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ATA proposes law for national drug testing clearinghouse
By Avery Vise
The American Trucking Associations on Wednesday, Aug. 1, urged Congress to authorize and fund a centralized 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.
Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., ATA President Bill Graves said such a clearinghouse would improve the industry’s ability to keep alcohol and drug abusers off the road and improve safety on the nation’s roadways.
The federal government required drug and alcohol testing of commercial truck drivers in 1995. 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 work force, ATA says. But with between 2 percent and 2.5 percent of the truck driver population testing positive, that’s perhaps 68,000 drivers with some type of substance abuse problem, Graves noted. This number is unacceptable to ATA and the trucking industry, he said.
A centralized clearinghouse would eliminate a significant loophole in the current drug and alcohol testing regulations, Graves said. Currently, employers must maintain records of positive tests for three years and provide the information to future prospective employers upon request. But if a driver who tested positive at that employer applies for a job at another carrier and leaves that employer off its job application, the prospective employer may not be aware of the positive drug test. If all results were reported to a central database, however, this blind spot would be eliminated.
“It’s something we think is just good common sense,” Graves said at the news conference.
ATA has lobbied for a national clearinghouse of positive test results since the 1990s. In 2004 the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reported to Congress on the merits of reporting positive test results to states. Currently, five states have instituted a drug and alcohol clearinghouse; for example, a positive drug test must be entered onto the driver’s employment driving record in Oregon.
“ATA and its members believe that state-based reporting efforts are a good first step, but the optimal solution is a national clearinghouse,” Graves said. “The trucking industry is a national industry. 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.”
Draft model legislation now is being circulated to the appropriate committees in the House and Senate, said Graves. Under the proposed legislations, drivers would have the right to view information on them that resides in the database and would have an opportunity to appeal that data.
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