President Trump signed into law a package aimed at curbing abuse of opioid drugs, and included in the legislative package is a provision that requires the Department of Health and Human Services to provide Congress with an update on the status of guidelines for conducting hair-sample drug tests.
In 2015, the FAST Act highway bill required the U.S. DOT to recognize hair-sample drug tests for truck drivers as an alternative to urine-sample tests, and DHS was given a year to produce guidelines for how those tests should be conducted. Three years later, fleets are still waiting for those guidelines.
The recent opioid bill requires DHS to provide a report to Congress before the end of 2018 and asks the department to explain why the protocol hasn’t been delivered yet and when they expect to do so.
Though many fleets conduct hair-sample testing, because this testing isn’t required, carriers are performing both hair and urine testing to comply with federal law. When DOT recognizes the hair sample tests, companies won’t need to also conduct urinalysis as well.
