Now more than ever, a good driver-screening process is critical to your business’ anti-theft efforts. The prevailing driver shortage is making fleets more vulnerable to bad hires, and identity theft is skyrocketing across North America. What’s not to understand?

According to the FBI, there were an estimated 2.5 million identity thefts in the US in 2003, up from an estimated 200,000 two years earlier. If we scale the numbers for Canada, we might have upwards of 250,000 in Canada.

U.S. statistics showed that approximately 40 percent of load thefts happened during a new driver’s first two weeks of employment. So, as part of your regular driver hiring practices, you have to ask yourself whether your next hire is a potential thief.

If you’re not careful, your next hire could be heading out in your brand new Pete with a full load of consumer electronics, riding off into the sunset never to be heard from again.

If a qualified driver walks through your door looking for work, would it be possible to have that person behind the wheel in as little as 48 hours? I know many carriers that do put new hires in their trucks right off the bat — right at the time when employers should be most critical about their background-all because of the prevailing driver shortage.

Granted, you would be hard pressed to turn away anyone with a well-documented résumé; an employment history noting a list of quality past employers; copies of written references from past employers; a criminal background search; and a clean driver’s abstract.

But if an applicant seems too good to be true, beware. That’s when a good screening process will help you properly qualify new applicants.

How? Think like a thief. How could I concoct a life to impress a prospective employer.

First, I’d provide a list of the quality carriers that have supposedly employed me.

You’d need to ask yourself if I really did work for this list of industry leaders for the past 20-plus years, some of which may have –conveniently — gone out of business.

Did I provide you with proper company names, phone numbers and specific people to contact directly? Or did I simply provide you with a name and phone number of a criminal colleague who will provide you with a concocted reference?

Without direct access to a company’s HR or safety department, what can you do? For one thing, you can ask a driver to provide a written reference on company letterhead, or even copies of T-4 slips. This is your one reliable way to confirm the driver’s past employment.

Also, did I provide you with a copy of an out-of-province driver’s license? Never accept an out-of-province CDL without checking its validity.

Did I provide you with original copies of my driver abstract and criminal-record search documents? If you don’t have an “originals only” policy, you should. You should also make it policy to pull the commercial-driver abstract and request that I provide you with a letter from my private car insurer to review my driving history.

Immigrant applicants should provide an employer with an Interpol criminal-record search. A local police search is sufficient for a Canadian citizen but doesn’t provide enough history for a landed immigrant.

Hire only applicants that your HR department can reference properly. Any driver that provides only the names and phone numbers of past O/O employers should be considered unacceptable. The driver must be known to the carrier who contracted the O/O.

Ask for explanations for any employment gaps. You never know if an employment gap reflects a driver suspension or even jail time.

Speaking of which, be sure to question any candidate who indicates a past license suspension or criminal conviction. I have seen many applications over the years pass a front-line supervisor who simply missed this type of detail. Anyone hiring a new driver should read every word of a candidate’s application and résumé and request that missing details be justified or provided before moving any further in the hiring process.