Drugs and new drivers... Is it really THAT bad?

Yes. The less desirable the job or trucking company the harder it is to find drug-free applicants.

 

Like any other job that does drug tests, there will always be the dumb@$$es that think they can "beat" the test or that it just won't show up.

 

With the relaxed attitudes about marijuana being what they are a huge amount of people smoke reefer like a cigarette. Failing to understand THC is a FMCSA banned substance. I'm hoping at some point the FMCSA can come up with a solution much like the way they handle alcohol.

 

Yes, just do a search of how many a week come here and ask who tests this way or that way, do they watch, I quit my 1 pound habit yesterday, am I good? I don't mind someone who has cleaned themselves up and know they can stay clean and do not need meetings a few times a week.

 

Trucking schools are advertising and recruiting the losers of society. Fat and effeminate guys whose sole purpose in life is smoke weed and play video games. Neckbeards. They throw big numbers at them and tell them that they can finally get respect, and so they flock to the trucking industry in droves. Some of them are smart enough to clean up to pass the drug test, but as soon as they get their own truck, it's back to the weed. When they take their home time, they do their dope.

If you're going to get a random, odds are pretty good that it's going to come when you are returning to the job after home time. And of course, all the neckbeards and burnouts are all going to jump into this thread and tell you how drugs make them feel and calm them down and make them a better person. If they could just educate you on drugs, you would see that it's not so bad. And they hope for that day, when they get a new way to test, and allow them in to the transportation industry. It's their hope. All of their problems will end. The Promise Land.

 

I just call them slackers. And I totally agree, a great % of new entrants are just as you described! wanting a set down job that's heated & cooled with no responsibilities. But trucking isn't it! Been to Cincinnati, NY, & Delaware this week, I'm always on guard for the trucks weaving all over the road.... easy to spot their phone glowing at night.

 

It is not just the trucking industry. I ran across this article where 40% of the applicants fail drug tests in a fabrication shop.

This Ohio factory owner says she has jobs but few sober applicants - CNN.com

 

The government has programs to basically pay for truck driving schooling. The school I went to had one random for three people and 2 of the 3 failed. That's a pretty significant number to fail a random.

The company I'm leased to now told me a about a guy who they set for a pre-employment drug test. He KNEW he was going to be tested and he failed for cocaine. Cocaine is out of your system in like 72 hours.

His excuse? His girlfriend was going coke and he bogged her and that's how it got into his system.

Yeah, lots of addicts around.

 

It'll be interesting to see what happens up here if we legalize MJ next year. A lot of the kids in the shop think its great they'll be able to go home and smoke a blunt after work. They argued it to death with me that employers can't say anything about it either since it'll be legal. Its still the employer's company and their rules. If they want you clean and you aren't, they'll ####can you in half a second.