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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.
DOT Cuts Random Drug Testing Amount in Half
DOT Cuts Random Drug Testing Amount in Half
In case you didn't know it, the DOT and the FMSCA has cut the required amount of random drug testing in half.
The required amount of random drug testing was cut in half to only 25%. The change is applicable whether the random pool your company’s employees are in is made up of only your own employees or a consortium pool made up of employees from multiple companies.
This is not the first big cut in DOT random testing requirements
When the DOT Drug Free Workplace regulations came out in 1996 the required random drug testing percentage was 50% of the average number of drivers in the pool and 25% for random alcohol testing. Also drug and alcohol screening were required for pre employment at that time.
But the DOT keeps track of how the testing regulations are working out industry wide and makes adjustments to the requirements based on that research. In one case they eliminated pre-employment alcohol testing and a few years after the regulations came into effect they reduced the amount of random alcohol testing from 25% to 10%.
Why it's great news
This is all great news in many ways as the DOT has seen a reliably low rate of positive results on random drug tests and felt it safe to reduce the amount of random drug testing needed. That also means less money spent on testing for employers and less employee time lost in testing related activities.
If you want to know more about the required testing rates and how much drug and alcohol testing your company is required to do you should check out the blog post for that right here.
Can you skip pre-employment testing?
When can you skip pre-employment testing?
When you hire a new driver for your company or are an owner-operator starting your own DOT drug-free workplace program you’ve got to do pre-employment testing before hitting the road. If you skip it you are at risk for costly fines and might even be shut down depending on the situation.
So does that mean you always have to do a pre-employment test every time a driver is hired? First, you don’t ever need to do pre-employment alcohol testing ever. It’s not required. So don't waste your time and money on it.
So when is pre-employment drug (only) testing required:
- When you as a driver start a business under your own authority.
- When you hire a new driver.
- When a part time driver has not been active in your random pool for 30 days or more.
There are some exceptions that will allow you to skip pre-employment drug testing. You may skip it if a driver (or you as an owner operator)...
were in another DOT complying drug program within 30 days of when they (or you) start in your program and...
were either tested (any required type) within the last six months or...
were in the previous program for a full year prior to starting in yours and...
You can get a signed verification of their (or your) participation in the previous program from the previous employer or program administrator.
If it’s been longer than 30 days or either of the other two conditions aren't true or you can't get verification in writing--then you’ll need to get pre-employment testing done before that driver gets in the cab and drives.
It’s important to get it done because this is one of the areas that inspectors often fine motor carriers for, and the fines can be very costly. Also the liability for a motor carrier that allows an untested driver behind the wheel can be devastating if a driver gets caught or causes a serious accident.
What types of testing are you required to do?
What types of testing are you required to do?
If you are required to have a DOT drug testing under the regulations for motor carriers found in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Title 49 part 382 and 40 , then there are 5 types of drug and 4 types of alcohol testing you must do when required.
DOT approved drug testing for all drug screening is a NIDA 5 panel drug screen, collected at a complying collection site, packaged and shipped in a complying chain of custody processed, tested at a Federally approved clinical laboratory, and reported by a Medical Review Officer (MRO) following DOT guidelines for handling results.
DOT approved alcohol testing comes in two types and two approved methods. The initial screening can be done by any Federally approved breath or saliva screening method. However if an initial alcohol screening test is above the allowed limit, then a second confirmation test must be done using a federally approved Evidential Breath Testing device (EBT). Blood testing is not allowed for either the initial screening or confirmation testing.
Pre-employment drug testing (no alcohol)
The first type of testing is pre-employment drug screening of new employees who are required to be a in a drug-free workplace program. Typically those are employee required to hold a CDL license. There are exceptions to the rule for pre-employment testing (click here to see the post covering it detail).There is no required pre-employment alcohol testing.
Random drug and alcohol testing
Random drug and alcohol testing is to be submitted to by covered employees (generally CDL holders) who have been selected by a scientifically random method at the rate required by the regulations. An employee who has been notified of a required test must proceed immediately for testing. They may not refuse, interfere with, or tamper with the testing in any way or it will be considered a refusal which carries the same consequences as a positive result.
Post-accident drug and alcohol testing
Whenever a covered driver has an accident that either results in an injury to any party, requires any vehicle involved to be towed, or results in a citation to the CDL driver, they are required to submit to post-accident drug and alcohol testing. They are to have the testing done as soon as possible which can sometimes present some challenges depending on the location of the accident and the hour of the day. There are some cases where if the testing is delayed too long it can be skipped but there is some extra documentation required to explain the delay/omission of testing.
The last two types of testing are both for employees that are returning to work after a positive (or violation with the same consequences).
The first is Return to Duty drug or alcohol testing (depending on the circumstance). It/they must be administered and return negative before an employee is allowed to return to safety sensitive duties.
The second is Follow Up testing. This type of testing can vary in frequency which is determined by a Substance Abuse Professional (SAP) who makes the determination (following the DOT guidelines) when/if an employee is allowed to return to safety sensitive duty and how often they are to have follow up testing.
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