Steps of the FMCSA Drug Testing Program

Posted by SharonEvans on July 9th, 2013

The transportation industry has been shaken by severe accidents which resulted in the loss of human lives and significant material damages. Many of these accidents were caused by the fault of transportation employees who were under the influence of illicit drugs at the moment of the occurrence of the accident. Consequently, DOT has issued regulations which compel all companies in the transportation sector to subject their employees to alcohol and drug testing procedures; the fmcsa drug testing program, for instance, involves the testing of all those who operate commercial motor vehicles.

It should be noted that the testing frequency and modality may vary from one organization to the other; the fmcsa drug testing program, for instance, involves the carrying out of a series of tests, including pre-employment, reasonable suspicion, post-accident, random, return-to-duty and follow-up tests. The collected specimens are tested by certified laboratories, which analyze the urine specimens for drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, opiates and phencyclidine. Prior to being reported to the employer, the laboratory results are analyzed by a physician.

The drug testing process has two stages, namely the screening, meant to see whether the specimen tests positive for one or several drugs, and the confirmation, which involves the identification of the drugs with the help of state-of-the-art mass spectrometry technology. In case an employee tests positive, he can return to his duties only after undergoing rehabilitation and after the return-to-duty-test result is negative. The testing records are confidential and the results cannot be communicated to third parties without the written consent of the employee.

The implementation of an fmcsa drug testing program is mandatory for all FMCSA operators. In case you want to set up such a program, you have several options at your disposal: for example, you can form a consortium and elaborate a program for the group as a whole, you can hire a specialized company which will provide this service to you or you can choose to participate in the program of a larger carrier, depending on your needs and requirements. Anyhow, the main point is that all the organizations operating in the transportation industry have the legal obligation of enforcing an alcohol and drug testing procedure.

In case you decide to resort to the services of a company that will run the testing company for you, here are some tips that may help you make an inspired choice: to start with, you should select a company with numerous years of experience in the provision of drug testing solutions. Also, you may want to hire a company which puts at its customers’ disposal all the testing services that they could possibly need, including review and update of the current policy, elaboration and implementation of a new policy, database management, specimen collection, laboratory testing random selection of employees, supervisor training, confidential results reporting, etc. This way, you will have nothing to worry about, for your drug testing needs will be in very capable hands.

Let us help you implement a compliant fmcsa drug testing program and we guarantee that you will be very pleased with the results and efficiency of our procedures! Choose our comprehensive and reliable drug testing solutions and we promise that we will do everything in our power to meet and even exceed your expectations!