How do I run a DOT drug testing program?

Chapter 01

What is a DOT drug testing program, and who has to be in it?

A DOT drug testing program is the rules, people and papers that keep drivers who misuse alcohol or drugs out of your trucks. It covers alcohol too, so many call it a drug and alcohol testing program. FMCSA’s testing rules say what you must do. A second set of DOT rules says how each test is done (the rule on test procedures). The program covers every driver who must hold a CDL to drive for you (who the rules cover). It must be running on the day you begin hauling (when testing must start).

Here is how that looks in real life. Say you run five trucks with five hired drivers, and your dispatcher works in the office with you. You got your USDOT number last November. On Tuesday, September 8, 2026, a letter says your new entrant safety audit is coming. That is FMCSA’s first check of a new company’s safety records (how the audit works).

That evening you open the folder marked “Drug testing”. Inside is a contract with a testing company, signed a week before your first load. There is a list that shows all five drivers in its random pool. There is a negative drug test for each driver, dated before his first trip. And there is a sample policy the testing company emailed you last year. Nobody ever read it or signed it. No one is named to take the testing company’s calls. No one has had supervisor training.

Is that a program? It is about half of one. FMCSA keeps a list of 16 violations that fail a new carrier’s safety audit by themselves, and five are about testing (FMCSA’s audit rules). You fail if you have no testing program, or no random testing. You also fail if you let a driver work after an alcohol result of 0.04 or more, a positive drug test or a refusal. Our guide to the automatic audit failures goes through all 16.

The half you have covers the first two. The missing half is what protects you from the other three on a bad day. It is the written policy, the person who takes the calls and the trained eyes in the yard. The rest of this story builds that half.

First, check who belongs in the program. The rules cover drivers of commercial vehicles who must hold a CDL (who the rules cover). Here that means a truck rated at 26,001 pounds or more, or a combination rated that high when the trailer is rated over 10,000 pounds. It also means a vehicle built for 16 or more people, counting the driver, or any vehicle hauling hazmat that needs placards (the definitions). A driver of a light truck that needs no CDL is not covered.

The rules count as a driver anyone who drives such a vehicle. That includes drivers who work full time, part time or only now and then, leased drivers and owner-operators (the definitions). If you drive a truck yourself, the rules treat you as both the employer and a driver (who the rules cover). Your own name then goes into the random pool.

The rules also say when a driver must be free of alcohol and drugs. They apply during what FMCSA calls “safety-sensitive functions”, which include more than driving. This time runs from the moment a driver starts work, or must be ready to work, until he is relieved of all work. It covers waiting to be dispatched, inspecting the truck, driving, loading and unloading, and staying with a truck that broke down (the definitions). Rest in a sleeper berth does not count.

Tests happen in six situations. There is a drug test before a new driver’s first trip, and there are random tests through the year. There are tests after certain crashes. There is a test on reasonable suspicion, when a trained supervisor sees signs of use. And there is a test before a driver who broke the rules may return, and follow-up tests after that. Your program already had to exist “on the date the employer begins commercial motor vehicle operations” (when testing must start). Yours did. Now you fix the rest, starting with who does what.

Chapter 02

Who does what, and what can the testing company do for me?

You, the owner, are the employer, and the program stays yours even when others run parts of it. You name a designated employer representative, or DER, who receives results and takes drivers off duty. The DER must be your own employee (the definitions). The testing company handles random draws and paperwork. A collector takes the specimen, a lab tests it and a doctor reviews the result. But the testing company can never be your DER, and it cannot decide a refusal for you (the limits on testing companies).

On Thursday, September 10, you call your testing company. You ask what it does for you and what it cannot do. Here are the people involved, in the order they handle a test.

You are the employer. The rules call the employer “the entity responsible for overall implementation” of the program (the definitions). That is you, even if you pay someone else to run the random pool.

The DER is the person the others call. He receives test results, takes a driver off duty at once, and makes the choices the rules leave to the employer. The rule is short: “The individual must be an employee of the company.” A testing company cannot be your DER (the definitions). You name yourself. You could name another person on your staff too, such as your dispatcher. Then you tell the testing company, so every call about a result or a refusal comes to the right phone.

The testing company is what FMCSA calls a “consortium/third-party administrator”, or C/TPA. It arranges tests and does paperwork for carriers. It often keeps one random pool with drivers from many carriers (the definitions). It may run your random draws for you (the random testing rule). It may also fill in the yearly summary of your tests that FMCSA can ask for. But a company official, such as your DER, must certify that it is accurate (the rule on the yearly summary).

