Twenty years on, the Government Accountability Office (the investigative arm of Congress) published a study outlining serious challenges confronting the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in its oversight of the drug-testing program:<\/p>\n
- \n
- In more than 9% of compliance reviews conducted between 2001 and 2007, carriers had no drug-testing programs at all.<\/li>\n
- An unknown number of drug users go through the testing process but avoid detection, in some cases by adulterating or substituting urine specimens with widely available products marketed as allowing drivers to \u201cbeat\u201d the test.<\/li>\n
- Among the drivers who test positive, an unknown number continue to drive \u2014 primarily by \u201cjob-hopping\u201d \u2014 without completing a return-to-duty process guided by a substance abuse professional as required by the regulations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Although this study is over a decade old, these challenges still exist. They\u2019ve been made more problematic by the opioid epidemic and increasing legalization of marijuana in many states.<\/p>\n
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![\"Drug-testing](\"https:\/\/fleetimages.bobitstudios.com\/upload\/trucking-info\/content\/article\/safety\/drug-testing-changes.jpg\")
\n Drug-testing labs are getting more sophisticated about catching cheaters, but at the same time, cheaters are getting smarter about how they try to game the system. Photo: Quest Diagnostics<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Cheating the tests<\/h3>\n
In that 2008 study, GAO investigators posed as commercial truck drivers needing DOT drug tests. At 10 of 24 testing sites, testers did not ask them to empty their pants pockets to ensure no items were present that could be used to adulterate the specimen. At other collection sites, investigators found substances available that could have been used to dilute or otherwise tamper with their specimen. At some sites, they had ample opportunity to have a different individual come in and provide a sample for them.<\/p>\n
Search for \u201chow to pass a drug test\u201d on the Internet and you\u2019ll go down a rabbit hole of articles and products that claim they can help drug users pass urine, saliva, and even hair tests. There are detox programs, synthetic urine, special shampoos to use before a hair test, and more.<\/p>\n
Quest Diagnostics reported earlier this year a rise in urine specimens reported as invalid suggest more efforts to cheat.<\/p>\n
Drug-testing labs are getting more sophisticated about catching cheaters, but at the same time cheaters are getting smarter about how they try to game the system.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re fighting urine cheaters daily, and they\u2019re getting smarter at it and they\u2019re getting good at it,\u201d says Gina Kesler, CEO of Phoenix, Arizona-based Impact Employee Solutions, a third-party drug testing administrator serving primarily transportation. \u201cYour good collectors will be able to identify [a suspect specimen] very quickly. Even if it\u2019s real urine, they can tell it\u2019s just not right,\u201d she says \u2013 but there\u2019s a shortage of good, experienced workers in the drug-testing industry.<\/p>\n
![\"Quest](\"https:\/\/fleetimages.bobitstudios.com\/upload\/trucking-info\/content\/article\/safety\/drug-testing-changes2.png\")
Quest Diagnostics\u2019 specimen validity testing among the federally mandated, safety-sensitive workforce (which includes truck drivers) indicates that while it is still a very small percentage of the urine tests evaluated, there\u2019s a trend of more people trying to cheat drug tests. Source: HDT graph\/Quest Diagnostics data<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Hair testing<\/h3>\n
\u201cThe urinalysis that\u2019s mandatory for DOT drug testing is not good enough,\u201d says Ben Greenberg, vice chair of trucking practice at the Raleigh, North Carolina, offices of law firm Goldberg Segalla.<\/p>\n
In response, some fleets have turned to hair testing, including some of the largest motor carriers in the country, such as Schneider, J.B. Hunt, Swift Transportation, and U.S. Xpress.<\/p>\n
Although it is more expensive than urine testing, and fleets still must test urine to meet DOT requirements, these companies say hair testing is less prone to cheating and more likely to catch chronic drug users.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have not found any adulterants that can beat a hair drug test at this time,\u201d says Quest Diagnostics on its website. \u201cMoreover, the risk is minimized, because [unlike urine testing] every hair collection is observed.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition, cocaine, methamphetamine, opiates, and PCP are rapidly excreted and usually undetectable in urine 72 hours after use. Rather than the hours or days covered by saliva or urine tests, respectively, a hair test covers a period of months, so a drug user can\u2019t pass the test by simply abstaining for a few days.<\/p>\n
With urinalysis, Greenberg says, \u201cIt\u2019s easy to \u2018study\u2019 for your pre employment screening. You know you\u2019re going to be tested for it, so it\u2019s easy to get it out of your system to pass that initial test \u2013 and then you can go back to what you\u2019re doing\u201d in terms of drug use.<\/p>\n
The Trucking Alliance and some large fleets have been lobbying to have hair testing accepted for DOT-required drug and alcohol screening.<\/p>\n
In June, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), part of the Department of Health and Human Services, sent a final rule detailing new mandatory guidelines for federal workplace drug-testing programs allowing the use of hair testing to the White House Office of Management and Budget for approval.<\/p>\n
However, using hair testing as a DOT-regulated drug testing method could still be years away, says Dave Osiecki, president of Scopelitis Transportation Consulting. Even after the OMB approves the HHS guidelines (which could take months), two Department of Transportation agencies have to go through a potentially lengthy rulemaking process: the Office of Drug and Alcohol Policy and Compliance and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.<\/p>\n
![\"Because](\"https:\/\/fleetimages.bobitstudios.com\/upload\/trucking-info\/content\/article\/safety\/drug-testing-changes3.png\")
Because hair and oral fluid testing are not part of the DOT drug-testing regulations, this data from Quest Diagnostics for 2018 compares its positivity rates for urine, hair, and oral fluids testing among the general U.S. workforce. Source: HDT Graph\/Quest Diagnostics Data<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Criticism of hair testing<\/h3>\n
