Trucking Under the Influence

Number of Drug and Alcohol Abusing Truckers Unknown

It is estimated that somewhere between 1 percent and 10 percent of drivers of commercial or “big rig” trucks are operating under the influence of drugs or alcohol on any given day. The American Trucking Associations (ATA) believes the “positive” rate among truck drivers tested for drugs is about 2 percent to 2.5 percent. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration’s National Center for Statistics and Analysis says the number is a little more than 1 percent. The state of Oregon, however, which has been conducting random tests of drivers on that state’s road since 1998, puts the figure at nearly 10 percent.

The problem is no one really knows how big the problem is.

As Rep. Peter A. DeFazio of Oregon, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit put it, “Here in the United States of America, we have no meaningful program of drug testing for commercial truck drivers, none.”

Around 711,000 commercial motor carriers are registered in the United States, according to DeFazio.

“This translates to more than 4 million individuals who have been issued a commercial driver’s license,” DeFazio said upon convening a Nov. 1, 2007, hearing on drug and alcohol testing of commercial truck drivers.

There is general agreement that the most conservative estimate is “at least 1.7 percent” of truckers have problems with substance abuse. “That is 170,000 truck drivers driving 80,000 pound trucks, abusing drugs,” DeFazio said.

System easily manipulated

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) rules mandate drug and alcohol testing of operators of commercial vehicles under several conditions: pre-employment, reasonable suspicion, post-accident, random, return-to-duty and follow-up. The federally required urine tests screen for marijuana, opiates, cocaine, amphetamines and PCP. Companies that employ commercial drivers are supposed to randomly test 50 percent of their drivers each year.

However, in a study commissioned by the subcommittee, the General Accountability Office found that the drug testing procedures, performed by privately owned and operated facilities, are vulnerable to manipulation. There are some 8,500 to 10,000 such facilities in the United States, according to information provided by the subcommittee. GAO investigators operating undercover found that 75 percent of the facilities tested “failed to secure the facility from substances that could be used to adulterated or dilute the specimen.” The GAO said that a study it conducted in 2005 found some 400 products being marketed that are designed to thwart the tests by changing the nature of the urine samples.

Another weak link in the FMCSA’s drug testing program is the ability of truckers to change jobs without their drug history following them.

Concerned about the ability of the trucking industry to keep drug and alcohol abusers off the road, the American Trucking Associations in August 2007 called upon Congress to create a national clearinghouse for positive drug and alcohol testing results of commercial motor vehicle drivers to ensure that motor carrier employers are aware of previous positive test results during the hiring process.

While five states have established their own state-based clearinghouses for such information, the ATA believes the problem should be addressed on a national basis.

“The trucking industry is a national industry,” ATA President and CEO Bill Graves said during a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. “State by state action will result in a patchwork quilt of differing reporting requirements by different people, with different commercial driver licensing actions or outcomes for truck drivers depending upon which state issued their license. A national solution is the optimal approach to addressing this issue.”

Testifying before the subcommittee on behalf of the ATA, Greer Woodruff, senior vice president of corporate safety and security for J.B. Hunt Transport, described the loophole: “A driver applies for a job at a trucking company and tests positive for drugs on the DOT-required pre-employment drug test. As a result of testing positive, the driver is not hired. In many cases, the driver simply waits a short amount of time to cleanse his system, a few days or perhaps a few weeks, and applies for a job at a different trucking company and passes the DOT-required pre-employment test.

“The driver does not self-report the previous positive test result on the employment application, and therefore the second trucking company is not aware of the driver’s previous positive test result.

“This loophole exists because a driver is supposed to self-report, since there is no current method of centrally capturing positive test results.”

Under the ATA’s model, the clearinghouse would not only collect reports on positive test results, it would also maintain information regarding commercial drivers’ refusal to be tested.

Groups representing truck drivers, however, expressed concern that a central clearinghouse could violate a truck driver’s right to privacy.

Rick Craig, director of regulatory affairs for Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), told lawmakers that while the group supports the goal of eliminating drug and alcohol abuse in the trucking industry, “we remain unconvinced of the need for a national clearinghouse for positive drug and alcohol testing results. The national database, as described in ATA’s proposal, does not ensure that a carrier removes a violating driver from performing safety-sensitive functions, nor does it otherwise enhance the existing drug testing requirements.”

In written testimony, Craig said if such a clearinghouse were established, “the regulations must be amended to provide effective due process protections for drivers to contest false positives, and collection side, laboratory and medical review officer errors.”

Operation Trucker Check

Under its “Operation Trucker Check” program, the Oregon State Police Forensic Services Division has been randomly and anonymously testing commercial truck drivers in that state since 1998. A check in April 2007 revealed that 9.65 percent of the truckers tested positive for drugs or alcohol. The division’s most recent check in September 2007 showed nearly 9 percent of the 468 drivers tested had controlled substances in their system.

The results of the September 2007 “Operation Trucker Check”:

• 9 (1.92 percent) drivers tested positive for the presence of amphetamines.
• 2 (0.43 percent) tested positive for benzodiazepines.
• 1 (0.21 percent) tested positive for cocaine.
• 19 (4.06 percent) tested positive for the presence of cannabinoid (marijuana).
• 14 (2.99 percent) tested positive for opiates (e.g., oxycodone).
• 3 (0.64 percent) tested positive for propoxyphene (synthetic opiates).
• 5 (1.07 percent) tested positive for more than one drug category.
• No drivers tested positive for barbiturates or methadone.
• Overall, 42 (8.97 percent) of the 468 drivers who provided urine tested positive in at least one drug category.

Source: Oregon State Police

Large Trucks, Fast Facts

The following data is from 2006, the latest year for which the NHTSA has published data. The information was updated in March 2008.

In 2006:

• Large trucks accounted for 4 percent of all registered vehicles and 7 percent of total vehicle miles traveled.
• One out of nine traffic fatalities resulted from a collision involving a large truck.
• 385,000 large trucks (gross vehicle weight rating greater than 10,000 pounds) were involved in traffic crashes; 4,732 were involved in fatal crashes; 4,995 people died (12 percent of all the traffic fatalities reported in 2005) and an additional 106,000 were injured in those crashes. Large trucks accounted for 8 percent of all vehicles involved in fatal crashes and 4 percent of all vehicles involved in injury and property damage-only crashes.
• 24 percent of all drivers of large trucks involved in fatal crashes had at least one prior speeding conviction, compared to 19 percent of the passenger car drivers involved in fatal crashes.
• 1 percent large-truck drivers involved in fatal crashes had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 grams per deciliter (g/dL) or higher. By comparison, 23 percent of drivers of passenger cars, 24 percent of drivers of light trucks and 27 percent of drivers of motorcycles involved in fatal crashes had BAC levels .08 g/dL or higher.
• Drivers of large trucks were less likely to have a previous license suspension or revocation than were passenger car drivers (8 percent and 14 percent, respectively).

Source: National Highway Transportation Safety Administration’s National Center for Statistics and Analysis.

Topics USA Auto Legislation Trucking Oregon