The collector works at the clinic. He checks the driver’s photo ID and takes the specimen (how a collection starts). A trained technician does breath tests for alcohol. The lab then tests the drug specimen. HHS, the federal health department, certifies these labs and lists them every month (the September 2026 lab list).

Then a doctor called the medical review officer, or MRO, reviews the lab result. He checks for a medical explanation, such as a prescribed drug, before verifying a positive result (the definitions in the procedures rule). The lab may not send drug results straight to you or to the testing company. “All confirmed laboratory results must be processed by the MRO” before anyone else gets them (the limits on testing companies). If a driver breaks the rules, a substance abuse professional, or SAP, evaluates him. The SAP says what education or treatment he needs and what follow-up tests come after (the definitions in the procedures rule).

Now the part owners miss. The testing company may advise you, but some calls are yours alone. It may not decide to test a driver on reasonable suspicion or after a crash. It may not decide when a driver needs a test to return to duty, or follow-up tests. It may not decide that a driver refused a test, and it may not act as your DER (the limits on testing companies). The rule calls the refusal decision “a non-delegable duty of the actual employer”. In plain words, you cannot hand it off.

You also answer for the testing company’s mistakes. Say it forgot to draw names from its pool for three months. DOT could still act against you, because “your good faith use of a service agent is not a defense” (the rule on using service agents). So ask for proof of each random draw, and keep it.

Different rules apply to one kind of carrier: an owner-operator who is the company?s only driver. Owners often ask if owner-operators have to drug test. They do. His random pool must hold “two or more” drivers, so he joins a consortium (who the rules cover). He must name a C/TPA to report his own violations to the Clearinghouse (the Clearinghouse reporting rule). That is FMCSA’s national database of drug and alcohol violations. His C/TPA may also make some calls you must make yourself. It may decide that he needs a test after a crash. It may also decide that he refused a test he skipped (the limits on testing companies). We explain how the pool works in our guide to random drug testing.

You are not in that position. You have five hired drivers, so every decision stays with you. By the end of the call you have named yourself as DER. You also ask for the sample policy again, this time to use it.

Chapter 03

What must our drug and alcohol policy say, and who signs it?

The rules call it educational materials, and most owners call it the DOT drug and alcohol policy. It explains the testing rules and how your company follows them. Every driver gets a copy before testing starts, and each driver you hire later gets one too. Each driver signs a statement that he received it, and you keep that signed receipt (the policy rule). Without the receipts, you cannot show that your drivers ever got the policy.

On Monday, September 14, you sit down with the sample. It runs to 14 pages. You check it against the policy rule, which names what it must cover, point by point (the policy rule).

It must name the person who answers drivers’ questions about it. It must say which drivers are covered, and in which part of the workday the rules apply. It must list the conduct that is banned. It must say when drivers are tested, including after a crash. It must explain how tests are done, how the driver is protected, and how each result is kept with the right driver. It must say that drivers must take the tests. It must explain what counts as a refusal to test and what follows. It must say what happens after a violation, including removal from duty at once and the road back to work. It must cover the effects of alcohol and drugs on health, work and personal life, the signs of a problem, and ways to step in. And it must say which violations go into the Clearinghouse.

One more point on the list is about lower alcohol levels. A driver who tests at 0.02 or more but under 0.04 is below the DOT limit of 0.04 (the alcohol limit rule). But he may not work until his next regular shift, and not for at least 24 hours (the rule on lower alcohol levels). The policy must tell drivers that.

Your sample misses two things. The line for the person drivers can ask is blank, so you write in your own name and phone number. And its crash section says only that drivers are tested after crashes. The crash rule also makes you give drivers crash instructions before they drive (the crash testing rule). So you add a page for each truck. It tells the driver to call you right after a crash and to stay where you can reach him for a test.

That crash point is where the policy rule last changed. On November 18, 2024, FMCSA fixed a reference in it. Its crash part now points to the whole crash rule, not to one paragraph. FMCSA said its fixes that day added no new duty (the November 2024 corrections).

The Clearinghouse part is older. FMCSA added it when it created the Clearinghouse, and carriers had to follow it from January 6, 2020 (the 2016 Clearinghouse rule). Your sample has it. A policy template older than that may not.

