On June 6th, 2014, the government of Colombia, as per the directive of President Juan Santos, proposed Resolution 1565. This mandate, when enacted, will go into effect June of this year.
Resolution 1565 will require all companies with fleet vehicles numbering over 10 in total to develop and maintain drug and alcohol testing programs. This mandate is part of a country-wide safety initiative.
What spurred this mandate were staggering statistics from 2010, in which over 5,000 deaths and more than 39,000 injuries occurred in Colombia because of vehicle collisions, some of which involved drunk driving.
President Juan Santos spoke about the new initiative in a recent interview: “I invite other departments and municipalities to work together to safeguard the integrity of Colombian citizens and all roads, streets and highways. We have also given until June for companies with more than 10 vehicles to implement their plans and we expect more than 7,000 utilities to join a new business culture where crime prevention and protection of life [is a priority].”
The government of Colombia also released a statement about what they consider to be the key factors behind an effective alcohol and drug control policy.
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