Random Drug and Alcohol testing is mandatory for all Commercial Motor Vehicle Drivers. Section 382.305 of the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Regulations states that "every employer shall comply with the requirements of this section, which includes submitting to random alcohol and controlled substance testing." The rules in which a motor carrier must follow are very specific. This article will explain the best way to go about a random drug and alcohol testing program.

Before we get into the best practices of a random drug and alcohol testing program, let's get a few of the basics out of the way. First of all, there are certain percentages of your drivers that you must test. As of 2008, the current percentages of drivers you must test on a yearly basis are as follows:

Alcohol - 10% of the average number of driving positions

Controlled Substances (Drugs) - 50% of the average number of driving positions

OK, now that we have the percentages out of the way, let's go over the specifics on how you should select your drivers...

Your company should have a good random number generator program, or another scientifically valid way of randomly selecting which drivers will be tested. You should enter all drivers into the program, and decide how many drivers you are choosing, and how often you are doing your selection.

I run my program every month (obviously on different days of the month, so the tests are not predictable), so I test about 5%-8% of my drivers for drugs each month, and 2%-5% of my drivers for alcohol each month. The reason I do this is so if I have fluctuations in the average number of drivers from month to month, I am safe knowing that I will have tested the 50% for drugs and 10% for alcohol by the end of the year.

Another option is to enter your drivers in a consortium, but that is a whole other topic. In my selection process, if I am testing 10 people, I say the first 8 drivers selected will be for Drugs, and the 9th and 10th driver selected will be tested for Alcohol. If a driver is selected more than once, he or she will be tested for both Drugs and Alcohol. Just as a side note, you cannot put drivers' names in a hat; you must use a scientifically valid method that is matched to a driver's employee number, social security number, or other identifying number.

Your next step will be documenting your first step. The key to this whole program is good documentation. Document where you got the random number generator, document the macro formula, document when you ran the test and who was tested, and also document how you let your drivers know they were selected. In some cases, you may be the one running the test, but not actually the one informing the drivers.

If this is the case, you should send a confidential email to whoever is informing the drivers, whether that is the transportation manager or HR manager, etc. The email should contain the date the test was ran, how many people were chosen, who was chosen, the proper procedure to notify the drivers, where to send the drivers and the time frame in which they have to get the results in. There are no rules regarding the frequency that you must run your tests. You can run the test every week, or once a year. It is up to you, just as long as you test the correct percentages of your drivers.

The second most important concept in this process after documentation is secrecy! You must do this for the integrity of your program. The testing can only be performed during, before and immediately following a safety sensitive function. You have a 4 hour window before or after. This means you cannot test a driver on his day off. You must hold his or her name until they return to work. Once the driver is notified, he or she must immediately proceed to the testing facility. If the driver refuses to go, the driver must be informed that this will be counted as a refusal to take the test, and equivalent to a positive test.

Once all of the results are in from the MRO, you must do a final documentation of your random drug and alcohol testing program. This should include a summary of the selection process, how your managers were notified, how the employees were informed they were selected, and the results of the test with backup copies from the testing facility.

If you can keep this process organized and follow the rules, it will flow quite smooth. Please click here to find out more.

Noah Ostroff