You may add company rules that go further than DOT’s. But each one must be “clearly and obviously described” as your own rule, not a DOT rule (the policy rule). You add one: no alcohol in any company truck, at any time. You mark it as a company rule.

On Monday, September 28, you hold a meeting at the yard. Each driver gets his own copy. You read the refusal page and the crash page out loud, and you answer questions. Then each driver signs a receipt with his name, the date and the name of the policy. You keep the signed receipts, and you may give each driver a copy of his (the policy rule).

You file the five receipts in a locked cabinet. Testing records must be kept “in a secure location with controlled access” (the records rule). Keep each receipt while the driver works for you and for two years after he leaves.

Chapter 04

How do we train supervisors and decide on a reasonable suspicion test?

Everyone who supervises your drivers needs at least 60 minutes of training on alcohol and 60 more on drugs, once. It teaches the signs of use in a driver’s body, behavior, speech and work (the training rule). A test on reasonable suspicion is one you order because a trained supervisor sees such signs. The decision must rest on what that person sees, hears or smells right then. He writes it down and signs it within 24 hours (the rule on testing for signs of use).

On Thursday, October 1, you and your dispatcher each take a supervisor course. It is an hour on alcohol and an hour on drugs. The rule sets the minutes and the subjects, but it names no course and no provider. No refresher is required (the training rule). Keep each certificate while that person supervises drivers and for two years after (the records rule).

At 5:45 a.m. on Tuesday, October 13, the driver of truck 3 walks into the yard. You smell alcohol when he says good morning. His speech is slow and slurred, and his eyes are red. He drops his keys twice. He grabs the mirror bracket to pull himself into the cab. You learned each of these signs in the course on October 1.

Your decision must rest on “specific, contemporaneous, articulable observations” of how the driver looks, acts, speaks or smells (the rule on testing for signs of use). In plain words: what you saw, heard and smelled, right there, that you can describe. A rumor from another driver is not enough. A hunch is not enough either. And the person who decides must be a trained supervisor or company official. You are both.

At 5:50 a.m. you decide. The signs point to alcohol, so you order an alcohol test. A drug test needs its own signs. They can include signs of heavy drug use over time, or of coming off a drug (the rule on testing for signs of use). The timing fits too. This kind of alcohol test is only allowed just before, during or just after the driver’s work. He is about to start his shift.

You tell him the test is required by DOT rules. The rules say you must tell a driver that before each test (the notice rule). He does not drive today. Until he tests under 0.02, or until 24 hours pass, he may not do any safety work (the rule on testing for signs of use).

Who gives the test? Not you. The person who decides on the alcohol test may not also give it. So a breath tester bought for the office is no use here. Your dispatcher drives him to the clinic, which opens at 7:00. You stay behind and give his load to another driver.

Watch the clock for alcohol. If the test is not done within two hours of your decision, you must write down why. If it is not done within eight hours, you stop trying and write down why (the rule on testing for signs of use). The rule sets these clocks for the alcohol test only. Your clinic opens an hour and ten minutes after your decision, so you are inside the first two hours.

There is one trap. Without a test, how he looked is not enough for a DOT alcohol violation. The rule lets you keep him off duty for 24 hours. Beyond that, it allows no action under the testing rules based only on his looks and behavior (the rule on testing for signs of use). Your company rules may allow other steps, as long as the law permits them.

That evening you write down what you saw, while it is fresh. The record must be written and signed by the person who made the observations. The deadline is 24 hours after what you saw, or the release of the test result, if that comes first (the rule on testing for signs of use). Yours could read like this. Fill in the parts in brackets.

Reasonable suspicion record. Driver: [name], truck 3. Tuesday, October 13, 2026, 5:45 a.m., at our yard.

What I saw, heard and smelled. A strong smell of alcohol on his breath when he spoke. Slow, slurred speech. Red eyes. He dropped his keys twice and held the mirror bracket to climb into the cab.

Decision. At 5:50 a.m. I decided to require a DOT reasonable suspicion alcohol test. I told him the test is required by DOT rules. He did not drive.

Signed: [your name], owner and trained supervisor (trained October 1, 2026). Signed October 13, 2026, at [time].

Notice that the testing company played no part in this decision. It may not make this decision for you (the limits on testing companies). But by 7:25 that morning, it is clear the day is not over.

Chapter 05

What counts as a refusal, and what do we do after one?

