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Can you cheat on drug and alcohol tests and get away with it?
Can you cheat on drug and alcohol tests and get away with it?
Part one: How alcohol testing works.
The short answer to that often asked question; “Can you cheat on drug and alcohol tests and get away with it?” is probably not. And it’s especially hard to do it if at all with DOT drug screening or alcohol testing here’s why.
The DOT mandated testing methods that are hard to beat and made it even harder over the years.
Most dot alcohol tests are breath alcohol testing using evidential breath testing equipment. Testing with non evidential breath testing devices and saliva alcohol testing are also allowed by the regulations much less used because they are only allowed for initial screening but not for confirmation testing if an initial screen is a positive requiring a confirmation test.
There are also time requirements so even if you tested using screening devices you’ll still need to have evidential breath testing equipment nearby in order to stay in compliance if a positive initial screen need a confirmation test now.
In general there are many reliable ways that I know of to be any type of alcohol testing. They all look for the presence of alcohol in your system and measure it as a blood/alcohol concentration (BAC) in your blood.
- Saliva alcohol testing looks at alcohol present in the saliva
- Breath alcohol tests convert breath from your deep lungs where alcohol is releasing into your lungs where the blood and the air you breath come together. That alcohol is converted into energy and that is used to measure the blood/alcohol concentration (BAC) level.
In summary while there are some ways to cheat a drug screen there aren’t any ways to cheat an alcohol test that I can think of unless you can substitute someone else’s saliva or breath and not have the alcohol testing tech not notice. Not likely. Alcohol testing techs are required to have very specific DOT approved certified alcohol tech training to follow a strict protocol for conducting tests so I wouldn’t count on any gaming the tech strategies unless they were in on it too-again this being real live that’s not likely to happen either.
Service Agents Series: Your Required Medical Review Officer or “MRO”
Your Required Medical Review Officer or “MRO”
This is the third installment in a series about the roles of DOT Service Agents (SAs) the people who help you implement your drug free workplace program.
After an employee participates in a DOT urine drug screen the specimen is sent by the urine collector to and processed by a DOT approved laboratory.
That process generates an initial result that is electronically sent to and reviewed by an Medical Doctors acting in the DOT Service Agent role of Medical Review Officer or “MRO”.
The urine collector also is required to send or electronically transmit the Medical Review Officer copy of the DOT urine collection Control and Custody Form of “CCF” to the MRO.
The MRO’s job is to review the initial result of a drug screen and determine several things:
- Is the result properly documented?
- Have they (the MRO’s office) received their copy (physical or electronic) of the drug screen form yet?
- Does the (the MRO) require additional information to determine the final result of a drug screen and report it.
- Is the test a positive drug screen result requiring an interview with the urine donor (employee that got tested)?
- Make contact with the donor (employee that got tested) when required and contact the employer when required.
- Make the final determination of the result
- Report the result of the drug screen to the donor’s employer either directly or through their (the donor’s employer) service agent authorized to do so.
- Determining and reporting negative DOT drug screen results
Most of the time results are negative and don’t require any further action on the part of the MRO’s office so they report them out usually within 24 of receiving the initial results. Most MRO’s offer multiple options for getting a result including secure fax, email, and secure web portal access.
Determining and reporting positive DOT drug screen results
In the event of a positive result depending on how long it takes the MRO to get in touch with a donor (if the MRO needs to speak to them) before determining and reporting a result. Sometimes positive results can take a day or two longer to report.
The DOT requires results be processed and reported in a timely way so generally results are available between 24 to 48 hours after the lab receives the urine sample.
Delays in reporting results
MROs aren’t allowed to report a DOT urine drug screen result until they have their copy and are able to determine it was filled out properly.
In some cases when the collection site does not send the MRO copy of the testing form to the MRO, results can end up being delayed until they receive it.
Mydrugtestingprogram.com sets all our clients up with an MRO that offers 24/7 online access to results and records through a secured system as well as 24/7 toll free live customer service.
