Suspicion Drug Test

It's funny how when some of you start thinking about someone's rights being violated all logical sense seems to drain completely out of your skulls.

Take a moment to think this through, will you? This person said someone called in on him claiming that they had some sort of knowledge that he was taking drugs.

What do you expect the company to do? Ignore it? Just blow it off like it's a sham or something?

I guarantee you that if he would have gotten into an accident after the company had ignored that call, the same people who are saying the company owes this guy money would have been screaming to the Gods that this company should be put out of business for not looking into this.

Instead, when the company does their due diligence and it turns out he's clean, suddenly you think the company should pay him? Why would the company owe this driver money? What did the company do wrong in this instance that they should pay him?

In fact, why shouldn't the driver owe the company money instead? I'm sure whoever called in must have identified him by name. So obviously someone who knows him either had a vendetta against him or honestly thought he was taking drugs of some sort. It wasn't the company's fault this happened. If anything it was the driver's fault. This cost the company a ton of money when their truck went out of service and they had to pay to have this driver tested. Who is going to reimburse the company for the money they lost due to no fault of their own?

I answered based on his telling the truth. Call me naive. What would you suggest if they called again next week, and the week after? Can we now empty any truckers wallet with a phone call? Nothing logical about that.

I question why it took a week. My CDL school test cleared same day. My Wolding urine cleared in 3 days or less.

The hair tests may take longer, but the urine is enough to legally clear him to drive.

I will admit, I reported someone for drinking and driving. Every time he parked there was a "really good bar and grill" next door. Everytime I saw him at the terminal it was obvious he was drinking. I said nothing until i was absolutely sure and he let it slip he drank just before his shift.

Based on my statement AND his recent service failures, several unneccesary repowers/relays, and a couple trailer scrapes, he was tested.

Im guessing rhere is more to the story

I also read it as two different occasions such as "i got popped for a random hair test" and then (sometime later) i was brought in on suspicion.

i thought he was using the passed hair random as a basis for the suspicion to be unfounded.

I can't think of many other jobs that requires a clear sober mind as much as trucking. Whatever company this is, it's good to know they take safety seriously, whether it's just policy or legal reasons.

I didn't realize in his initial post the company did just that, said the company called it a random. Correct me if I'm wrong but not every company has to have the same policy on how they identify reasonable suspicion? Like I was saying they could simply they say they did infact identify symptoms of some kind of drug abuse. Or say no he is mistaken it was simply a random and we have it documented as that. They could twist it all day. An attempt at litigation would be a lose lose either way.

Take them to small claims court for that weeks pay and find another job.

Well that's about the worst advice imaginable. Seriously, your best judgment on how to handle the situation would be to take your own company, a large corporation, to small claims court because someone called in to say they suspect you're using drugs and they pulled you off the road to test you? I don't even know what to say about someone who thinks that's a logical way to handle this.

Bill, I can see you're one of those people who gets outraged at every inconvenience and you feel everything a company does is somehow trampling on your rights. Try owning and operating a business sometime where you're legally liable for everything your workers do and see what it's like on the other side of things.

Try running a business that receives a phone call saying that a guy you hired and gave an opportunity to is operating an 80,000 pound vehicle with your name on it while doing drugs. Then, when it turns out not to be true, reach into your pocket and pull out a month's worth of profits and hand it to that driver and apologize for inconveniencing him.

If you think you're outraged now, think about that scenario.

If someone is calling in on that driver to say he's doing drugs then that driver needs to get his life and his relationships in order. If he made enemies then he needs to fix the situation somehow. It's not on anyone else to manage his life and relationships. The company did what they were legally obligated to do to protect themselves and the general public from a potentially dangerous situation. They don't owe anyone anything for doing that.

"Hmm I think I'll have one of my friends place an anonymous phone call accusing me of doing drugs. I'll get a week off and the company will have to pay me for it."

Yeah I know that sounds ridiculous. But its no more ridiculous than demanding compensation from a company who is simply doing the right thing for safety.

I just can't believe how quickly some will jump on the "everybody owes me" train. Its sickening really. The company could've simply just dumped this guy for any myriad of reasons. Instead they did their due diligence, gave him a chance to prove his innocence, and took a heavy loss also while doing so.

He has now risen above suspicion and will likely never have this problem again with this company. Yet some of you would call for litigation and or quitting the company?

Baffling.

What if the roles were switched? In simple terms, what if the driver had to call off for a week? Bad Thai food, got hurt playing football, whatever reason. Could the company then sue the driver for their losses? It wasn't their fault, right?

No, in fact the company would tell you to stay home and get better. They would also probably pay you sick time for it, even though it was your fault.

Apples and oranges, I know. But it's based on the premise that stuff happens. Its how you handle the stuff that shows your character.

Believe it or not this same sort of thing happend to me when I took my pre employment physical for commercial diving. I got a huge lecture from the doctor. Then the company asked my 4 other class mates, and they all said hell no Jerry didn't smoke week. Granted, 6 months prior, when I got out of the Navy I smoked like a chimney. But once I started dive school, I gave it up and never looked back.

So my experience was that I went home and started contacting other labs, and getting the "Sure you're clean, you druggy." attitude until one person listened to the whole story. Come to find out, the first test is non dot test and if you pass, your good to go. If you fail, they send it to a "stricter"? lab and those are the results that will actually stand in court. Mine cleared the second lab and I was hired without incident.

You don't really have a recourse (but i'm not a lawyer) but the best of luck to you

Take them to small claims court for that weeks pay and find another job.

Well that's about the worst advice imaginable. Seriously, your best judgment on how to handle the situation would be to take your own company, a large corporation, to small claims court because someone called in to say they suspect you're using drugs and they pulled you off the road to test you? I don't even know what to say about someone who thinks that's a logical way to handle this.

Bill, I can see you're one of those people who gets outraged at every inconvenience and you feel everything a company does is somehow trampling on your rights. Try owning and operating a business sometime where you're legally liable for everything your workers do and see what it's like on the other side of things.

Try running a business that receives a phone call saying that a guy you hired and gave an opportunity to is operating an 80,000 pound vehicle with your name on it while doing drugs. Then, when it turns out not to be true, reach into your pocket and pull out a month's worth of profits and hand it to that driver and apologize for inconveniencing him.

If you think you're outraged now, think about that scenario.

If someone is calling in on that driver to say he's doing drugs then that driver needs to get his life and his relationships in order. If he made enemies then he needs to fix the situation somehow. It's not on anyone else to manage his life and relationships. The company did what they were legally obligated to do to protect themselves and the general public from a potentially dangerous situation. They don't owe anyone anything for doing that.

I am not the least bit outraged. And I never once mentioned someone's rights being violated. You do this on a regular basis Brett, over amplify what somebody posts with pure speculation.

I just can't believe how quickly some will jump on the "everybody owes me" train. Its sickening really.

I couldn't agree more. Working in healthcare, I too, hear a lot of the "poor me" and "I'm entitled to" and "it wasn't my fault" and "I'm gonna sue..." It's ridiculous. Hardly anyone takes responsibility for their own errors or lapses in judgement anymore. Hopefully the original poster will chalk it up to a learning experience, albeit an expensive one, and move on. Best of luck, driver!