Waynes World - December 2007

OFFICIALS NOW ENFORCING ENGLISH RULE,
COURT DELAYS HOS RULING, AND...

MORE STATISTICS ON
WORKERS & DRUG USE
By Wayne Schooling

1 IN 12 UNITED STATES WORKERS USE DRUGS
One in twelve full-time workers in the United States acknowledges having used illegal drugs in the past month, according to government reports. Most of those who reported using illicit drugs were employed full-time, with the highest rates being among restaurant workers (17.4%) and construction workers (15.1%), according to this federal study. About 4% of teachers and social service workers reported using illegal drugs in the past month, which was among the lowest rates. Federal officials said the survey was not designed to show whether illicit drug usage in the workplace is a growing problem or a lessening one.

The current usage rate is 8.2%. Two previous government surveys reflected a usage rate of 7.6% in 1994 and 7.7% in 1997, but those studies involved a much smaller sample of interviews. The latest study comes from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, an agency within the Heath and Human Services Department. The data is drawn from the agency’s annual surveys in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Each survey included interviews with more than 40,000 people, who were each paid $30 to participate. An agency official said that most of the illicit drug use involved marijuana.

Anne Skinstad, a clinical psychologist and researcher, called the survey’s results “very worrisome” because there are fewer treatment programs than there used to be to assist employees and employers with drug dependence. However, testing programs for drug use are fairly prevalent, with 48.8% of the workers telling the government that their employers conducted testing for drug use.

The study showed that the prevalence of illegal drug use reported by workers in the past month was highest among younger workers. 19% of the workers age 18 to 25 said they used illegal drugs during the past month, compared with 10.3% among those 26 to 34; 7% were among those age 35 to 49; and 2.6% among those 50 to 64. Men accounted for about two-thirds of the total workers – 6.4 million – who reported using illegal drugs in the past month, the agency said. Men were also more likely than women to report illegal drug use – 9.7% for men, versus 6.2 % for women. The study also looked at alcohol use by workers and found that 10.1 million full-time workers (8.8%) reported heavy alcohol use. Heavy alcohol use was defined as drinking five or more drinks on one occasion at least five times in the past 30 days.

OFFICIALS ENFORCING LANGUAGE RULE
Interstate truck and bus drivers across America may find themselves pulled off the highway if state troopers or inspectors find they can’t speak English. The requirement has been on the books for decades, but enforcement began ahead of a program to allow Mexican trucks in the U.S. interior. “We have found people in violation of this for a number of years and we’re working hard to correct it,” said John Hill, head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Since 1971, federal law has said that commercial drivers must read and speak English “sufficiently to understand highway traffic signs and signals and directions given in English and to respond to official inquiries.” Now, after more than a decade of legal wrangling, U.S. highways are opening up to trucks from Mexico – leading to disruptions in the border status quo.

Mexican truckers said they would leave merchandise in Mexican warehouses if U.S. authorities insisted on fines for not knowing English in the border zone. U.S. commercial drivers going into the Mexico interior, as part of the reciprocal agreement, will have to be able to speak Spanish.

COURT STAYS HOS RULING 90 DAYS
The Washington D.C. Court of Appeals recently made a decision to keep the current hours-of-service (HOS) regulations in place until December 27, 2007 to give the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) more time to consider possible changes in the rules in light of the court’s earlier July 24, 2007 decision. At that time, the court voided the 11-hour driving limit and the 34-hour restart provisions of the HOS regulations on procedural grounds.

The American Trucking Associations (ATA) filed a motion on September 6, 2007 asking that the court keep the current HOS provisions in place for an eight-month period, allowing the FMCSA time to issue a new final rule. In its motion, ATA stated that a stay was needed to prevent disruptions to trucking operations and that a change to the HOS regulations requires months of preparation for trucking companies.

On September 21, 2007 FMCSA filed a memorandum with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals asking the court to delay implementing the recent ruling on the HOS regulations governing commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers. The agency expected the necessary regulatory process to take approximately 12 months, and urged the court to grant a stay of 12 months, rather than just the 8 months requested by ATA. Under the Court’s Rule 41, however, any stay of a mandate does not extend beyond 90 days, thus, the December 27, 2007 date was kept.

After the court’s ruling, ATA indicated in a press release that it was pleased the court granted its motion for a stay in part. The association said that it was confident that the court had provided FMCSA with sufficient time to issue an interim rule that retains the 11-hour driving limit and the 34-hour restart. It also said that it would urge FMCSA to proceed to a final rule in a timely manner.

~ NTA remains a name you can trust. Our website is your official U.S. DOT Internet Training Site and we are administrators of a Nationally Accredited Drug and Alcohol Program. If you have any questions, visit www.ntassoc.com or call me at (562) 279-0557 or send me an e-mail to wayne@ntassoc.com. Until next month, “Drive Safe – Drive Smart!”