If Hair Follicle Testing Isn't Mandated By DOT Regulations. How Is It Legal For Companies To Put It On DAC Report.

I've read so many of these forums and others. If a person passes a urine analysis but fails a hair folicle it ruins their trucking career. Why??? Urine samples depict if drugs have been used recently. Hair follicle testing goes further back in ones past. It's sad that someone that has reformed from using drugs can't go on in life and better themselves. How is it legal for companies to put the failed hair folicle on anyones record if it isn't DOT approved due to so many variables of inconsistency?

It's not that hair follicle testing isn't DOT approved, it's just not mandated. It's optional. It's a better way of testing but at this stage it isn't required.

It's sad that someone that has reformed from using drugs can't go on in life and better themselves.

A hair follicle test is only going to go back probably 6 months, if that. They can go back a little further, but I think it would be pretty rare for a company to spend a ton of money to go back more than 6 months.

So think about it - you have to be clean for 6 months to pass a hair follicle test. Would you really consider someone "reformed" if they can't go 6 months without using drugs that are not permitted in commercial driving? I think that's a pretty small barrier to entry considering you're going to pilot an 80,000 pound death machine surrounded by innocent families, you know what I mean?

When you think about it, do you really want to be the guy on the other side of this argument in a safety-related field like trucking? Do you really want to make an argument for more lenient drug testing?

Companies can put anything factual related to your driving employment with them.

If you discover incorrect information, you can dispute it. If it's true, then it stays on your dac.

We have had many discussions on here about drug and alcohol use before and during one's trucking career. As Brett said the hair folicle testing goes 6 months back. With almost all companies we are subject to random drug testing and mandatory after an accident. I don't believe most people are clean and reformed after just 6 months. What happens when they have an overly stressful day? There is no room for alcohol and drugs with a CDL. My $0.02

I'm certainly not saying that testing should be more lenient by any means. It'd be a good step in making the roads safer. People change and yes 6 months of being drug free of any illicit drug is a sure step in the right direction. I attained my Class A in 2007 and have never failed any drug screen of any kind. I saw a report on Trucking Companies going to hair folicle testing and googled it for more information. The first thing that popped up was a post on Trucking Truth from a seasoned driver that failed a hair folicle after passing a UA and now his career is in turmoil. Im not posting to defend any druggies, just trying to attain more info on the subject. If its not a DOT approved substitute for urine analysis how can it be used against you for future employment?

Like I said, it's not that it isn't approved by the DOT , it simply isn't mandated. The DOT doesn't say you have to use hair follicle testing but you have the option of doing so. Urinalysis is required by the DOT.

Most of the time a law is the minimum requirement. Often times you're allowed to go above and beyond what the law requires. That's the case here. The law requires at least a urinalysis test but a company can go beyond that law to use hair follicle testing if they so choose, which is more stringent than urinalysis.

Companies can put anything on your DAC that is true. Example...you get fired for not reporting back from home time on time. It could say "failure to obey company policy". DOT has nothing to do.with that but most companies wont like it.

You are thinking about the DAC in the wrong way. the DAC is a record of your history...it might say "Hit a deer, non preventable". If no one was hurt, killed or towed, this is not a DOT recordable accident. but it coukd go on your DAC as non preventable incident. It is not a record of DOT offenses.

Swift does both urine (mandated by DOT) and hair follicle (more accurate & goes father back). I asked at the Swift health clinic how far back Swift "looks". The answer is 90 days. Sure, the things that the test is designed to look for last much longer in your hair, but the accuracy falls off over time.

The DAC is much like a credit report. There's nothing required by law to be in it, but the information in the DAC is used by many trucking companies. If it was important for driving a truck, I suppose the DAC could include your shoe size.

I worked as a lab tech x 6 years

I won't go into the process ans procedures.

But the samples are ran what is known as a Spectrograpic Analyzer.

They're calibrated, certified, etc

Daily and by shift with first, middle. Last through redundancy.

They measure in the. +/-, <> 0001 ppm (parts per million) range.

Most samples come up. 0001. Once in a while <. 0001.

Ocassionaly?

. 0010!!!!!

As a matter of business, especially in a self-insured company, it makes good sense to screen out as many possible issues as you can. Nobody can get to know the personal details of a person's life so intimately that they can make a call like that on a daily basis when you're handling a rather large volume of personnel like that. It's just reality. It sucks for some people, I'll grant you that, but the overall tendency is that they will come to regret that decision if they have a detectable level of an illicit substance in their hair from six months ago. 90 days to six months is pretty generous, really. If I were an owner an someone came saying "Yeah, I was a crackhead but I got over that last month" I'd just send them away. You're protecting your own interests on that one, and preventing catastrophe on the roadway. Add to that, it seems like people who imbibe in that way tend to think that the world owes them so much, like a trucking job that pays huge money for little effort and that is just not how the world works. It is outside of reality and I know none of us wants an unrealistic person with a very recent drug past and a likely altered cognition commanding a semi truck.