Case Study: Stonbury

Stonbury – an agile, direct delivery specialist contractor to both the water industry and wider water environment – has invested in Intelligent Fingerprinting technology for its drug testing activities.

Using sweat from fingerprints, the Intelligent Fingerprinting drug screening system can detect the recent use of cocaine, cannabis, opiates and methamphetamine during the 16 hours or so prior to sample collection. The investment will enable Stonbury to bring screening in-house for the first time, replacing external drug testing services. Stonbury predicts that its investment in Intelligent Fingerprinting products – including the latest portable reader for analysing fingerprint drug test cartridges – will deliver a full Return on Investment within the first year.

Stonbury has purchased a DSR-Plus drug test reader and drug test cartridges from Intelligent Fingerprinting, enabling testing to be carried out in-house at its nine UK depots and numerous construction sites across the UK. The company is also sourcing alcohol breathalyser tests from Intelligent Fingerprinting. The company’s threeperson safety team will conduct the drug and alcohol tests themselves, with results provided in ten minutes on site. The system is highly transportable, enabling the Stonbury safety team to be even more responsive to company drug screening requirements including random, post-accident and for-cause testing.

Stonbury is an excellent example of a firm using drug and alcohol screening to support employee welfare. Testing is being used by Stonbury to ensure employees are fit for duty when handling the numerous different types of heavy plant such as diggers, drivers, dumpers; working at height and around bodies of deep water; and confined spaces. Not only is the company embarking on drug and alcohol testing, but it also has a wider support programme in place as part of its wellness programme.

Paul Turpin, Head of Safety, Health, Environment and Wellbeing at Stonbury says:

“By bringing our drug and alcohol screening in-house, we predict that our Intelligent Fingerprinting investment will pay for itself within the first year. We previously used third-party providers for our drug and alcohol testing but reviewed this service at the start of the pandemic to limit contact with external parties. After closely evaluating the market, Intelligent Fingerprinting was the standout choice, with their innovative fingerprint drug testing kit proving to be exceptionally easy to use and offering a compelling financial proposition.

With Intelligent Fingerprinting, for the first time we can complete our drug and alcohol screening in-house, allowing us to test wherever and how often we want to. This means that Stonbury can be reactive and flexible should there be the need for a for-cause screening. We have three people in our safety team, and we plan to equip each of them with their own fingerprint test kits by the end of year three.

While Stonbury is extremely innovative in its technology adoption, we were also impressed by the number of construction sector firms – including MPB Structures,  McCann Ltd and SDC Builders – that are already using Intelligent Fingerprinting’s solution. Unlike traditional tests, the fingerprint test doesn’t require additional infrastructure such as dedicated toilet facilities and gender-specific staff to supervise sample collection, which makes it an ideal solution for on-site testing while also supporting social distancing where required.”

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