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Safeway tests its drivers for alcohol

11th September 1997
Page 6
Page 6, 11th September 1997 — Safeway tests its drivers for alcohol
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by Rob Willock • Hung-over drivers face the sack from Safeway under a new daily alcohol testing scheme at the company's Tamworth regional distribution centre.

The six-month trial on agency drivers could signal a move towards more US-style testing of employees—Safeway is understood to be considering random drugs tests for its drivers (CM 1-7 May). It has set a blood-alcohol limit of 40mg/100m1—half the British legal limit and less than the equivalent of two units of alcohol.

"If a driver tests over 40mg he is not allowed to drive for the day," says a spokeswoman. "If he triggers 80mg he is banned from driving for Safeway for good." The agency drivers will also face a lifetime ban from the company if they are tested over 40mg on three occasions.

"The drivers often start so early they don't allow enough time for alcohol from the previous night to leave their systems," says the spokeswoman.

Based on the rule of thumb that the body loses one unit of alcohol per hour, a driver consuming 12 units (six pints of beer or six large whiskies) from 20:00hrs would still be over Safeway's limit at the beginning of a 06:00hrs shift.

The trial is only for agency drivers as there are difficult hurdles to cross, including contractual and union regulations, in testing staff Safeway: Ready to ban agency drivers who drink. drivers, according to Safeway. A spokesman for the United Road Transport Union applauds the sentiment behind the trial, but adds: "The trial is fraught with problems because it has non-standard limits which are not applied across the board." He suspects agency drivers will have little recourse against this "discrimination". E Although drinkdriving is down from a peak of 119,000 incidents in 1988, latest UK figures show that in 1995 there was an increase of 3% to 92,500 cases.

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