The state of Arizona has just passed a new law requiring that every transportation company require drug tests annually for their drivers. This includes taxi drivers, limosine drivers, bus drivers, and delivery drivers. Most drivers support the new law and many of them report that the employers that have hired them on contract have often required drug testing upon hire already, so it is nothing new for them. Some transportation companies and the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Arizona are opposed to the new law, stating that such laws in the past have been ineffective, invade employees’ privacy, and lack an appeals process in the case of false positive test results.
While these concerns are valid considerations, most voters felt that since the drivers were voluntarily seeking employment providing a service to the general public, that of transporting passengers to various places, that such accountability and safeguards for public safety were warranted. If a driver doesn’t want to be tested, he or she doesn’t have to be a driver responsible for other people’s lives. If a driver is on public streets, especially when transporting passengers, it is not asking too much that he or she verify their compliance to state and national DUI laws through random and frequent drug testing.
Truck drivers have been required to comply with laws requiring random drug testing for many years. It only makes sense that drivers who are transporting human lives meet the same requirements.
American Screening Corporation 