Druggie drivers are the cause of shortage

From the article :

More than 72,000 truck drivers have been taken off US roads since January 2020 because they have failed drug tests


“It’s a staggering number of drivers we have lost” because of the new drug-testing rules


What did I miss? Havent they been doing the same drug testing all along>

 

Good hope a few hundred thousand more get popped more freight for me to haul and great rates.

but is a sad state of affairs that so many idiots are among us. To dumb to realize that they are in a heavily federally regulated industry. I don feel sorry for any of them.

 

The fmcsa clearing house. Some flew under the radar. As soon as results got reported from previous tests. Some were to stupid to realize just because pot was legalized on some state levels. They hold a federal license.

 

72,000 is a lot in absolute terms. But it is only, what, about 2% of all truck drivers? Less? I wager there is a much higher percentage of drinking/drugs on the job by judges and doctors and most other professions. It would be great to have zero impaired drivers. But these numbers seem better than most other professions that involve grave consequences to others.

In the 1.5 yrs I worked for an FBO servicing corporate jets at least two of the 50-70 pilots involved were escorted out of the ####pit for DUI right then. And those guys are under 10x scrutiny than truckers.

 

I was under the impression that pilots ran under the same rules as truck drivers as far as testing for drugs. Same pre employment, random and suspicious behavior or post accident/incident rules..no?

 

And with winter upon us gonna a lot more thinning of the herd .

 

I believe they all get annual physicals that are more stringent than our 2-yrs. Plus the practical aspects are that they can’t just hop in a plane and take off without physically being around anyone or even minimal radio chatter. Business jet they will have interactions with Ops, ground crew and tower physically and verbally. They will have passengers on board and a co-pilot next to them for hours. They have to file an intelligible flight plan, etc. Then they have to get the plane taxied on busy aprons and taxiways under the eagle eye of the tower. The only way an impaired pilot could get as far as in the air is if they drank/drugged after take off or their co-pilot ignored the obvious. The two I saw hauled out one was minutes after they entered the ####pit and the other just as he was leaving the flight lounge for the tarmac. Could have been the stew, copilot or tower that reported them to security.

Their randoms are way more frequent, more like school bus drivers. Pretty much guaranteed to get hit a couple of times a year. I’ve spoken with truckers who say it has been a few years since their last random.

 

Wow 72 000 drivers off the road that's got to be hurting the industry unless of course 72, 000 new drivers were recruited. Love to know the actual number of drivers that retire every year from truck driving and how many quit because they no longer want to drive trucks?

 

Commercial pilots have a more stringent guideline than private pilots for physicals but I believe the drug testing are nearly the same as for commercial drivers.
I took a beginner's flight instruction class and flight a while back and that's what I was told as they tried to get me to commit to obtaining a license.