Arkansas Business: Truck Driver Hair Testing Moves Forward at J.B. Hunt

Arkansas Business: Truck Driver Hair Testing Moves Forward at J.B. Hunt by Chris Bahn. One of the nation’s largest trucking companies drug tests the hair of its drivers. The government prefers UAs; trucking companies prefer hair testing.

Positive results for drug use have kept more than 3,200 prospective drivers — including 1,700 who used cocaine and 71 who used cocaine in combination with opiates, heroin or amphetamines — from getting behind the wheel for J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. since May 2006.

While the pre-employment drug screening results might have kept those drivers off the J.B. Hunt payroll, they were not prohibited from climbing into the cab of an 18-wheeler elsewhere. All they had to do was find a company that does not use hair follicle testing and then abstain from drug use, depending on the substance, for as little as 24 hours.

Current government regulations in place stipulate that urinalysis remains the only universally accepted and sharable method of drug testing for transportation companies. While firms are free to supplement their pre-employment screening with a more stringent method like hair testing, they are not allowed to report the findings outside of their own human resources offices.