The number of failed drug tests by truck drivers increased by more than 10 percent in 2021, and at least one study indicates the problem could be far worse.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) published its 2021 Clearinghouse report highlighting year-over-year violations and refusals between December 2020 and 2021. The total number of violations, refusals, and employer knowledge of using illicit drugs tallied 52,810 in 2020. In 2021, those same measures totaled 58,215.
All told, 93,425 CDL holders failed drug tests during the two-year span, with 15,330 refusing to take the test. Another 2,270 were reported as “actual knowledge” of drug use violations by employers. In December alone, 5,532 truckers failed the Clearinghouse drug test, up from 5,079 the previous year. Adding to the health and safety problem, an increased number of drivers also refused to participate.
“It gives us the bad name so anybody on a roadway that sees a truck on the roadway, they’re instantly that same person, and that’s not true. There’s more good than there is bad, and it’s the good ones that try to get rid of the bad ones that ruin it for us,” commercial truck driver Tom Burdick reportedly said. “It’s a lot of freedom, but with that can come bad choices, so it’s going up with that freedom and knowing you have to make the right choices every time.”
Alcohol misuse also ticked up from 2020 to 2021, according to Clearinghouse data. Failed alcohol tests hovered at 1,122 in 2020. They rose to 1,422 in 2021, and the number of refusals went from 260 to 313. After adding in truckers in the “actual knowledge” category of alcohol misuse, the two-year total of potentially intoxicated truck drivers stood at 2,544. More than 104,800 drivers incurred at least one Clearinghouse violation over the two-year period. More than 81,000 truckers reportedly remain sidelined because they have not fulfilled return-to-duty requirements.
But what may be more troubling is a study put forward by Trucking Alliance and the University of Central Arkansas (UCA). The research indicates that drug abuse and alcohol misuse may be far more prevalent than the Clearinghouse report suggests. According to Doug Voss, a professor of Logistics and Supply Chain Management at UCA, the Clearinghouse’s urine tests allow a significant number of drug-using truckers to avoid detection.
“Our research found that DOT is seriously underreporting the actual use of harder drugs by truck drivers, such as cocaine and illegal opioids,” Prof Voss reportedly said. “Our analysis clearly concludes that hair testing identifies these harder drugs at higher percentages than the single urine testing method relied on by the federal government.”
The Clearinghouse report shows that marijuana use ranks as the number one reason for truckers getting sidelined, and cocaine ranked a distant second. However, tests for opioids such as Methamphetamine, Amphetamine, Oxymorphone, Morphine, and Ecstasy all declined.
Sources: freightwaves.com, wbir.com
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