Service Agent Series 2: Your DOT approved and certified lab
Your DOT approved and certified lab
The DOT regulations require that motor carriers required to have a drug free workplace program work with a laboratory certified by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMSHA).
How do you get set up with an approved lab?
Most motor carriers work with a Third Party Administrators TPA who handles getting you set up with an certified clinical lab and a Medical Review Officer (MRO) (we cover MROs in another blog post).
The lab then has special DOT drug testing collection forms called “control and custody” (CCF) forms customized for you and printed and then sent to you. These are the forms that your driver takes with whenever having any required drug testing done. The collection site staff fills the form out and packages it up with special DOT approved specimen collection kits that are then shipped to the lab for processing.
What the laboratory does:
The Laboratory receives the packaged up urine specimen and the lab copy of the Control and Custody Form filled out during the collection. The Lab follows strict federal guidelines for processing the specimen and testing it for controlled substances.
What drugs does the lab test for and how
For DOT testing the lab runs what’s called a NIDA 5 panel drug screen that tests for the presence of the drug itself or the metabolites that the body produces when the drug is in it’s system.
Here are the five classes of drugs that are tested for:
- Marijuana
- Cocaine
- Opiates – opium and codeine derivatives
- Amphetamines and methamphetamines
- Phencyclidine – PCP
When the lab is finished they transmit preliminary results to the Medical Review Officer (MRO) who then reports the final results to the driver’s employer and/or TPA depending on how they’re set up.
Under the DOT regulations labs are required to store (for a period of time) the second untested half of the urine specimen for retesting if an employee wished to contest a result. In those cases, after the notification of the request to retest, the lab will then send the remaining specimen to another certified lab for additional testing.
Generally you will have no direct contact or interaction with the lab pertaining to your account or test results. Mydrugtestingprogram.com handles getting our clients set up with a certified clinical lab and forms and MRO.
What a DOT Urine Drug Screen Collector does
What the DOT Urine Collector does
This is the first in a series of blog posts at mydrugtestingprogram.com where we’ll be discussing the roles of each of the Service Agents (SAs) that help you adminsiter your required DOT drug and alcohol testing program.
Today we’ll be covering the role of the person working at a collection site that takes your employee through the steps to conduct a urine collection for a DOT drug screen.
The DOT requires that urine drug screen collectors “…must receive qualification training…” The collectors must be trained by a “trainer” who meets the qualifications also outlined by the FMCSA regulations.
The collector training includes:
- The steps required to properly conduct a DOT urine collection.
- How to direct an employee in the process.
- How to fill out and transmit the special collection forms called control and custody forms (CCFs).
- How to handle various problems that come up during collection such as when the employee can’t go (or not enough) called a “shy bladder.”
- What to do if an employee attempts to tamper with a urine specimen.
- What “Flaws” or errors in the process are correctable and which aren’t.
- How to correct flaws in the collection process.
- What their responsibility is for the privacy of employees being tested.
- The “chain of custody” process to ensuring the security of the specimen
There are also requirements about the physical setting for a DOT urine drug screen collection beginning with cutting off employee access to water in the collection area to make it harder for an employee who might try to tamper with a specimen. They are also trained to not allow employees to wear jackets or outer clothing that could be used to conceal equipment used to substitute urine to cheat on on a drug test.
In the past the DOT regulations were far less demanding in regards to collector training which led to a lot of errors and problems in testing. In 2005 the DOT got much more demanding about requiring collectors to be properly trained and documented as such.
This is one of the reasons mydrugtestingprogram.com generally doesnt recommend motor carriers trying to do any in-house self collections as it requires a lot of training and dramatically increases their liability by taking on the collector role.
There’s a lot to know about the DOT drug screen urine collection process to get it right and a lot of liability risk if it’s not done right so it best left in the hands of those who’ve been properly trained and are paid to take on those responsibilities.
