Posted on 05/24/2022 4:48:10 AM PDT by billorites
The American Trucking Association released a statement in October 2021, citing retiring driving veterans and lower wages as the partial cause for the shortage of more than 80,000 drivers. However, another cause for this shortage is being attributed to adult-use legalization and drivers testing positive for cannabis.
A March 2022 U.S. Department of Transportation summary report states that as of April 1, 2022, 10,276 commercial truck drivers tested positive for THC. (Although this is a significant decrease in numbers, compared to 31,085 violations in 2021 and 29,511 violations in 2020.) Cannabis leads the data as the highest positive drug tests for drivers, but this also includes data about drivers who test positive for cocaine, methamphetamine, oxymorphone and more.
The situation is especially difficult for drivers who consume because many of them travel through multiple states with varying approaches to legalization.
According to an article on Stacker, the Department of Transportation (DOT) Handbook: A Compliance for Guide Truck Drivers confirms that cannabis is still federally illegal. “While states may allow medical use of marijuana, federal laws and policy do not recognize any legitimate medical use of marijuana. Even if a state allows the use of marijuana, DOT regulations treat its use as the same as the use of any other illicit drug.”
The DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) increased drug testing rates from 25% to 50% two years ago. “The new minimum annual percentage rate for random drug testing will be effective January 1, 2020. This change reflects the increased positive test rate and will result in an estimated $50 to $70 million increase in costs to the industry by requiring that more drivers be tested.” However, it also notes that random alcohol testing remained at 10%.
The FMCSA also states that medical cannabis is also not allowed with any noted exceptions. “Under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs), a person is not physically qualified to drive a CMV if he or she uses any Schedule I controlled substance such as marijuana,” it states. “Accordingly, a driver may not use marijuana even if is recommended by a licensed medical practitioner.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines five risk factors of being a truck long-haul truck driver, including obesity, smoking, low physical activity, high blood pressure and diabetes. Some of these common workplace conditions have been known to be treated with medical cannabis. In one study from December 2015, medical cannabis helped prevent obesity in mice. Some studies identified how cannabis can actually help treat nicotine addiction. Even a study from this past February showed evidence of how cannabis can help lower blood pressure in those who suffer from hypertension.
An April White House Fact Sheet states that trucking accounts for 72% of products delivered in the U.S., with a plan to assist and help expand trucking job opportunities. “Trucking costs grew more than 20 percent last year as a surge in demand for goods caused by the pandemic confronted a decline in trucking employment that preceded the pandemic,” the Fact Sheet states. “The low supply of drivers is driven by high turnover and low job quality. Turnover in trucking routinely averages 90 percent for some carriers and drivers spend about 40 percent of their workday waiting to load and unload goods—hours that are typically unpaid.”
While the White House’s focus on bettering the work lives of truckers across the country is a step in the right direction, there is a need to alter regulations to allow truckers to use cannabis. One of the efforts includes connecting veterans with trucking jobs, however, with the current state of military veterans seeking access to medical cannabis to treat conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, it would create another hurdle for them to overcome.
Randy : I cant get stoned Ricky!
Ricky : What do you mean? Its sh*tty work everybody does that, alright. Carpenters, electricians, dishwashers, floor cleaners, lawyers, doctors, f*cking politicians, CBC employees, principals, people who paint the lines on the f*ckin’ road. Get stoned, it’ll be fun. Get to work.
Remember the CDL truck driver shortage in North Dakota during the oil action that was happening up there a few years back?
Guess what? They were running through drivers at a fairly high rate because of drug testing. I know several people that went up there and cleaned up because they weren’t drug users.
The other thing was that the requirement for a CDL was by companies that were hiring and the reality turned out to be that a lot of work was driving trailers pulled by Dualies and they could have gotten by without a CDL unless state law required it. If CDLs weren’t required to pull what amounted to a loaded 5th wheel skeleton trailer why have it?
I think the company’s were using the CDL as a recruitment screening tool.
My usual truck delivery guy told me the same thing months ago.
