Commercial truck drivers are subject to periodic drug and alcohol testing. A commercial truck driver is not permitted to drive with a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of greater than .02. Drivers testing at this level are not permitted to perform “safety-sensitive functions”, which includes driving, for at least 24 hours after the test. A driver whose BAC exceeds .04 may not return to duty without submitting to further testing. Drivers are also tested for marijuana, cocaine, opiates, amphetamines, and PCP.

On May 15, 2008, the General Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report recommending improvements in the enforcement of drug and alcohol safety rules regulating the trucking industry. The GAO notes that this is an important issue of public safety: previous studies have found that driving under the influence of drugs, alcohol, or both can increase the risk of truck crashes anywhere from two-to six-fold.

Some key findings of the GAO study are: 1) many carriers, especially new one, have no drug testing program at all; 2) drug users may avoid detection by “adulterating or substituting their urine specimens with products that are widely available and marketed as allowing drivers to ‘beat’ the test;” and 3) drivers who test positive may continue to drive by hopping from one job to the next. Perhaps most tellingly, the GAO concluded that the FMCSA is able to conduct, on average, only 13,000 compliance reviews annually even though there are over 700,000 carriers registered with the Department of Transportation.

The GAO’s report calls for the Secretary of Transportation to expedite improving safety audits and to implement a national database of drug testing information. The GAO also suggests that Congress consider (1) adopting legislation to ban “subversion products” used to “beat” drug testing, (2) providing FMCSA with additional authority over entities involved in the drug testing process, and (3) encouraging or requiring states to suspend commercial driver’s licenses of drivers who fail or refuse to take a drug test.

The full report of the GAO may be found here.

Commercial truck drivers work long hours under physically demanding conditions. Ensuring that drivers get enough rest is a critical component of truck safety. That is the purpose of the federal Hours of Service regulations.

Commercial truckers transporting property (the rules for passenger trucks are a bit different) are subject to daily and weekly limits on the number of hours they are permitted to work.  Generally, drivers are permitted to work no more than 14 consecutive hours. Of that time, only 11 hours may be devoted to driving. (The remaining time may be devoted to paperwork, loading and unloading, etc.) After exhausting these limits, drivers are required to spend a minimum of 10 consecutive hours off duty.

Drivers are subject to weekly limits as well. The regulations prohibit driving after the driver has been on-duty 60 hours in 7 consecutive days, or 70 hours in 8 consecutive days. Drivers may restart the 60 or 70 hour clock by taking no less than 34 consecutive hours off duty.

Drivers must record their status throughout the day as either “off-duty”, “sleeper berth”, “on duty, not driving”, or “driving.” An example of a completed log book is provided by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration here.

In truck crash litigation, it is important to study the driver’s logbook, but that is only a first step. The Hours of Service regulations are well known in the trucking industry, and commercial truck drivers will rarely confess to a violation in the log book. The possibility of falsified log books must always be considered. Log book entries should be compared to other evidence including receipts for fuel and food, credit card statements, cell phone records, bills of lading and other shipping records, loading dock security logs and servailance tapes, and GPS tracking data. A determination about whether a trucking crash was caused by a violation of the Hours of Service rules can be made only after all of the evidence has been considered.

Due to the complexities of the commercial trucking industry, it is not always easy to identify the parties who should be held accountable for a truck crash. Of course, the negligent truck driver is most often a responsible party. But the truck driver’s employer is also legally responsible for damages caused by its employee who is negligent while working. The following example illustrates why it can be difficult to identify a truck driver’s employer.

Consider the following situation: Mr. Bell drives a truck owned by his employer, Wyckoff Trucking. Wyckoff leases the truck (and Mr. Bell’s services as a driver) to a company called Rogers. Under the lease, Rogers is entitled to use the truck at any time for its business purposes, but Wyckoff is allowed to hire the truck out to other customers when Rogers does not need it. Such “trip lease” arrangements are common in the trucking industry. Wyckoff can make a profit only if it can trip lease the truck when the truck would otherwise be empty on the return trip after dropping off Rogers’ cargo.

After dropping off a load for Rogers, Bell enters into a trip lease with Marsh Company. On his way to pick up with load for Marsh, Bell causes a crash with another motorist. (more…)