The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has once again postponed publishing its new guidelines for hair drug testing until May 2025. The guidelines will apply to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), in addition to other U.S. federal agencies. The updated version and revise version of the guidelines was originally scheduled to be published in June 2023. The guideline release was already pushed back twice, initially to November 2023 and then to October 2024.

“There are a number of reasons why the timeline for a particular regulatory or deregulatory action may shift. Some reasons may include additional time for research, analysis, and stakeholder engagement or a number of other factors,” states the FMCSA website.

The new proposed guidelines would become a revision of the initial proposal issued in 2020, which received criticism from most sectors in the trucking industry. According to large carriers, requiring an alternative urine or saliva sample to serve as backup for any positive hair tests, as per the 2020 guidelines, rendered the guidelines ineffective, specifically for pre-employment screening. Moreover, they argued that the detection window for illicit substances and their metabolites in urine and saliva is much shorter than for hair samples, which could result in receiving both positive and negative test samples from the same donor. Similarly, small-business commercial drivers criticized the 2020 guidelines as both intrusive and discriminatory.

So far, the anticipated new hair testing guidelines have been accompanied by mixed reactions from the commercial transport industry and the public. “Mandating hair testing policies for professional truckers would only expand the opportunities for employment discrimination for drivers that refuse to submit hair samples, whether it be for faith-based or other medical reasons,” reads the statement by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.

“The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Associates feels that a mandate for hair testing would also cause more exposure to discrimination claims against employers. Some drivers may have medical or religious reasons for not wanting to submit to a hair test,” reads a statement released by the American Society of Employers (ASE). “However, hair testing seems to be the better option when it comes to safety. In 2021, 88,000 CDL holders who applied for jobs were asked to submit to both hair and urine testing. With the urine tests, a little over 400 drivers tested positive. With the hair tests, 4,000 drivers tested positive.”