If you would like to know more about it you can check out the DOT web site covering it here: https://www.transportation.gov/odapc/part40/40_33
Mydrugtestingprogram.com helps our clients find and use a local collection site with properly trained urine collectors from their chopice of over 10,000 sites nationwide.
Your DOT Drug Program Service Agents
Your DOT Drug Program Service Agents
Today we’re starting a blog-post series covering the roles of what the DOT/FMCSA call “Service Agents.”
The FMCSA describes Service Agent as “…any person or entity, other than an employee of the motor carrier, used to help implement the DOT/FMCSA drug and alcohol testing regulations.”
When you think of Service Agents (SA) here’s who we’re talking about:
The trained urine collector (at your local collection site) who takes your employees through the approved urine collection process for DOT drug screening.
The alcohol technicians trained to perform DOT approved alcohol screening and confirmation services using Approved Breath Alcohol Testing devices with your employees having alcohol tests.
The laboratory that is responsible for processing your employees’ collected urine specimen according to the federal guidelines required by the DOT.
The doctor who serves as a Medical Review Officer (MRO) reviews results, researches and makes determination about positive results and reports your urine drug screen results to your company.
The substance abuse professional that follows DOT guidelines to work with an employee who has violated the testing regulations or gotten a positive result, or come forward to request help with a related problem and helps them get back to work.
The third-party administrator (TPA) that helps coordinate any number of services for you including random selections, notifications, reports, for individual employers and those with drivers in a consortium pool.
According to the the FMCSA you can hire service agents to help with many different aspects of your DOT regulated drug program but they still hold you 100% accountable for compliance with the regulations.
So obviously it’s crucial you understand the role and responsibilities of the Service Agents you work with, what they do, what you still need to do, and how to work with them.
Mydrugtestingprogram.com is Service Agent-TPA that helps our clients with their DOT drug and alcohol testing programs including setting up with other service agents such as collection sites, lab, and MROs.
Keep watching for the new entries in the Service Agent series helping you get to know what you need to about each.
Surviving a DOT Audit
Surviving a DOT Audit
Okay, so you just got a notification that an inspector from the Department of Transportation (DOT) will soon be paying your company a visit to do a compliance audit…and the panic sets in. But it doesn’t have to be scary as long as you know what to expect and are ready when they get there.
So what do you need to know and do to be ready for an audit?
First understand that sooner or later you will be audited either by the Federal DOT or your state’s equivalent authority. So you might as well just be ready when it happens. We specialize in drug-free workplace programs so I won’t advice you outside of that, but some of top things an inspector looks at for compliance (and give fines for) are:
- Drug and alcohol programs and records
- Driver Qualifications and records
- Drivers Hours of Service records
- Hazardous materials handling and records
- Vehicle maintenance and repair records
As far as your drug testing program I like to summarize what an inspector looks at as falling into three main areas; paperwork, training, and testing. Paperwork includes your company, driver, and supervisor files, records of training, test results, testing summary reports, your company drug-free workplace policy and other items.
You should have documentation that your drivers have had the required training including information about the use of the drugs that are tested for and alcohol, what conduct is prohibited, what constitutes a violation, the consequences of a violation, information about how to let you know if they feel they have a problem, who they can see for help, and who the company Designated Employee Representative (DER) is.
You should have documentation that your supervisors have had the required reasonable suspicion training to spot the indicators of drug or alcohol use in case they need to ask a suspected employee to submit for a test.
Finally you must have documentation for and conduct all required types of drug and alcohol testing including pre-employment, random, post accident, return to work, and follow up testing (for employees returning to duty after a positive result).
A failure in any of these areas can result in fines or even a suspension depending on the situation, so it pays to cross your “t’s” and dot your “i’s” to get into compliance.
Mydrugtestingprogram.com clients get a program that adresses each of these three areas including a handy “Compliance Checklist” which helps guide you step by step to get your office completely set up and ready for an audit.
