickly.

But that would be a bad mistake, warn industry safety and insurance experts who led several driver-related discussions at the annual United Motorcoach Association Safety Management Seminar here last month.

They said operators who rush to hire someone could end up with high-risk employees who might turn out to be a financial disaster, running up their insurance costs, increasing their accident claims, getting traffic tickets and tarnishing the reputation of their company.

"It's going to cost you money," stressed Bob Crescenzo of Lancer Insurance.

To avoid such hiring mistakes, he suggested operators develop advertising and recruiting strategies that attract good drivers. In addition, he recommended initiating hiring procedures that include carefully structured interviews, a detailed screening system, and road tests.

Such a process, he said, would allow operators to look for key signs among applicants such as aggression, impatience, inexperience, unhappy home life, medical problems, obesity, introverts, dishonesty and financial difficulties.

Drivers with those problems generally have the potential of driving dangerously, causing accidents and creating problems with customers.

"If you hire a driver who annoys your customers, what is that going to cost you?" he asked.

Despite the good hiring practices that most carriers follow, some high-risk drivers make it through the process and management needs to respond to those cases with monitoring and training programs in an effort to stay ahead of potential trouble.

"When you hire a driver with blemishes, you need to address the problem immediately," Crescenzo said.

Carmen Daecher of Daecher Consulting Group agreed, noting that the training should include classroom, behind the wheel and one-on-one sessions that focus on driving skills, responding to unplanned events and sustained safety performance.

He said the process also should include some remedial training, even if the employee is resistant to such basic or beginner lessons. "Some employees might think it is a 'put down,' but management must emphasize that employees must always perform to a crucial level," he added.

And, he stressed, drivers should be tested on what they learned during the training sessions because "you want to make sure they get it."

Tom Carrigan, former safety director at Greyhound Bus Line and now a safety consultant at Daecher Consulting, said operators should take steps to learn how to manage the behavior and attitudes of drivers who appear to have the potential of causing problems.

"You can't control their behavior but you can manage it," he suggested.

One good method, he said, is to install onboard video and audio event recorders so the driver's behavior can be monitored. Although some drivers might object, he said most of them eventually come to accept them because they realize the recorders could ultimately help them if they had an accident or other problem that was not their fault.

"The recorders eventually raise their consciousness level and their behavior and performance improve," he said.

Carrigan also suggested that good behavior management measures should include strong hiring procedures, setting clearly defined expectations for employees, treating everyone equally, and addressing problems quickly and consistently.

The shortage of drivers in the industry and increased possibility of higher risk individuals slipping through the hiring process should be enough motivation for operators to have good employee retention programs at their companies, according to Crescenzo.

He said such programs should not only include traditional features, such as competitive salaries and fringe benefits, flexible hours, good communications and promotional paths, but they should contain nontraditional ones as well.

Among those he said that have worked successfully for some companies is a ranking system that gives drivers titles such as "probationary driver," "driver" and "senior driver," and rewards them with higher pay as they move up.

Another is a program where drivers receive points when they get compliments from customers and lose them when the get complaints. At the end of each month or each quarter, drivers with the highest points receive gift or cash awards.

"You should try to eliminate the negative and find out why drivers are discouraged and unhappy and then see if you can adapt to their needs," he suggested. "Make it hard for them to leave."

Crescenzo suggested, too, that operators do exit interviews with everyone who leaves the company.

"If you don't know why your drivers are leaving your company, you may be missing the opportunity to obtain information from them," he added.