A refusal is any way a driver avoids or spoils a required test. He may fail to show up in reasonable time or leave before the test is done. He may give no specimen, obstruct the collector or tamper with the specimen (what counts as refusing a drug test). A refusal counts the same as a failed test. You decide that it was a refusal, not the clinic and not the testing company. Then you keep the driver off all safety work and report it to the Clearinghouse within three business days (the Clearinghouse reporting rule). You also give him a list of SAPs (the rule on the SAP list).

At 7:05 the technician starts the breath test paperwork. At 7:25, before the test is done, your driver says he has had enough. He walks past your dispatcher in the lobby and leaves in a friend’s car. The technician notes it on the alcohol test form. Then she calls you, the DER, at once. The rule makes her call you directly, not through the testing company (what counts as refusing an alcohol test).

Is it a refusal? The technician does not decide, and neither does the testing company. The rule says the employer “has the sole responsibility to decide whether a refusal occurred” (what counts as refusing an alcohol test). So you check the list. Leaving the test site before the test is complete is on it. The only exception is a test before hiring, when a driver leaves before the test has started. This was not a test before hiring. At 7:40 you decide that it was a refusal, and you write down why.

Here is what counts as refusing a drug test (what counts as refusing a drug test). A driver refuses if he does not show up within a reasonable time after you send him. You set what a reasonable time is, and the test before hiring is the exception. He refuses if he leaves before the test is done, or gives no specimen. He refuses if he will not let the collector watch when a watched collection is required. Too little urine counts, if a doctor finds no medical reason for it. So does declining a second test he is told to take, or a medical exam the MRO orders.

A driver also refuses if he will not cooperate, for example by refusing to empty his pockets. He refuses if he wears a device made to cheat, or admits he tampered with his specimen. And he has refused if the MRO reports his specimen as adulterated or substituted. That means something was added to it, or it was swapped.

The alcohol list is much the same. It adds one item drivers may not expect: not signing Step 2 of the alcohol test form (what counts as refusing an alcohol test). After a crash that needs a test, a driver who does not stay available for it may be counted as refusing too (the crash testing rule). One thing is not a refusal. Say a driver refuses a test that DOT does not require, such as a company test of your own. He has not refused a DOT test (what counts as refusing a drug test).

A refusal to test has the same DOT consequences as a failed test. An arbitrator or a State court cannot overturn them (what counts as refusing an alcohol test). So you now take four steps, in this order.

1. Keep him off all safety work. The rule is plain: “No employer shall permit a driver who refuses to submit to such tests to perform or continue to perform safety-sensitive functions” (the refusal rule). Letting him drive would be one of the 16 automatic audit failures.
2. Report the refusal to the Clearinghouse by the close of the third business day after you learned of it (the Clearinghouse reporting rule). Yours came on Tuesday, so the report is due by the end of Friday, October 16. How carriers use the Clearinghouse is in our guide to Clearinghouse queries.
3. Give him a list of SAPs he can reach, with names, addresses and phone numbers. You may not charge him for it (the rule on the SAP list).
4. File the refusal papers and keep them for five years (the records rule). The rules say to keep your written record from the yard for at least two years. Since it led to a refusal, you file it with the refusal papers.

What comes next is his road back. He may not do safety work for any employer until he sees a SAP and finishes the education or treatment the SAP sets (the rule on the SAP evaluation). Then he must pass one more test, which the rules call the “return-to-duty” test. Even then, you do not have to take him back. That is your choice (how the return to duty process ends).

Since November 18, 2024, his State must also take the CDL privilege off his license until he finishes that process (the 2021 rule on Clearinghouse and CDLs). Our guide to the return to duty process follows that road step by step. For you, the next task is a new driver for truck 3.

Chapter 06

How do the other tests fit in, and what has changed?

The six kinds of tests make one yearly routine, and your DER runs them all. Before a driver’s first trip, you need a verified negative drug test (the rule on testing before hiring) and a Clearinghouse check (the Clearinghouse rule). Through the year, the testing company draws random names and you send drivers at once. After certain crashes, you test. After a violation, a driver needs a SAP, a test to return to duty and follow-up tests. Your records prove each step, and each kind of record has its own retention period.

On Monday, November 2, you hire a new driver for truck 3. Before his first trip, you need a drug test result from the MRO or the testing company that shows “a verified negative test result” (the rule on testing before hiring). The rules call this the “pre-employment” test. There is a narrow exception. It covers a driver who was in another carrier’s testing program under FMCSA’s rules within the last 30 days. He must also have been tested in the last six months, or been in its random pool for the past year. To use it, you must get and keep proof from that program. An alcohol test before hiring is optional. But if you do it, you must do it for every new driver.

