New legislation introduced by Congress last week will authorize the Department of Transportation (DOT) to recognize hair testing as an option for weeding out commercial drivers with a history of drug and alcohol abuse. According to the authors of the legislation, hair tests would apply to commercial drivers seeking employment.

Under the new bill, named The Drug Free Commercial Truck Driver Act of 2015, commercial carriers would have additional options for drug testing drivers. Currently, urine drug tests are the acceptable standard for the DOT. According to trucking safety groups, urine tests are not always reliable, as commercial drivers may find ways to cheat them to find employment.

Several commercial carriers have already adopted hair drug tests, but the tests were not accepted by the DOT to meet federal testing requirements if they were not used in conjunction with urine tests.

How Will Hair Tests Prevent Truck Accidents Caused by Impaired Drivers?

With hair tests, drug and alcohol use can be detected with a window that goes back 90 days. Urine tests are not as accurate for uncovering long-term drug and alcohol use. In addition to providing a short window of time to catch commercial truck drivers with a drug and alcohol problem, urine tests provide variable results depending on when and what drug was used.

Commercial truck drivers are currently drug tested after a truck accident, before employment, if there is reasonable suspicion, after a leave of absence and at random.

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