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“What do fleets do with the drunken driver?”

VANCOUVER -- Here’s a question you’ve never had to answer before.

Say one of your drivers gets busted for DUI in his own car, on his own time. As part of his fine, he has to install a breath-testing device on everything he drives, including your trucks.

Who pays for the device? You or the driver?

And who gets to tell your other drivers -- the ones who use the same vehicle on other shifts -- that they’re going to have to blow into a tube before they start the engine and every few miles thereafter if they want to keep the vehicle moving?

It’s not hypothetical.

In fact, according to the Vancouver Sun, the head of the B.C. Trucking Association (BCTA) Louise Yako has had it posed to her by a trucker in the northern part of the province.

Under a new provincial law that came into effect last September, cops can let first-time offenders escape a criminal charge by handing them an immediate 90-day suspension, a $500 fine, and forcing them to install the ignition interlock device on any vehicle the person drives.

That includes company trucks or cars.

Under the rule, anyone driving the vehicle must breathe into the device before starting it and then, at random intervals, pull over to re-blow, just to keep the vehicle running.

As Stephanie Melvin, acting superintendent of motor vehicles, told the Sun: "It doesn't matter what profession you're in. There are no exceptions to this rule."

In response, the BCTA is urging members to come up with a company policy on how to deal with these units – likely having to amend their drug and alcohol policies to take into account the new interlock requirements -- before the issue rears its head.
 

 
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Anonymous

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What fleets do with drunken drivers? Simple: fire them. It's a lot easier to get away from driving a semi-truck drunk than it is to do it while in a car. However, the consequences can be very disasterous. Just like the conduct of police officers when they're off duty... If a cop does the crime while off duty, he or she can be terminated. Same should apply to truckers as much as it does to other professions like doctors or nurses or bankers... Would you trust a pedophile as a physician to take care of a child of yours? Same goes with drunk drivers! While not in the same category, drunk drivers have a problem and it should not become a corporate problem. Therefore, who should pay? The driver with his job! Plain and simple... UNLESS (i just got a deviant idea), that the device polls for input of a sample every 10-15 miles. Something like that to make it annoying and unfeasible, then, probably my opinion would be somewhat different. Time to take back this profession and make it more professional while weeding out those who don't deserve to be behind the wheel, including those convicted of DUI. Get those problems addressed before making a living out of driving. And if I was an HR representative, I would add a policy that any vehicle that requires modification to accommodate a past legal conviction would be an immediate disqualification.

JimW

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Time to amend the right and wrong of things by stopping the stupid from making rules that just don't fit into today's world. 90 days means the drivers is parked or done. To make others pay for the sins of one is going to far, and in some cases puts the other driver at risk because they now have to adjust to a life style they didn't create. The stress on others trying to drive and blow plus make up time in traffic is plain stupid. Park the drunk and let others benefit from clear safer roads because it the one less theory.

Marco Beghetto

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Right. Except now you get into the 'human rights' minefield and so-called 'accommodation' that affects to many drug testing policies in canada.

Anonymous

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My insurance company would no longer cover that driver after such an incident. I would have no choice but to terminate a driver who was in that position.

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