Possible New Changes to Tractor Trailer Driver Regulations
The Department of Transportation (DOT), which regulates the trucking industry in an effort to prevent serious accidents involving semi trucks, issues a variety of safety regulations. Some of the regulations deal with drug and alcohol testing as one obvious goal of the DOT is to make sure truck drivers are sober and people with drug and/or alcohol problems are not employed as semi truck drivers.
The current regulations require trucking companies to test prospective tractor trailer drivers for drugs and alcohol before they are put out on the roads. The regulations also require semi truck drivers who have been in serious accidents where they have been cited to go to a drug and alcohol testing facility as soon as possible after the accident to be tested. While these regulations are a good idea, unfortunately, they are not very strictly enforced by anyone.
In an effort to make the safety regulations more effective in preventing serious accidents and weeding out bad semi truck drivers, the DOT has proposed new, tougher regulations. They include expanding drug testing to look for ecstasy or MDMA; expand initial drug testing to look for heroin and lower the cutoff levels for the cocaine and methamphetamine tests.
