Willy Nelson Trucking LLC. ????

[Mack Technician]

Spent 3 days this week in a training course with our company’s hydraulics trainer. He drops in from Oregon once a year. We’re going over Marijuana/alcohol regulations being enforced back home and abroad. He says no major fall-out from the pot legalization except kids eating THC candy. Anything we can’t figure out we googled, like why can a CDL driver’s BAC (in a personal vehicle) not exceed .04 when the standard is .08, etc. When it came to CDL and THC there wasn’t a lot of solid, available, info on how they are going to handle testing since it lingers in your circulatory system. Is there chatter in the fleets? Are they treating it as “federal DOT” so zero tolerance across the board, period? 

Edited April 6, 2019 by Mack Technician

[carlotpilot]

4 hours ago, Mack Technician said:

Spent 3 days this week in a training course with our company’s hydraulics trainer. He drops in from Oregon once a year. We’re going over Marijuana/alcohol regulations being enforced back home and abroad. He says no major fall-out from the pot legalization except kids eating THC candy. Anything we can’t figure out we googled, like why can a CDL driver’s BAC (in a personal vehicle) not exceed .04 when the standard is .08, etc. When it came to CDL and THC there wasn’t a lot of solid, available, info on how they are going to handle testing since it lingers in your circulatory system. Is there chatter in the fleets? Are they treating it as “federal DOT” so zero tolerance across the board, period? 

best I can gather is ZERO tolerance

Edited April 6, 2019 by carlotpilot

[hatcity]

Although it is legal in some states, your CDL is a Federally issued permit. The Feds have not recognized medical pot so…...see above

[Hobert62]

I’ve wondered and heard the same thing.  0

[JoeH]

Pot might be legal in some states, but it's illegal in all states due to federal law. So even if you're smoking it in a "legal" state, you're still breaking federal law. All states have adopted US DOT regulations for cars and trucks, so federal law applies to roads. There's some variations, primarily on bridge formulas and peak gvwr, but the core stuff is all pretty much the same.

Zero Tolerance.

[Mack Technician]

Never plan on being a stoner, don't smoke, seldom drink and it fascinates me...…………….Stoner dude sits at home smoking state-approved weed & eat'in Cheetos, Democratic politicians boast whimsically about how many drugs they did in college, the companies CEO has a chrome box for his nose candy and Mr.BlueCollar is told "stay sober, clean, and your going to piss in a cup if you wanna get paid (or score a job)".     

[JoeH]

6 hours ago, Mack Technician said:

Never plan on being a stoner, don't smoke, seldom drink and it fascinates me...…………….Stoner dude sits at home smoking state-approved weed & eat'in Cheetos, Democratic politicians boast whimsically about how many drugs they did in college, the companies CEO has a chrome box for his nose candy and Mr.BlueCollar is told "stay sober, clean, and your going to piss in a cup if you wanna get paid (or score a job)".     

Our 80,000# At 70 mph on drugs/alcohol is beyond dangerous. Personally I'm all for the random drug testing, etc. It weeds (pun intended) out people from the trucking industry simply by being a deterrent. Users shy away from jobs you have to get tested for.

They don't want to stop using. The thing about addictions is the addict orders everything in their life to support the addiction. A job with a zero tolerance is counter to that addiction tendency. 

Plus, I've met bosses that would probably buy dump trucks if there weren't any drug regulations because they couldn't give a rats @$$ if their guys are using or not. These are also the types that wouldn't maintain the brakes, etc. Personally I'm happy to have the drug regulations to keep that nightmare off the road.

[JoeH]

But yes it is ironic, MT!

Two places I'd loooove to see drug testing: unemployment line and welfare line.

[GA_Dave]

Another advantage to being retired, I no longer have to pee in a cup to keep my job!  I've never touched the stuff, but was tested more times than I can remember during my 28 years on the job.  Even my Chief knew it was unnecessary for me to get "randomly" picked as often as I was.  He told me one time to just consider myself as part of the "control group"!

[Mack Technician]

I don’t disagree with necessity. You can eventually get sick and tired of a lifetime parole for which you get no credit for good behavior, like with Dave. 

One time I went in and there was this old fella doing the tests. He looked like he was in great shape for his age, solid built and about retirement age. Talked to him for a while and realized he was one of those disciplined life military guys. Real frank about things, straight talk, no B.S. I asked him “you do this pretty regular, how many do you get?”. He said “I never know with the urine tests, but I had a guy come in a few weeks back, early morning, not a urine test, he pulled the random breathalyzer. He blew positive, a real low number. I said to the guy blowing “what you been drinking, this is suppose to read zero?” He told me “Super Bowl Sunday and his team won”. I threw out the test and zero’ed one for him. You can’t expect this guy to pass clean the morning after a Super Bowl!!”. 

[41chevy]

10 hours ago, Mack Technician said:

Never plan on being a stoner, don't smoke, seldom drink and it fascinates me...…………….Stoner dude sits at home smoking state-approved weed & eat'in Cheetos, Democratic politicians boast whimsically about how many drugs they did in college, the companies CEO has a chrome box for his nose candy and Mr.BlueCollar is told "stay sober, clean, and your going to piss in a cup if you wanna get paid (or score a job)".     

MOXIE Addict I bet 

[Mack Technician]

9 hours ago, 41chevy said:

MOXIE Addict I bet 

Just cause you cut the can open and lick the brown dried soda out of the bottom doesn’t mean your an addict. Right? I mean everybody does that? 

Speaking of making new addicts..... somewhere in the Midwest the feds (USPS) are bringing a shipment to Maine. Twigs Farmer’s Brewery butterscotch root beer. 

Edited April 11, 2019 by Mack Technician

[41chevy]

1 hour ago, Mack Technician said:

Just cause you cut the can open and lick the brown dried soda out of the bottom doesn’t mean your an addict. Right? I mean everybody does that? 

Speaking on making new addicts..... somewhere in the Midwest the feds (USPS) are bringing a shipment to Maine. Twigs Farmer’s Brewery butterscotch root beer. 

[Freightrain]

I remember 25 odd years back, my work(machine shop), the owner was going to mandate random testing.  I said  "Good".  The only problem was we had a couple guys that said "Save your money".  They were good machinist, had good skills and didn't miss work.  We didn't have safety issues.  It was short lived and never tried testing again.  Granted they aren't driving 80K lbs trucks, but getting caught up in a big lathe isn't a good thing either.

In my 33 years, we've only had one bad incident and that was just pure stupidity on the operator.