Last updated : April 14, 2025
After a years-long wait for safety-sensitive employers who looked forward to ditching the urine drug test, there’s hope in sight. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is ready to publish its proposed guidelines for hair testing in May 2025. To say that it’s been a long time coming could be considered an understatement.
A full decade has passed since the Department of Transportation (DOT) submitted its original request for the change to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in 2015. The idea was originally introduced as part of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. Congress instructed HHS to complete the guidelines by December 2016, but the administration kept putting the brakes on the change.
For several years, the argument against approving the switch involved concerns pertaining to rights to privacy. Some against the change believed there were possible flaws in the test method that could prove detrimental. They had to do with the effects of environmental elements causing the potential for false positive results in some ethnic groups. Once the committee worked through those issues, other factors came into play.
Thought they were good to go
It took five years for the first set of proposed guidelines to be published for view. However, they were pulled back when met with wide-spread criticism from the industry. The loudest outcry was due to a rule calling for a “urine back-up test” to confirm the positive results of a hair follicle drug test.
Many in the industry felt that it made no sense that the DOT would require safety-sensitive employers to use a discontinued test as confirmation rather than treating the hair sample as urine tests are handled. Moreover, they would be paying for two collections of which one would rarely be used.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
When employees provide urine samples for drug testing, the specimen is split into two portions. One of them is drug tested immediately. The other is reserved. If an employee tests positive for drugs, the employee can request the split portion be tested for drugs as well.
If the hair follicle testing guidelines had gone into effect, both a hair sample and a urine sample would be required during a DOT drug test. The urine specimen would be held for testing if the hair test came up positive.
The industry at large saw no reason why a hair sample would not be treated in the same way urine samples are currently. Employers wouldn’t be responsible for incurring the expense of providing a urine test back up specimen that, in large part, would never be used. Moreover, they came up with a valid list of additional reasons not to use a urine sample back-up.
They included:
- If a “just in case” urine specimen is collected at the time the hair sample is taken, it can complicate the logistics of collectors or labs to store the authorized second urine specimen while waiting to see if it’s going to be tested.
- A driver can receive a positive hair drug test and a negative urinalysis because the hair test looks back at the previous ninety-day period. The urine test detects drugs in the system for up to a week depending on the drug type.
- Some laboratories don’t test for both hair and urine, which poses a huge inconvenience for employers who would need to have specimens shipped to separate facilities.
Is it finally on the horizon?
Many in the trucking industry are looking forward to going over SAMHSA’s hair testing guidelines in a few weeks. Hopefully, they will be finalized before much time passes. That’s because the benefit of looking back 90 days allows employers to pinpoint habitual drug use. It’s for that reason that many trucking companies already require employees to submit a urine sample for the DOT drug test and a hair sample as well.
A glance in the rearview
Employers have stated that when potential drivers discover that they will be asked to submit a hair sample, some get up and walk out of the interview. If that isn’t telling, what is? Those who agree to the test aren’t always happy to hear the results, either.
In 2021, the numbers looked like this:
- 88,000 commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders applying for jobs submitted both a hair and urine sample
- Over 400 drivers tested positive on the urine test
- 4,000 drivers tested positive on the hair test
It’s pretty hard not to acknowledge that difference.
Be on the lookout
If you employ a safety-sensitive workforce, be watching for the proposed guidelines release date. Leave a comment as to whether or not you agree with what you see.
Hair testing provides employers with evidence of habitual drug use. It’s tamper-resistant too because the drug metabolites fuse with the hair shaft, leaving permanent evidence. Moreover, once they are widely used, the cost may drop!
It’s time to be the squeaky wheel and make our voices heard en masse. We’re seeing that work speedily in other facets of our lives, so let’s keep it rolling that way.