You also run a full query of the Clearinghouse before he starts. After that, you query every driver at least once a year (the Clearinghouse rule). The rest of the hiring checks, in order, are in our guide to driver hiring checks.

His name then goes into the random pool. Random tests must be unannounced and spread through the year. Each driver must have an equal chance each time names are drawn. A driver told he was picked must go to the test site right away (the random testing rule). The required testing rate applies to each calendar year. Since January 1, 2020, it has been 50 percent of your average number of driver positions for drugs, and 10 percent for alcohol (FMCSA’s 2019 notice). A new rate would start on the January 1 after FMCSA publishes it (the random testing rule). Our guide to random drug testing explains the pool and what to do when a picked driver is on the road.

A picked driver who does not show up within the reasonable time you set has refused. For that kind of refusal, your Clearinghouse report needs more than usual. You must add a record of when you told him, and of the time and place he was told to appear. You must also show that you gave him copies of those papers (the Clearinghouse reporting rule). So send the notice in writing, even a text message, and keep it.

The program must also cover testing after crashes. You must test after a crash in which someone died. You must also test when your driver gets a ticket for a moving violation in the crash. That applies if someone was treated away from the scene, or if a damaged vehicle had to be towed away (the crash testing rule). The deadlines differ for alcohol and drugs. Our guide to testing after a crash sorts out each case.

The last two tests follow a violation. If the driver who refused ever comes back to work for you, his SAP writes a plan of follow-up tests. It means at least six unannounced tests in his first 12 months back, and you pick the dates (the rule on follow-up tests).

Then come the papers. How long you keep each record depends on what it is (the records rule). Keep for five years: alcohol results of 0.02 or more, verified positive drug results, refusals, and SAP evaluations and referrals. The same goes for records of how you run the program, including violations. Keep for two years: records about collections, such as random selection lists and your decisions to test a driver for signs of use or after a crash. Keep for one year: negative and canceled drug results, and alcohol results under 0.02. Keep training records while the person holds that role and for two years after.

If FMCSA asks for them, you must be able to show them at your main office within two business days (the records rule). FMCSA may also ask for a yearly summary of your results. If it asks in January, the summary is due by March 15. The testing company may prepare it, but a company official, such as your DER, must certify it (the rule on the yearly summary).

On Tuesday, November 17, the auditor asks for your testing records. You send the policy with six signed receipts and two training certificates. You send your record of what you saw on October 13, the refusal papers and the Clearinghouse report. You add the new driver’s negative test and his query. The folder that held half a program in September now holds a whole one.

What has changed, and what advice is out of date? Saliva drug tests, which the rules call oral fluid tests, have been allowed since June 1, 2023 (the 2023 oral fluid rule). But no carrier can use them until HHS certifies at least two labs for them. On September 1, 2026, HHS published its monthly list. It said: “At this time, there are no laboratories certified to conduct drug and specimen validity tests on oral fluid specimens” (the September 2026 lab list).

DOT also made a stopgap rule. Since June 10, 2026, a watched collection that was meant to be oral fluid is done as a watched urine collection until oral fluid is available (DOT’s May 2026 rule). So advice to switch your drivers to saliva tests is premature. DOT drug tests still use urine specimens.

Two other dates matter. The policy rule changed on November 18, 2024, only to fix a reference, as explained above (the November 2024 corrections). By that same day, States had to begin taking the CDL privilege off drivers who are barred in the Clearinghouse (the 2021 rule on Clearinghouse and CDLs). And one change has not happened yet. In September 2025, DOT proposed adding fentanyl to the drugs it tests for (DOT’s 2025 proposal). We found no final rule by September 22, 2026, so the list of drugs has not changed.

So some advice you will hear is out of date or was never right. A policy template from before 2020 may leave out the Clearinghouse. A testing company that says it handles everything still cannot decide a refusal for you. And a saliva test is not something you can order yet.

There are things we could not check. FMCSA’s own web pages block automated checks, so this page rests on the rules and the Federal Register alone. We give no prices for testing companies or supervisor courses, because we found no official source for them.

If you would rather hand the paperwork to someone, we keep the policy receipts, training records and testing files in order all year. The DER must still be you or someone on your staff, because the rules say so: here is what it costs.