The Driver Behind the Wheel Matters. Here’s How We Know Ours Are Ready.

When your freight is on the road, it’s in someone’s hands. At Bison Transport, we’ve built a rigorous, data-driven process to make sure those hands belong to someone who is genuinely fit to drive, not just credentialed on paper.

Ask a shipper what they want from a carrier partner, and the answers are consistent: on-time delivery, damage-free freight, predictable costs, and no surprises. What’s less often discussed, but directly connected to all of those things, is the question of driver fitness. Not just whether a driver has a CDL and a clean abstract. Whether the person behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound truck has the cognitive capacity to make safe, split-second decisions on highways shared with everyone else.

That’s a question Bison takes seriously. Seriously enough that we built our own answer to it.

Why a CDL and a Road Test Aren’t Enough

The standard gatekeeping process for commercial drivers, a CDL, a DOT physical, and a road test, is a regulatory floor, not a safety ceiling. It was never designed to measure the cognitive dimensions of safe driving: reaction time, sustained attention, executive function, hazard recognition, and working memory. Those capabilities don’t show up on a license. They don’t appear in a medical examination. And in a courtroom, following the standard process provides limited protection when something goes wrong.

That gap is where Bison’s cognitive assessment program was built.

What We Test, and Why It Matters

Every driver we consider goes through an age-normed cognitive assessment that measures five core dimensions of mental performance: reaction time, attention, executive function, behavioural control, and baseline quality. The assessment takes five minutes. The data it generates informs every hiring decision we make.

Results place drivers into one of three categories: pass, range of inquiry, or fail.

For entry-level drivers, passing is a condition of hire. But the program is more nuanced than a simple gate. Experienced drivers who fall into the “range of inquiry” aren’t automatically disqualified; they’re placed into a customized development path. That might mean 90 days of simulator work, targeted coaching on hazard recognition, or specific awareness training around reaction time.

“Sometimes they may not even be aware that they have a delay in their reaction time,” said Stephanie Fensom, Bison’s Senior Manager of Safety. “That change of awareness also helps with the outcome.”

In a single week of a single terminal’s hiring activity, cognitive data shaped every decision differently: one applicant was declined based on a combination of road performance and cognitive scores; one was conditionally approved with in-cab camera requirements; two were enrolled in modified training programs built around their specific deficiencies; and two proceeded through standard orientation. No two drivers were treated identically, because no two drivers are identical.

That’s a meaningful departure from how most fleets make hiring decisions.

The Operational Case Is Equally Compelling

The safety argument alone justifies the program. But the operational outcomes reinforce it.

Since implementing cognitive testing, Bison’s entry-level driver training washout rate dropped from 26% to 7%. At an estimated $14,000 in cost per avoided washout, the lost time of in-cab instructors, the administrative burden, and the delayed lane coverage, that’s approximately $266,000 in savings in a single year.

Garth Pitzel, Bison’s Associate Vice President of Safety and Driver Development, explains why the instructor dimension matters so much: “The in-cab instructor is our most precious resource in this training process. We can’t get enough of them. You waste four weeks of an in-cab instructor; you never get those four weeks back.”

When cognitive screening ensures that instructors work only with drivers who have the mental aptitude to succeed, the entire training pipeline becomes more efficient, and the drivers who emerge from it are better prepared.

For shippers, that pipeline efficiency has a downstream effect: fewer under-qualified drivers in service, faster time-to-competency for new hires, and a fleet workforce that’s consistently performing at a higher level.

Age Is Not the Variable You Think It Is

One of the more counterintuitive findings from Bison’s program: age is a poor predictor of cognitive fitness for driving. Data from Impirica, the platform underpinning the assessment, shows cognitive aging can begin as early as 30, but a 24-year-old recovering from a concussion can represent a greater risk than a 68-year-old with sharp cognitive function.

“We have some 63-year-olds testing better than 23-year-olds,” Pitzel noted. “It is certainly not age-based.”

By adjusting for variables such as age and colorblindness, the assessment focuses strictly on current, functional cognitive fitness rather than on demographic proxies. That’s both fairer to drivers and more accurate for safety purposes.

Beyond Hiring: Fitness Over the Long Term

The program doesn’t stop at the hiring gate. Bison uses cognitive assessment as part of its return-to-work process for drivers returning from medical leave or injury, ensuring they remain functionally fit for duty before they’re placed back in service.

We’re also expanding the program across our entire fleet and building remote testing capability for U.S. operations.

What This Means for Your Freight

When you move freight with Bison, you’re not relying on a carrier that cleared a regulatory minimum and called it good. You’re working with a fleet that has invested in understanding, at an individual level, whether each driver behind the wheel is genuinely ready to be there.

That investment shows up in fewer incidents. It shows up in more consistent service. And it shows up in the kind of long-term safety record that’s built through deliberate process rather than good fortune.

Driver fitness is one of the most consequential variables in supply chain risk. At Bison, we measure it — because we believe your freight deserves nothing less.

Bison Transport is one of North America’s leading carriers, operating across Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Ranked No. 37 on the CCJ Top 250, Bison is built on a foundation of safety, professionalism, and continuous improvement.