Psychological Assessment for Bus Captain Selection

Bus drivers are parts of a safe transport environment. By selecting suitable humans for driving tasks, a work environment that boosts productivity and minimizes safety issues may be created. This paper reports the development and validation of the Bus Captain Aptitude Test (BCAT) for screening out bus captain applicants who have an inclination to drive aggressively in job selection process. The BCAT consists of 55 questionnaire items based on seven psychological factors which are considered as possible influencers of the disciplinary performance of drivers. A total of 387 bus captains are involved in completing the BCAT. The reliability assessment results show that the internal consistency reliability for all the seven factors in the BCAT is acceptable. Amongst the seven factors, the ‘impulsivity’ factor is significantly and negatively correlated with the disciplinary performance of the existing bus captains, implying a moderate level of the criterion-related validity of the BCAT. The results of reliability assessment and validity testing of the BCAT suggested that it is a psychologically sound instrument for effective bus captain selection.