Opinion: A Clearinghouse for Drug and Alcohol Info
By Bill Graves
President and Chief Executive Officer
American Trucking Associations
This Opinion piece appears in the June 2 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
Just days after the Government Accountability Office released a new report recommending improvements to drug-testing programs that could better identify illegal drug users and keep them off the road, Reps. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.), John Mica (R-Fla.) and Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) announced their intention to introduce legislation aimed at establishing a national clearinghouse of positive drug-test results.
The announcement represented a milestone for American Trucking Associations, which has been engaged in a decade-long struggle to close the dangerous loopholes that exist in a motor carrier’s ability to appropriately screen drivers for prior substance abuse.
Their plan would require motor carriers to:
• Check the clearinghouse as part of the hiring process.
• Increase oversight over collection facilities to ensure they comply with U.S. Department of Transportation regulations for testing commercial drivers.
• Strengthen enforcement over motor carriers without a drug-testing program, with an emphasis on new entrant carriers.
The plan also indicates a need to ban products that are marketed for the sole purpose of subverting a drug test.
For its part, ATA has been urging DOT and congressional movement on a national clearinghouse for years. And we applaud Reps. Oberstar, Mica and DeFazio as they stand ready to take legislative action.
Drug and alcohol abuse affects all levels of society and costs the American public more than $181 million in lost productivity, health care and other expenses annually. There are few places where eliminating the problem is more important than in the trucking industry, where more than 3.5 million people get behind the wheel of a large truck.
Trucking has worked diligently to eradicate drug and alcohol abuse from its workforce. And we’ve made great progress in recent years. As measured by a percentage of positive test results, drug abuse in the trucking industry is less than half of that found in the general workforce. The percentage has remained around 2% of the truck driver population since required testing began in 1995.
The overwhelming majority of truck drivers in the United States are safe, professional and drug-free. Unfortunately, as in any field, there is a small percentage of drivers who have a drug problem, and some are able to exploit well-known loopholes in the federally required drug-testing program.
ATA and the trucking industry do not condone any level of drug abuse among the driver population. Authorizing and funding a national database of positive drug and alcohol testing results of commercial drivers will make a good testing program even better.
Consistent with GAO’s recommendations, ATA is asking Congress to ban the manufacture, sale and distribution of products that can be used to evade drug tests and to provide DOT with additional authority to improve oversight of specimen-collection facilities and practices.
To further improve the drug-testing process, ATA also is urging Congress to direct the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and DOT to initiate a rulemaking that allows the testing of hair samples. Hair testing is less invasive and reveals illegal drug use over a longer period of time than does urine testing.
The motor carrier industry is very proud of its record in reducing drug and alcohol abuse.
ATA’s goal is to keep substance abusers from getting behind the wheel of a truck. This goal can happen if shortfalls in the current law and regulations are corrected.
ATA has been the leader for years in promoting the urgent need for a national database. We are delighted that GAO and some leaders in Congress are now onboard.
We are proud that trucking is safer than ever. In the latest year for which data are available, truck-involved fatalities declined 4.7% and the crash rate dropped to the lowest on record. These improvements followed a comprehensive ATA safety initiative calling for universal primary safety belt laws, greater enforcement of traffic laws and a federal requirement for governors on all new trucks to limit their speeds to 68 miles per hour or less.
Bill Graves is a former two-term governor of Kansas. ATA is a national trade association for the trucking industry with headquarters in Arlington, Va., and affiliated associations in every state. ATA owns Transport Topics Publishing Group.
