Database catches unfit Arkansas big-rig drivers
A new state law that took effect at the start of the year requires trucking companies and other employers to search the Arkansas Commercial Driver Alcohol and Drug Testing Database before hiring a commercial driver.
The Associated Press
8/28/2008
LITTLE ROCK — Employers in Arkansas have been making use of a database that records results of substance abuse tests for commercial drivers.
A new state law that took effect at the start of the year requires trucking companies and other employers to search the Arkansas Commercial Driver Alcohol and Drug Testing Database before hiring a commercial driver.
Employers are obligated to report positive alcohol tests to the database as well as the names of drivers who refuse to submit to an alcohol test. The secure database is run by the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration Office of Driver Services.
Since the system was launched, there have been 263 positive test results reported to the database. Employers have conducted searches of 5,100 commercial driver records, 45 of which resulted in a match with someone whose name was on the list.
"We must do our best to keep drug abusers out of our trucks and off our highways, and this Arkansas law is helping to make sure they don't get a job as a truck driver," Arkansas Trucking Association president Lane Kidd said.
Kidd said the association would support a federal law that would create a national database similar to the one in Arkansas.
A study released last month by the Government Accountability Office showed that 19 out of 37 commercial drivers who had a positive drug test in the last two years were hired elsewhere less than a month later — keeping quiet about their previous test result.
These tractor-trailer or bus drivers, who had tested positive for cocaine, amphetamines or marijuana, passed a new pre-employment drug test. They subsequently operated commercial vehicles for periods ranging from one month to over a year, GAO said.
Commercial drivers can operate vehicles weighing 40 tons or more.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, led by Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., is looking at ways to help get unfit commercial drivers off the nation's highways. One proposal would create a clearinghouse for drug test results for commercial truck drivers to make it easier for employers to conduct checks.