Got D.O.T.?

This afternoon I was talking with the managers from a local company about drug testing. Most of the employees of this company are truck drivers who fall under the D.O.T. testing guidelines. For those of you who aren’t familiar with these, the Department of Transportation has guidelines requiring drug testing for drivers who operate a commercial vehicle in interstate or intrastate commerce. If you ever have trouble falling asleep, you can read all 103 pages of the guidelines here. I have made my way through the entire document, but it was quite a struggle. My favorite part was the one that describes what color the water in the toilet has to be in bathrooms where a DOT drug test is conducted (the answer is blue).

The purpose of these guidelines is admirable. The DOT wants to ensure drivers who operate large trucks and heavy machinery are not using drugs and therefore posing a safety risk to themselves, their coworkers, and the public. You don’t want to be driving down the interstate with 18 wheelers whose drivers are high on cocaine or smoking a joint!

However, the guidelines do have loopholes.

The biggest drawback is that most DOT drug testing is done on a random basis. This is not the most efficient way of drug testing, as I discussed in my last post. In the company I was talking to today, they said they’ve had employees who’ve been pulled for drug testing twice within 4 months while others who have not been pulled in 4 years. They don’t think it’s a particularly effective way of drug testing, and I don’t disagree.

Another big drawback to the DOT guidelines (and I’m admittedly biased) is that currently they only allow for urine testing. Urine may not be the best tool for a company to use for drug testing. It could be. But it also could be DrugWipe, PreScreen, hair testing, blood testing, saliva testing, or a combination of these. But companies don’t have the freedom to choose what they think works best for them to be compliant under the DOT requirements. They’re stuck with urine.

There are revised guidelines in the works that do include these other forms of testing. Earlier this year I was talking with a gentleman from SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) in Washington DC and asked him when he thought these guidelines would become the law. He just kind of laughed and said when you have bureaucracy and lobbying efforts at work, it’s anyone’s guess.

Even though DrugWipe is not currently sanctioned under DOT guidelines, trucking companies, including one of the largest trucking firms in the nation, are turning to DrugWipe to fill in the gaps of the DOT drug testing programs. It provides companies, like the one I talked with today, a way to be proactive, establish reasonable cause for DOT urine testing, and more effectively mitigate their risks from drug using drivers.

Any type of testing, other than the DOT urine test, can be a tough sell in the transportation industry. Many trucking companies do the minimum testing required under the DOT guidelines. One main factor is cost. Another main factor is that currently there’s a big driver shortage in the industry. It’s very hard to replace drivers these days. If you have to let one go due to a drug problem (or any other reason, for that matter), the truck they were driving could be sitting idle on the lot for a while. That means lost revenue. Some companies would rather have those trucks on the road and take the chance that a drug using driver won’t get into a serious accident.

I hope the revised DOT guidelines will be enacted soon so transportation companies will be given the freedom to use the testing procedure(s) they think will provide them with the best results in the most cost-effective way possible.


Oh, one last thing – GO CARDINALS!!!!