As the proposal goes through the rulemaking process, it will face challenges from critics such as the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and organized labor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Trucking Alliance has yet to demonstrate that they have experienced a reduction in crash rate since their voluntary adoption of hair testing,\u201d the OOIDA Foundation wrote in a briefing on the topic. \u201cNeither have they presented evidence showing that their hair testing labs meet the rigorous standards of scientific methodology for testing or that their hair-testing equipment and protocol has been consistent and unbiased.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year, less-than-truckload carrier ABF\u2019s proposal to require hair-testing of all employees was challenged by the Teamsters during labor negotiations. The union noted in a report on the negotiations that \u201cdrug-testing hair samples detects possible drug use (illegal and legal prescription) from weeks and months earlier but does not necessarily test for on-the-job use or impairment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Critics also contend that hair-testing results can result in false positives because certain drugs can be absorbed into the hair from the environment \u2013 and that this allegedly happens more easily with African-American hair, leading to accusations of racial bias in these tests as well.<\/p>\n
But hair-testing advocates say those concerns are unfounded, provided the testing is done properly.<\/p>\n
The National Drug & Alcohol Screening Association explains that when a drug is ingested, it enters the bloodstream and is broken down into specific metabolites. When a hair sample is screened, both the parent drug and the metabolite are isolated and measured.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf drugs were in the air or on a person\u2019s hands and thereby got on a person\u2019s hair from outside, the drug would be present as the drug substance itself, and not as certain metabolites or with metabolite\/parent drug ratios which are known to be produced by ingestion,\u201d Psychemedics notes on its website.<\/p>\n
Psychemedics says it uses an extensive wash procedure on test samples and analyzes the wash to ensure that any potential contamination has been removed or taken into account. \u201cOther labs may use a less effective wash and\/or do not analyze the wash, putting their clients at risk for making employment decisions based on a result that may be reflective of external contamination.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Synthetic](\"https:\/\/fleetimages.bobitstudios.com\/upload\/trucking-info\/content\/article\/safety\/synthetic-urine.jpg\")
\n Synthetic urine is essentially water that has been fortified with a mix of chemicals (such as creatinine), salts, and yellow coloring. It\u2019s sold at head shops, truck stops, and on the internet, according to DrugAbuse.com, and it\u2019s often sold with temperature-sensing strips and\/or hand warmers to make sure it\u2019s at the proper temperature. Screenshot via Amazon<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Oral fluids testing<\/h3>\n
Meanwhile, another type of drug testing is working its way through the regulatory process for transportation workers: oral fluids testing, better known as saliva testing or mouth-swab testing.<\/p>\n
In 2015, SAMHSA published proposed guidelines for the\u00a0inclusion of oral fluid specimens in the mandatory guidelines for federal workplace drug-testing programs.<\/p>\n
Abigail Potter, manager of safety and occupational health policy at American Trucking Associations and self-described ATA \u201cdrug czar,\u201d says oral fluid testing \u201cis probably as close as we\u2019re going to get to show some level of impairment\u201d for users of legalized marijuana. \u201cCanada is introducing pilot programs to introduce roadside oral fluid testing, and I think that\u2019s going to be the standard going forward. It\u2019s not perfect, but BAC [blood-alcohol content] isn\u2019t perfect either, so we\u2019re hoping oral fluid testing can be kind of that baseline standard.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an industry faced with difficulty finding and keeping qualified drivers, some worry that stricter drug-testing protocols, especially in the wake of legalized marijuana in many states, will only make that situation worse. Dean Newell, vice president of safety and driver training for Maverick Transportation, which has been hair testing since 2012, says a fellow trucking exec called him wanting to know what the fallout would be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look at it from a different perspective of, \u2018I don\u2019t want them in a wreck,\u2019 vs. \u2018How many am I going to lose\u2019 by going to hair testing,\u201d Newell says. \u201cI\u2019d venture to say generally, you\u2019ve probably got other issues with [drivers who would be driven away by stricter hair-testing] anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
by Deborah Lockridge<\/a><\/p>\n
Source: https:\/\/www.truckinginfo.com<\/a><\/p>\n
FLEET MANAGEMENT AUDIT<\/h3>\n
Fleet management is the use of a set of vehicles in order to provide services to a third-party, or to perform a task for our organization, in the most efficient and productive manner with a determined level of service and cost.<\/p>\n
Fleet management activities are shown in the following graph 1:<\/p>\n
![\"fleet](\"http:\/\/en.advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/grafico-AFMC-en.jpg\" "\\"fleet")
<\/p>\nGraph 1: fleet management activities<\/p>\n
The proposal audit analyses and assesses all fleet management activities shown in the graph 1, and its main goals are:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Know the overall status of the fleet management activities<\/li>\n
- Provide the analysis, the assessment, the advice, the suggestions and the actions to take in order to cut costs and increase the efficiency and efficacy of the fleet management\u00a0 activities<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
With the information obtained, we\u2019ll elaborate a report that holds the overall status of the fleet management as well as the suggestions, recommendations and the measures to take in order to cut costs and optimize the fleet management activities.<\/p>\n
CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK TO DOWNLOAD THE PROPOSED FLEET MANAGEMENT AUDIT:<\/p>\n
Fleet Management Audit AFMC<\/span><\/a><\/h2>\n
Contact:<\/p>\n
Jos\u00e9 Miguel Fern\u00e1ndez G\u00f3mez<\/p>\n
34 678254874<\/p>\n
info@advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com<\/p>\n
![\"JMF\"](\"http:\/\/en.advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/JMF-150x150.jpg\")
I\u00b4m\u00a0a Fleet Management expert, and the manager of\u00a0