Mandated in the FAST Act highway bill was a measure which would allow carriers to screen drivers for illegal drug use with hair testing instead of urine testing. A rule on the subject is somewhere down the road, but one trucking group says it isn’t coming fast enough and has submitted a petition to allow their members to use hair testing for pre-employment drug screening immediately.
Hair testing is thought to be a much more accurate indicator of prior drug use since urine tests reveal drug use within the last 2-3 days, while hair testing can reveal prior drug use within the last 60-90 days.
Before a rule allowing hair tests to be used to fulfil the mandatory screenings can be published, the Department of Health and Human Services will need to create guidelines for hair sample testing. Once the guidelines are created, the FMCSA will need to evaluate them, create a rule, publish the rule, and then wait for the rule to go into effect.
But that may be too late.
According to The Trucking Alliance, a trucking group with represents carriers like Knight Transportation and J.B. Hunt, not having the awaited rule in place right now is dangerous.
“While we wait on HHS and FMCSA, we can possibly save lives with this exemption by keeping many hard drug users out of our trucks and off our highways.” said the managing director of The Trucking Alliance, Lane Kidd.
But despite the claims from The Trucking Alliance about the urgent need to act now, there’s nothing stopping them from doing just that. It is already perfectly legal for carriers to test their drivers using hair samples, and many carriers do just that. In fact, between March of 2008 and June of 2012, Schneider National performed both urine and hair sample tests on prospective drivers. 1,400 applicants were disqualified by hair sample testing while only 120 were disqualified by urine sample testing.
The only reason not to do both is that then a carrier would have to pay for both. The rule that The Trucking Alliance is so impatient for would allow the hair test to satisfy the federal requirement, eliminating the need for a urine test.
Depending on where the carriers get their testing done, the cost savings would be around $70.
Source: overdrive, truckersreport, truckersreport
Dwayne says
The wholesale issuance of CDLs to no talent steering wheel holders causes WAY more trouble than “drugs”.
Bill says
I worked very hard to obtain my CDL and I paid for it with my own cash. I don’t use drugs and have a nearly spot free driving record. My respect for the road and for truckers is the utmost. I have many years of ticket and accident free experience behind the wheel. How many years/months of CDL experience do I have? Goose egg! Where do I start? The same place you did. At the beginning, with no experience and no training. So give us newbe’s a break. We are here to pick up the baton and run with it. We just need a little support and encouragement.
Peace
Spyder says
Good luck. Sounds like a resume I’d hear on the CB but you give hope
JT says
Drugs have no place in the trucking industry. BUT! Carriers are going way to far and imposing in your right to privacy. Smoking a joint on your vacation is your business. Not for some damn shareholder trucking company to dictate how you live.
Dave says
True facts
Ed Cooper says
It’s good that most Professional drivers do not share you view. Your attitude is exactly what we don’t need on our roads driving heavy equipment.
Jerry says
Far more people are hurt & killed by alcohol than cannabis. Sure, the feds still classify it with hard drugs, but 10 min. on the internet, and one will find loads of documented evidence, from hospital, universities etc. on the benefits, which is a hell of a lot more than can be said for booze.
I seriously doubly anyone would advocate for driving while “stoned”, but as JT mentioned, it’s a person right to consume a substance that hurts no one, and is fast becoming legal in many more states.
THC happens to remain in fat tissue for weeks at times, but this has little bearing on whether the person is “intoxicated, so hair testing will eliminate many good, qualified people, (as does urine testing as well).
Substance use is a small probelm compared to the lack of training, knowledge and competence growing quickly in this industry.
peace
Jason Kane says
Last year, I went to a concert where there was a lot of marijuana smoke in the air. I could smell it, which means it was entering my system. With a urine test, i’d have no problem because the traces of second-hand exposure would be gone in a day. Marijuana stays in your hair roots for like 7 years. So now what, I can’t go see my favorite bands perform live anymore? So much for freedom in this country…
sudon"t says
Couldn’t agree more, and the same goes for so-called “hard” drugs. The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of drug users, like the vast majority of alcohol users, are not problem users. And like alcohol users, responsible people do not use drugs at work. After all, people want to enjoy them.
I think that, just because a small proportion of people get into trouble with substances is no reason to treat everybody like children. This is the same kind of thinking behind gun control, where, because a small number of criminals behave badly with guns, law-abiding citizens are subjected to useless regulations.
