The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration mandates random drug testing for 50% of a fleet\u2019s drivers, but the agency only accepts urinalysis results. Urinalysis can only detect prohibited drug use, from marijuana to cocaine to opiates, in about a four-day window, though, and doesn\u2019t provide any indication as to what that driver was up to a week or even a month earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody could stop using for three or four days, come to orientation and pass a urine drug screen,\u201d said Wilson Risinger, vice president of safety at KLLM Transport Services, on a recent webinar hosted by Psychmedics<\/a>, the corporate drug testing company that developed hair testing in 1987.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n With urine tests, Risinger found drug abusers were finding ways to evade detection, which is nearly impossible to do via hair testing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen somebody takes drugs and ingest them in their system, those drugs are metabolized into a person’s bloodstream,\u201d explained Charles Doucot, executive vice president at Psychmedics. These metabolites find their way into the hair, where they become trapped. Doucot called hair the body\u2019s \u201ctape recorder\u201d because it logs \u201chow much drugs you\u2019ve taken and when you\u2019ve taken it.\u201d Detection in hair can extend up to 90 days.<\/span><\/p>\n Inforgraphic: Psychmedics<\/span><\/span> Doucot said Psychmedics\u2019 hair tests yield 10 times the amount of positives versus urinalysis. The Psychmedics test initially costs more than a urinalysis, but the cost per positive is 2.5 times less expensive than a urine test and 40% less than other tests, according to Doucot.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat gives us the best ROI of any testing method or lab when you look at it from a cost-per-positive perspective,\u201d Doucot said. \u201cThe hair test is virtually impossible to evade and cheat.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Maverick Transportation has implemented hair testing since 2012 and can attest to the efficacy. In 10,000 drug tests, they have received 324 positives from hair testing versus 18 with urinalysis, reported Dean Newell, vice president of safety and former Truckload Carriers Association Safety Professional of the Year<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n As of June, 2020 has yielded zero positives via 415 random urinalysis tests, intimating that the existence of hair tests deters would-be drug users from even attempting to circumvent the testing.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cClearly the deterrent factor works,\u201d Newell said. \u201cYou stop them upfront, and you don’t have the issues later on down the road.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n And allowing cheaters to win becomes a major safety problem for fleets because they are authorizing a potentially dangerous individual the command of a giant truck and sending them onto the highway. If that driver gets into an accident while under the influence of alcohol or a controlled substance, the plaintiff wins 100% of the time in truck crash civil suits, said Allen Johnson, vice president at Psychmedics.<\/span><\/p>\n Due to the prevalence of nuclear verdicts<\/a>, such a decision could wipe out a smaller fleet. Maverick has registered zero positives on post-accident drug test since 2012.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That fleet-killing verdict due to a slippery and sloppy drugged driver is of course the worst-case scenario, but not the only one where a fleet can lose big time due to drug abusers slipping through the cracks in the urinalysis testing program.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Trace](\"https:\/\/base.imgix.net\/files\/base\/ebm\/fleetowner\/image\/2020\/07\/Trace_amounts_1_450x416.5f22da793708a.png?auto=format&fit=max&w=1440\")
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