Arkansas Trucking Association

Up Front- Speed of Flight

Shannon Newton
President, ATA

You’re used to reading about trucks in this space, but as a nod to our cover story, George Henry and his passion for flight, I want to praise a moment in aeronautic history when sharing information allowed humanity to reach new heights.

You know the story of the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, and how two bicycle mechanics achieved groundbreaking advancements in aerodynamics that led to controlled flight and airplanes.

An early pioneer, Otto Lilienthal, was a German aviator who built a hang glider with wings that he improved through a series of experiments. He was an inspiration to the Wright brothers, and they used data he collected as they invented their own flying devices. While helpful in the beginning, Lilienthal’s data wasn’t enough for Orville and Wilbur to take flight. They built a new tool—their own wind tunnel to gather aerodynamic data for calculations—and from that information, they built their first piloted aircraft. The flight test at Kitty Hawk only lasted two minutes, but a year later, they had a new prototype and tested again. The progress made in just a few years led to the 1903 Wright Flyer, the first heavier-than-air powered aircraft.

There’s a lesson to be learned in the Wrights’ resolve to not settle for existing data and to discover new tools for more information. The result led to better, safer flight for everyone.

Now, let’s get back to trucking and the data we have. In 1991, with staunch support of the trucking industry, Congress passed a requirement that CDL holders and other transportation employees in safety-sensitive positions be subject to mandatory urinalysis drug testing, aligning with policies many motor carriers already had implemented. Twenty-five years later, advancements in technology gave motor carriers options, and in 2015, Congress passed legislation requiring the Health and Human Services Department to create guidelines for hair testing, a tool that provides fewer loopholes and more comprehensive data than the urinalysis. Ten years later, we still don’t have these guidelines from HHS.

While most carriers utilize urinalysis to screen their drivers, it’s no longer the only tool available. Some carriers choose to implement a more stringent threshold, looking further back and capturing a driver’s lifestyle, rather than their immediate past. But because there are no established guidelines from HHS, carriers can’t share the results of hair tests in the Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse to warn other employers. Motor carriers could make better decisions about their prospective employees, the reputation of their business and the safety of our highways, if provided access to all the information available.

The miracle of flight was not a miracle. It was the urgent search for better data. And ultimately the availability and access to shared information of passionate aviators enabled aircraft to take flight.

The House of Representatives just passed a funding bill for the HHS attempting to again require them to establish those hair testing guidelines. It’s almost a decade after Congress asked for this work to be done—a long time when you consider the Wrights’ speed, but we have to celebrate the progress. Even if this flight was delayed, the destination is safer travel for everyone.