09/06/2007

American Trucking Associations President and CEO Bill Graves recently urged Congress to authorize and fund a centralized clearinghouse for positive drug and alcohol testing results of commercial motor vehicle drivers. This action is meant to ensure that motor carrier employers are aware of previous positive test results during the hiring process.

Graves said 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.

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.

“ATA and its members believe that state-based reporting efforts are a good first step, but the optimal solution is a national clearinghouse, “said Graves. “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.”

The federal government began requiring drug and alcohol testing of commercial truck drivers in 1995. After measuring the percentage of positive test results, drug abuse in the trucking industry is less than half of that found in the general work force. However, the ATA has stated that it finds the percentage, which has remained between 2 percent and 2.5 percent of the truck driver population since required testing began, unacceptable.

ATA’s support of a national clearinghouse is just one part of a comprehensive trucking industry highway safety initiative. ATA has also called for universal primary safety belt laws in the 50 states, greater enforcement of traffic laws against unsafe driving actions around large trucks and a limit on the maximum speed of large trucks to 68 miles per hour.