Editorial: Progress Unrewarded

For now, fleet managers will have to settle for the notion that virtue is its own reward with respect to trucking’s superior performance on drug testing for drivers and other safety-sensitive employees.

Following up on a solid 2011, when just 0.9% of employees tested randomly showed evidence of drug use, the rate dipped to 0.6% in 2012 — the most recent year for which information is available.

Positive results for alcohol testing were even better, falling to 0.03% in 2012 from 0.10% the year before.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration 2012 random surveys looked at 1,909 trucking companies with about 475,000 drivers in the drug tests, and 1,458 carriers with 137,050 drivers on the alcohol-related tests.

Yes, there is satisfaction for a job well done, but many in trucking were hoping for more than a pat on the back.

Trucking tested 50% of its safety-sensitive employees, or every other worker. In other transportation modes — rail, air, marine and passenger transit — the testing rate is 25%, down from 50% years ago. An industry becomes eligible for a break like that — dropping the mandatory testing rate to 25% a year from 50% — after crossing the 1% threshold for two straight years.

But on Dec. 31, FMCSA took a pass on putting trucking in the 25% bracket, announcing the requirements for 2015 would remain at 50% for drug testing and 10% for alcohol testing.

The agency expressed worries based on results from some of the nonrandom, directed tests it orders, such as reasonable-suspicion and follow-up tests and its special 2014 strike force.

We have no argument with FMCSA conducting directed tests and considering the results. Possessing a thorough understanding of a vital, life-and-death issue is tremendously desirable.

However, we would like to see trucking employees treated in the same way as railroad, aviation, marine and transit workers.

Results from tests conducted in 2013 could offer a reason for hope. If trucking can stay below 1% for a third straight year, that might be persuasive for FMCSA’s acting administrator, Scott Darling.

The 2013 test results have been in FMCSA’s possession since mid-March, and the analysis should have been published by Dec. 31. That has not happened yet.

We strongly urge FMCSA to complete analysis quickly. If the industry hits the target for a third straight year, we also urge that trucking companies receive the same benefit that other industries have received.