Who Needs a Drug Testing Consortium?

DOT Required Random Testing – Are you in Compliance?

Owner-Operators

For owner-operators two important steps must be taken to comply with the DOT FMCSA regulations for drug and alcohol testing:

1. A pre-Employment test drug test with a negative result must be completed before operating a DOT covered commercial motor vehicle (CMV).
2. You must enroll into a random testing consortium. Owner-operators are not permitted to manage random testing themselves.

NON-DOT Employers

Although not required by regulation, many non-DOT or non-regulated employers often conduct random drug and alcohol testing. These non-DOT programs can be customized and managed by Elite Consortium Services with drug and alcohol testing available in all areas of the United States.

Why conduct random drug testing? What’s the best tool employers have for deterring drug and alcohol use in the workplace? Random Testing. Here are just a few of the reasons why:

• Saves lives and prevents injuries.
• Helps employers identify workers with substance abuse issues and facilitate their treatment.
• Allows employees to easily say no to illegal drug use. "No, thanks. They drug test at work.”
• Reduces employer liability.
• It is a fair way of testing

In most states random testing of DOT regulated employees and safety sensitive employees is legal and a sound business practice. In some states, there may be some prohibitions against random testing of non-safety sensitive employees. Compliance experts at US Drug Test Centers can assist with the legality of random drug and alcohol testing in your state.

Random testing is performed on an unannounced, unpredictable basis on employees whose identifying information (e.g., social security number or employee number) has been placed in a testing pool from which a scientifically arbitrary selection is made. This selection is usually computer generated to ensure that it is indeed random and that each person in the workforce population has an equal chance of being selected for testing, regardless of whether that person was recently tested or not. Because this type of testing has no advance notice, it serves as a deterrent.