Supervisor Training Required by the DOT
Supervisor Training Required by the DOT
When you’re setting up your new drug-free workplace program, one of the crucial areas to make sure you get right is your required training of supervisors. What type of supervisor training is required?
Supervisor reasonable Suspicion Training
The regulations state: “Each employer shall ensure that…” all supervisors of CDL holders “…receive at least 60 minutes of training on alcohol misuse and…60 minutes…on controlled substances use.
The purpose of the training is to familiarize supervisors (of CDL holders) with “…the physical, behavioral, speech, and performance indicators of probable alcohol misuse and use of controlled substances to determine whether reasonable suspicion exists to require a driver to undergo testing…”
In practical terms this is to ensure that those who are supervising CDL holders will be able to spot a drug or alcohol problem with the employee and deal with it proactively.
The consequences of not doing the supervisor training can be devastating to the public, to the employee, and to the company both financially and legally.
In one case I knew of a CDL driver in a semi veered off the road and ran over and killed a State Trooper who was doing a traffic stop on the side of the road. It turned out that the driver (who survived) had used controlled substances and was severely impaired.
In this case the problems for the company potentially went far beyond the cost of damages and insurance rates. When an accident like that happens it spurs an investigation into the employer too, and the authorities will be looking to see if the required supervisor training was done.
They would want to see the records of who was trained, and any records pertaining to the employee. If the company had done everything required that would go a long way to mitigate any liability on their part.
However if they hadn’t done the required supervisor training, then they would be in trouble, possibly with state and federal authorities, likely to be sued for negligence, face stiff fines, and possibly face criminal charges for endangering the public. Additionally the federal DOT can determine a company deserves a Public Interest Exclusion (PIE) and shut them down for good.
Mydrugtestingprogram.com offers complete supervisor training that complies with the DOT regulations. Its a part of our membership and is available 24/7 to download and play or stream online on any type of device. We also provide a Supervisor reasonable Suspicion Training Certificates to those completing the training and submitting the “Post Test.”
What does the DOT require of you?
What does the DOT Require of your company?
In 1996 The US Department of Transportation (DOT) established rules requiring drug free workplace programs for safety sensitive workers in the Trucking, Airline, Maritime, Railroad and Pipeline industries.
I like to summarize the requirements as basically falling into three categories of paperwork, training, and testing Requirements.
State vs Federal DOT Requirements:
Individual states mostly follow the Federal DOT regulations. So when you have an audit by either a state or federal official here’s what they’ll be looking for you to be in compliance with:
Paperwork and Record-keeping Requirements
A written company drug and alcohol policy for your employees who are covered under the regulations. An Employee Assistance program. Someone who is the Designated Employee Representative (DER) who is in charge of your drug testing program
You’re required to keep secure and confidential employee files with records including about their training, drug and alcohol testing, and other drug program related information such as Substance Abuse Professional, reasonable suspicion, and post accident testing notes.
You also must keep supervisor training records, summary reports, and any correspondence with your drug testing program consortium, lab, collection sites, Medical Review Officer (MRO) and program administrators such as Mydrugtestingprogram.com.
Employee and Supervisor Training Requirements
Safety sensitive employees such as CDL holders must be given training and information covering Employee Assistance Programs (EAP), the regulations they must comply with, what happens if they fail to comply, drugs and alcohol, a drug and alcohol policy, and voluntary self-disclosure of a problem.
Supervisors of safety sensitive employees are required to have two hours of training to spot and employee who is abusing/using drugs or alcohol.
Drug Testing Requirements
All covered safety sensitive employees must be in a valid random drug and alcohol testing program that tests at the percentage required by the current Federal DOT rules. In addition to random testing there is also pre-employment, post-accident, reasonable suspicion, and return to work and follow up testing following a positive result.
This is only a summary of what’s required. If you want to read the regulations Google “CFR 49 part 382”. Mydrugtestingprogram.com helps our clients to comply with the regulations in each of these areas with programs that are easy to start and and set up and affordable. Contact us today if you have questions at 800-413-4917.
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