Marijuana testing, a factor to the national trucker shortage, one expert says

EL PASO, Texas – The national trucking shortage has taken about 80,000 truckers off the roads, According to the American Trucking Association.

Since December 2021, government data shows that more than 60,000 truckers have been in violation after testing positive for Marijuana use, causing them to be taken off the road.

One expert told Business Insider that this issue is making it harder on the growing labor shortage.

In 2020, the industry implemented the Clearinghouse Rule that lists all truck drivers that have been drug tested and received a positive result, in a federal database.

This allows other trucking companies to look up potential employees and identify drivers who got positive drug test.

Violation records stay in the Clearinghouse database for 5 years.

This puts people like Royal Jones, owner of Mesilla Valley Transportation, in a difficult position.

After being 100 truck drivers short, Jones said this is making it harder to hire people.

“...further, making people not want to be in this industry, whether you're clean or sober, every time you turn around it's your fault,” He said.

Jones said he drug tests more than 1,000 people a month– as per federal law, which causes him to lose even more drivers.

“Marijuana is legal in like every state but Texas,” Jones said. “They come out positive, I got to let them go and again that to me, it might be time for some change.”

Jones said, it’s unfair to the truckers because it targets people who use Marijuana and not alcohol, because it takes longer for THC to get out of your system.

Some local truck drivers told ABC-7 that they think the Clearinghouse rule is beneficial.

“I’ve got nothing to hide, I got no problems with the clearing house because it's another way that the companies can use to look at your past violations with drugs or whatever,” said Chris Bustillos, truck driver.

“It's actually better for everybody as a whole that they have that clearing house, if you can’t leave it alone to drive a truck then you really shouldn’t be driving a truck,” said Carlos Morales, truck driver.