The government has no business telling people how they can, or can’t spend their free time, and neither do employers. On the other hand, people caught driving while intoxicated should be removed from their positions. We should test people for whether they are intoxicated at the time – not for whether they were intoxicated several months ago.
Pamela McKenna says
Trucking is becoming so regulated, ELDs being forced down trucker’s throats, so many taxes, soon autonomous trucks… We may as well have hair samples tested. I believe Dwayne, the ease of getting a CDL is more the issue.
I am married to a trucker who has 2 million accident free miles and 20 years experience, he does not care how the drug testing is done, as long as it gets the bad drivers off of the roads.
One issue which concerns me is agricultural truck drivers. The truck drivers on farms do not need a CDL, weight limits do not matter, ELDs do not matter, paper logs are unnecessary, so many laws are suddenly unimportant. Agriculture plates enable children to drive trucks….14 years old in my state. CDLs are not necessary, but the kid can drive a very large tractor on my state’s roads.
An accident two years ago happened in an agricultural vehicle, the driver of the vehicle was on the way to their dealer, so drugs were involved peripherially. The driver hit a building, did not have the drugs on their person and in the end, only got a fine, and kept their license to drive.
Our rules for drivers are completely screwed up. We treat our safe older drivers like they cannot do the job and we act as though good drug testing will solve the problems that the government has made worse. That does not help, and the newer the CDL the more likely the driver will accept rules which are tantamount to knowing exactly where all of the drivers in the US are at all times. That is not freedom, that is NOT the ‘will’ of the people, America has issues.
Nicholas says
Well said. Finally someone who “gets it”on this forum.
Spyder says
Well said.
Mike says
Really is iravelant no matter which drug test a company is useing. A commercial driver shouldn’t have any drug in their system. If your using drugs don’t bother coming to trucking. Plaine & simple
Misti says
About time they start Hair testing, we need the people doing drugs off the roads.
old man says
I was hair tested and was told I showed positive for cocaine. I had never done cocaine in my life and being 64 at the time this was beyond absurd. After talking to a goverment testing facility tester, I found out that companys use a cheaper version that a person can show false positives say, taking ibuprephen, so be careful what you wish for. If you handle money, guess what, most money bills have drugs on them.
Informed Driver says
There are many problems associated with this regulation being passed. Some are already stated by others and understood, like over regulation and invasion of privacy (what I do on my home time is my business). I completely agree that behind the wheel is no place for someone on drugs or alcohol, but when I’m in my living room after being gone for weeks or months on end I should have the freedom to relax for I see fit.
However the biggest issue I see with this and one that I have yet to see anyone address, probably because the vast majority of people don’t know, is the fact that hair testing is inherently discriminatory. Allow me to explain. Hair retains the metabolites of the substances we consume, however all hair is not equal. Different types of hair retain these metabolites at different rates. For example lighter thinner hair retains metabolites at a much lower rate than darker coarser hair. This means that a person with thin grey hair will not test positive for substances at the same rate as a person with thick black hair.
Example: an old white guy and a young black guy smoke a joint together, one month later they both take a hair test. Because of the nature of the hair the the metabolite retention of the dark hair will give higher readings than that of the lighter hair. Causing the black guy to test positive and the white guy to test negative.
Hair testing is discriminatory. Period.
R.J. says
I was refused a job by Schneider National because my hair wasn’t long enough to do this follicle drug test.
I’m 60 y/o and have had a crew-cut since the 1960’s.
Until now, I’ve never considered looking like a hippie, to be a career enhancer…
Spyder says
LOL! Tell em old guy!
shogun says
RJ hit a point that most people don’t consider. I have been shaving my head since 2002 and I will never grow my hair on my head back out. If they want to test my body hair, they can knock themselves out. I really don’t care if they want me to piss in a cup everyday before I go on duty, I have never taken any drugs, illicit or not, that are covered in the DOT test, and unless they make OTC products like Ibuprofen or Naproxen illegal, I am not worried.
Rat face says
So what if I like snorting coke and maybe popping pills on my free time.. I don’t do it while I’m in a truck, matter of fact the coke allows me to drive 15-16 hrs easily.. I roll hard and never will stop
Steve palmieri says
Sure you do Rat Face. Keep telling yourself that. The only thing you roll hard is you’re scate board.
Troy says
I like the Idea. Keeps the rift raff out and could cause wages to go up with fewer drivers and more freight.