How often are truck drivers abusing drugs and alcohol?

The truck driving profession can be a difficult and lonely one, and unfortunately, many truck driving professionals seek to combat the loneliness and deal with the difficulties of the job by abusing drugs or alcohol. While anyone who uses drugs or alcohol prior to getting behind the wheel presents a serious danger to other motorists, truck drivers who do so may present even more of a public threat simply because of the size and weight of their vehicles.

When cars and commercial trucks crash, the drivers and passengers in the smaller automobile are typically the ones to suffer the most severe injuries. Truck drivers who drink alcohol or abuse substances before getting behind the wheel can seriously hinder their driving ability in doing so, which in turn can dramatically increase your risk of a truck-involved accident, injury or fatality. So, just how common has substance abuse become among today’s semitruck drivers?

Trucker alcohol and substance abuse statistics

Per the American Addiction Centers, the number of truckers abusing alcohol and drugs is alarmingly high, and researchers believe there is a clear and direct correlation between this high incidence of substance abuse and the isolated nature of the truck driving profession. While truck drivers may turn to alcohol or drugs while at work for any number of different reasons, the results of 36 studies conducted over a 13-year span reveal that this is an extremely common problem in the industry.

So much so, in fact, that up to 91 percent of the semitruck drivers involved in those studies reported that they had drunk alcohol while on the clock at some point or another. The studies also revealed that amphetamine abuse at work is quite common among this population, with 82.5 percent of truck drivers involved in those 13 studies acknowledging having used amphetamines.

Regardless of their reasoning for using drugs or drinking alcohol on the job, truckers who do so take needless risks and unnecessarily endanger every driver and passenger on the roadway in doing so.