Driving Ban for Alcoholism Violates Law, Judge Rules

This story appears in the July 8 print edition of Transport Topics.

A federal judge ruled that Old Dominion Freight Line’s policy of never allowing a truck driver back behind the wheel after treatment for alcoholism is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

However, U.S. District Judge Jimm Hendren in Arkansas rejected a contention by Equal Employment Opportunities Commission attorneys that Old Dominion could not suspend a driver and require a driver to complete evaluation and treatment before returning to work.

Court records show that Old Dominion offered the trucker, Charles Grams, who confessed to his supervisor that he believed he had an alcohol problem, to return as a part-time dockworker after successful treatment — but not as a driver.

“While the court appreciates Old Dominion’s safety concerns, its no-return policy — which fails to even consider the possibility of accommodation — cannot be justified either on public safety concerns or business necessity considerations,” Hendren wrote. “For this reason, it violates the ADA as a matter of law and amounts to a denial of reasonable accommodation to Grams.”

The EEOC had argued that Grams was never clinically diagnosed as having an alcohol problem. In addition, EEOC attorneys said Grams, who for the previous five years as an Old Dominion driver never had a serious accident or incident, had not misused alcohol while driving.

Old Dominion argued that it had a right to refuse to allow Grams to get back behind the wheel and that driving a truck is a safety-sensitive function, according to court documents.

“The EEOC basically suggested that even if there was some safety concern, there were better options than taking him off the road, like installing a breathalyzer in his truck,” said Richard Pianka, vice president and deputy chief counsel for American Trucking Associations. “The notion that that would be an adequate response to the possibility of a drunk driver in an 80,000-pound vehicle is staggering.”

Although Hendren said Old Dominion violated the ADA, the judge said that “material issues of fact remain to be resolved before any liability on the part of Old Dominion is established.”

Hendren stayed his decision until July 8, inviting the parties to take the case to a federal appeals court to resolve some of those liability issues.

Pamela Dixon, the EEOC senior trial attorney who represented the driver and agency in the case, declined comment. Old Dominion did not return a phone message seeking comment.

“It was a very mixed decision. On the one hand, it did acknowledge that a carrier is operating within its regulatory authority when it suspends a driver who reports an alcohol problem,” Pianka said. “But the negative aspect for the industry is that the court basically said you can’t have a permanent ban on drivers who have had alcohol problems.”

Pianka said that while carriers should not disregard the significance of the Old Dominion ruling, a prior ruling in a separate federal lawsuit filed in Georgia against Crete Carrier Corp. — currently on appeal — let stand the carrier’s policy that an alcoholic driver could not return to work behind the wheel for five years.

In a separate EEOC announcement, the agency said J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. has agreed to settle a race discrimination civil lawsuit alleging that an African-American job candidate was denied a truck driver position based on his criminal conviction record, which the EEOC said was unrelated to the duties of the job.

The EEOC had alleged that Hunt’s job-applicant hiring policy did not comply with the agency’s formal guidance requiring that employers weigh criminal convictions on an individual basis rather than a blanket policy ban.

As part of the five-year conciliation agreement, Hunt agreed to review, revise if necessary and provide additional training concerning its hiring and selection policies and practices to comply with the EEOC’s guidance, the agency said.

“We commend J.B. Hunt for correcting its policy on criminal convictions and for taking measures toward ensuring equal employment opportunities for all workers,” Olophius Perry, district director of the EEOC’s Los Angeles District Office, said in a June 28 statement.

J.B. Hunt did not respond to a phone message.