So....the testing is the problem?
Whatever it take to get fossil fueled big rigs off the road.
And as they did not see fit to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a depraved mind, to do things not being proper;
Well, Amazon.com delivery drivers don’t have this problem. The other day, I was walking by a parked Amazon van and was assaulted by the stench of the marijuana cigarette that the young African American driver was enjoying on his break.
If you think testing is a problem, just come to Texas where the trial lawyers boast in their ads about the size of their judgements in lawsuits against trucking companies.
We lost 2 vietnams worth of our working age population to fentynal last year... maybe that is part of the reason there is a workers shortage...
The increase in drug overdose related deaths is caused by the vaccine - or so some posters have told us.
Oh yes, of course - just what we need - people on dope driving large trucks on the highway.
These people are insane.
I am don’t doubt that as well.
Whoa...the "Everything is the vaccine" theatre...thats...soooo....2021.
Oh, the testing has always been around. It’s the increase in potheads that is apparently the problem. Something, you know, that the pro-legalization crowd said wouldn’t make a difference. Well of course it has. Soros and his team have been successful getting this garbage passed in an increasing number of states - having a bunch of brain damaged buffoons are easier to control and get them to vote Democrat. Colorado was their first big project and you see how that state has progressed since then.
This propaganda article is trying to promote having truck drivers high on dope and increasingly cognitively impaired after long term use (not to mention the other long term effects) driving large rigs on the highway as though people doing dope are all doing so to treat diseases. Virtually none of these people, if any, are doing dope for medicinal purposes and certainly are not consuming medicinal cannabis to treat any disease.
I really do not believe this. I have to laugh because this article says that the problem is that different states have different laws regarding pot and other dope. The Feds must step in and regulate this of course./s
We just can’t have that, can we? Honestly, with diesel becoming unaffordable, truckers may be home smoking all kinds of weed real soon.
I don’t care if the driver a prescription drug that is truly medically necessary — if it impairs ability to drive safely, sorry, that driver needs to change careers. Marijuana, whether recreational or medicinal or “medicinal” significantly impairs driving ability. If you “need” it, find another job.
A loaded big rig can’t exactly stop on a dime. Delayed reaction time and impaired judgment can have very dire consequences.
What I don’t get is why the writer doesn’t seem to get that trucking companies and their insurance carriers can’t afford to have their drivers and trucks in more and more accidents caused by impairment from smoking pot. Even if they were heartless ghouls who care nothing about human life, the payouts and lawsuits would eat them alive.
The DOT regulations has long encouraged these shortages with 60 hour log book restrictions, random drug testing, and higher fees for the licenses as well as the testing for endorsements regarding authorization to do what Drivers had previously been doing for years, decades even.
The Driver shortage has been a crafted program. The best solution that the Government could come up with was their NAFTA Treaty which brought in Canadian and Mexican Drivers in great numbers. This ‘policy’ of course did result in a lot of very destructive wrecks in different areas, always low keyed by the media.
It all won't matter much once Gates and Fauci achieve their depopulation objectives. Once that happens, the Highways will open up and traffic will be much more sparse, and pollution will be fantastically diminished. The end of global warming is in sight.
The problem isn’t truckers driving around stoned, I don’t think most do, (the pot smoking truckers), and if they did it should be a driving while intoxicated charge. Driving under the influence is bad, stupid and should be dealt with severely.
Unlike booze, and other drugs people consume when not at work, pot attaches itself to fat cells in the body. Someone could smoke pot on a Saturday night and test positive three weeks later. There’s the problem. Whether we agree with legalized marijuana or not.
Do you think for a minute there wouldn’t be a solution to this issue if beer stayed in your system for 3 weeks after consuming a single beer? If you were high for 3 weeks that would be another issue, but it’s not.
This problem is only going to get worse as the legalization moves into more states, and it is coming. Someone is going to invent a testing means that can determine when someone consumed marijuana and when there’s active compounds in a persons system rather than residual and they are going to be extremely wealthy.
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