What Does DOT Drug Testing Mean? Important Things To Know About DOT Drug Testing
DOT drug tests are introduced by the Department of Transportation or DOT in the US. These testing standards and guidelines are the benchmark for employee testing for drugs.
What is a DOT drug test?
Before an organization recruits a person, they need to screen the individual for any drug abuse. The procedures of such tests are guided by the DOT standards. These are DOT drug tests and are mandatory for all organizations.
The procedure involved
Employees are tested for usage of drugs and alcohol. Urine samples of employees are collected by an authorized DOT agency and subsequently sent to the laboratory. Special collection kits are used to collect urine samples from employees. These kits should be in strict compliance with DOT regulations. There is a separate collection site in an organization, which is demarcated for urine collection. Only this site maybe used to collect urine samples from employees. Sometimes the collection site maybe situated outside of the office premises. Independent collection site owners need to ensure appropriate security measures, have the requisite personnel, facilities, materials, supervision and equipment to conduct collection of urine samples as per the DOT guidelines. Only the employee is allowed to be in the collection site at the time of urine collection. Only in directly observed collections can an observer be present.
Forms used
The CCF or the Custody and Control Form is issued by the Federal Drug Testing department and this is used to accurately document all urine collections from employees of an organization. The form should not have crossed its expiry date and needs to be in a carbonless five-part, manifold format. No part of the CCF can be revised or modified by the collector. Relevant information for billing or associated situations can be mentioned out of the border in the CCF. Details like name, telephone number, address, fax number of the organization employer should be mentioned on the CCF.
Refusal to test
In certain instances, an employee may fail to turn up for a urine collection at the scheduled date and time. There is a prescribed time limit to wait for the employee’s attendance. If this timeframe is crossed, the employee is notified that he or she has refused to test.
No delays
Urine collections for DOT drug tests need to happen without any delay. Once an employee arrives for the test, the procedure needs to begin right away. If alcohol tests are also being conducted the urine samples should be collected after the alcohol tests. The collector needs to ensure this at all times.
Final procedures
Once the urine sample has been collected the employee is required to sign the certification on CCF. The employee also needs to mention his or her name, birth date, day of urine collection as well as contact information like phone number etc. Incase an employee refuses to sign the certification or does not want to furnish contact information, the collector should mention this in the remarks section of the CCF.
