Mandatory Hair Testing in Preemployment being pushed-coming soon?

Discussion in 'Trucking Industry Regulations' started by Deadwood, Jan 13, 2022.

  1. Deadwood

    Deadwood Heavy Load Member

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    The megas of the "Trucking Alliance", J.B. Hunt, Knight-Swift Transportation, US Xpress and Schneider National, are pushing for mandatory hair testing for all drivers, saying that cocaine and opioids are being underreported.

    The Department of Health and Human Services proposed mandatory guidelines for hair testing in September, 2020 as an alternative to urine testing. It looks to be gaining steam.

    I don't use drugs so this doesn't bother me, but I'd like some consistency - if eliminating drugs in the workplace is important enough to test drivers for use 6 months back in time by using a hair test, then it seems to follow that they should make it mandatory for all trucking desk jockeys and corporate executives as well. I think you may find that CEOs use more cocaine than the average trucker. What say you?

    Truckers Using Cocaine More Than Marijuana, Study Finds | ZeroHedge
     
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  3. Arctic_fox

    Arctic_fox Experienced mx13 execrator

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    Oh i agree, its stupid. Just one more way to push themselves into the average americans life in the guise of safety and secruity. I dont do drugs, never have never will. Hell the only thing they would find alarming in my hair is its more caffine then hair from all the coffee.

    But its annoying that we drivers are somehow assumed to be worse then the average other peasent and that we need stuff like this for "safety". While at the same time they try to force stuff like allowing 18 year olds to drive a semi, allow megas to bypass a lot of training, force speed governers that any realistic driver knows is going to make road rage incidents and conflicts with cars happen FAR more often, less flexable HoS and now ive even seen rumbleings of them wanting manditory kill switches that shut off a truck if "unsafe" driving is detected then broadcast it to all nearby troopers until your pulled over after you restart among a host of other things.

    Drivers have always been treated like trash but the last few years it seems to have gotten up a huge head of steam.
     
  4. blairandgretchen

    blairandgretchen Road Train Member

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    I'm pretty certain of one thing. If implemented, there will be a massive shortage of drivers overnight.
     
  5. REO6205

    REO6205 Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

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    I agree. It's a shame, too. We shouldn't be punishing drivers for what they do on their own time.
    If they come to work impaired or uses dope on the job that's another story. Fire them.
    But if someone smokes a joint on Saturday we shouldn't treat them like some kind of criminal on Monday morning.
    As far as coke goes...if my drivers can afford coke I'm probably paying them too much. ;)
     
  6. blairandgretchen

    blairandgretchen Road Train Member

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    If they think we have supply chain issues now - wait till this one goes through.

    I'm willing to bet there'll be a lot of false positive tests with it too - may ruin a few careers by accident.
     
  7. REO6205

    REO6205 Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

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    No doubt. Until they come up with some kind of test that measures the amount of impairment is it really fair to use the results in a way that might well ruin a driver's career?
    We do it with alcohol testing and I know the lab guys are working on tests for pot and coke and such. They need to kick it up a notch and get some standards in place.
    You can't just say "You used pot approximately six weeks ago so you're off the road until you complete a SAP". That's ridiculous...but it happens.
     
  8. bryan21384

    bryan21384 Road Train Member

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    I really don't think mandating a hair test is necessary. It won't show anything different than what a urine test will. What I mean by that is, if you have drugs in your system, then it will be detected. I don't really like the narrative that is pushed in the article. They will have people outside of our world thinking that there's this large number of truckers driving down the road impaired, and I don't believe that to be true. I don't have the facts to support my belief however...just an opinion. Just because drugs are in your system, that does not mean in any form or fashion that you are impaired. I don't know that hair testing will create that much more of a shortage...particularly with big, reputable companies. The more obscure companies, or even owner ops, I can see those numbers dropping some.
     
  9. smokey12

    smokey12 Road Train Member

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    Why don't they at least take the pot out of the equation since it's legal in so many places.now. No different than drinking a beer on a Saturday night and going back to work on Monday.
     
  10. Deadwood

    Deadwood Heavy Load Member

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    I’m not a pot user but I agree. I think the problem is testing. They can tell if a person smoked pot 3 months ago but, to my understanding, they don’t have anything similar to a breathalyzer to measure the gradation of use.
     
  11. sealevel

    sealevel Road Train Member

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    Interesting. I don't really care if a driver smokes weed or drinks the day before he comes on duty. The problem with meth, crack, and opiates is that it's typically not recreational but more dependant based. Considering these drugs flush out of your system about 30 times faster than weed I can see the reasoning. My brother in law smokes a good amount of pot and has to take randoms working on a fish boat. The urine test has apparently become real easy to fake in recent years.
    Idk. Selfishly if it takes some bad drivers off the road and increases rates than I'm all for it. Clip clip away!
     
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