{"id":56554,"date":"2020-10-05T13:55:30","date_gmt":"2020-10-05T17:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/?p=56554"},"modified":"2022-11-18T14:04:02","modified_gmt":"2022-11-18T19:04:02","slug":"random-drug-testing-guidelines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/blogs\/random-drug-testing-guidelines\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Drug Testing Guidelines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-layout-1 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p> &gt;VIDEO BLOG &gt;&gt; Is random drug testing legal?&nbsp; Yes, it is but, in some States, it is limited to safety sensitive positions.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-vimeo wp-block-embed-vimeo wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Random Drug and Alcohol Testing\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/465460778?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-admin\/post.php?post=51535&amp;action=elementor\">Random drug testing<\/a> is more effective at detecting and deterring drug use or alcohol abuse than pre-employment testing because employees do not know when they may be selected for testing.&nbsp; The random test should always be unannounced and a surprise.&nbsp; Once an employee is notified of a random test selection, the employee should report immediately for the random test.&nbsp; Contrary to myth there is no 24-hour period to get a random test completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Random testing puts teeth in the drug free workplace program.&nbsp; It discourages the use of drugs or abuse of alcohol while the employees are working.&nbsp; You can save money with random testing by creating a safer workplace, healthier workplace, and more stable workplace.&nbsp; Always put together a drug free workplace policy that explains the requirement of random testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your drug testing vendor should be able to help you with the random drug testing process.&nbsp; This will help you maintain legal compliance.&nbsp; Look to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/blogs\/video-blog-what-is-a-ctpa-and-what-do-they-do\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/blogs\/video-blog-what-is-a-ctpa-and-what-do-they-do\/\">professional third-party administrator (TPA)<\/a> for your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/drug-free-policy-development\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/drug-free-policy-development\/\">drug free workplace policy and program<\/a>, drug testing and effective management of the random testing.&nbsp; The random selection process should always be a scientifically valid computer program tested to be accurate for random selections.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Non-DOT Random Testing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Not required but as mentioned above, highly beneficial to employers.&nbsp; Even doing random testing of a small percentage of employees say 10% can be very beneficial.&nbsp; It will not cost much but give back a huge return on investment.&nbsp; Employees appreciate a program that monitors their co-workers for potential illicit drug use or alcohol abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>DOT Random Testing&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>For Department of Transportation (DOT) regulated companies, random testing is always required regardless of State law.&nbsp; Each DOT agency as listed below, maintains required annual percentage rates for random testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table is-style-stripes\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>DOT Agency<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>% of Drug Tests<\/strong> <strong>Required Annually<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>% of Alcohol Tests Required Annually<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>FAA \u2013 The aviation industry, or Federal Aviation Administration.<\/td><td>25%<br><\/td><td>10%<br><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>FMCSA \u2013 Commercial Motor Carriers, or Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).&nbsp;<\/td><td>50%<\/td><td>10%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>USCG \u2013 United States Coast Guard\/Maritime.&nbsp;<\/td><td>50%<\/td><td>N\/A<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>PHMSA \u2013 Pipeline industry, or employers regulated by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.&nbsp;<\/td><td>50%<\/td><td>N\/A<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>FRA \u2013 Railroad industry, Federal Railroad&nbsp; Administration&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/td><td>25%<\/td><td>10%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>FTA \u2013 Transit industry or employers regulated by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA)<\/td><td>50%<\/td><td>10%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The FRA \u2013 Railroad industry, Federal Railroad&nbsp; Administration has an additional program called Maintenance of Way or MOW. &nbsp; In 2016 FRA proposed rules to expand the scope of its<a href=\"https:\/\/railroads.dot.gov\/divisions\/partnerships-programs\/drug-and-alcohol\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/railroads.dot.gov\/divisions\/partnerships-programs\/drug-and-alcohol\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> drug and alcohol regulation to cover MOW employees<\/a>.&nbsp; These employees are typically contractors of the railroads and the employees work on or near the rail tracks.&nbsp; The required random testing for this group of employees is 50% for drugs and 25% for alcohol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Random testing is serious business for the DOT regulated employers and auditors always look at the compliance with the random testing required by the DOT and the DOT agency.&nbsp; The DOT publishes a great guide to help you understand the regulations and best practices for random testing.&nbsp; Take a few minutes to review the document &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transportation.gov\/odapc\/best-practices-dot-random-drug-and-alcohol-testing\">Best Practices for DOT Random Drug and Alcohol Testing<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Best Practices for Random Testing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/dot-drug-test\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/dot-drug-test\/\">DOT Best random drug testing practices<\/a> includes great information on the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol>\n<li>Random testing required for safety-sensitive employees<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Random Testing Rates<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Who is required to have random testing under DOT rules<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Setting up the random pool \u2013 consortium pool or standalone pool<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How employees are selected for testing<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How often should random test selections and tests take place<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How employees are notified to report for a random drug test&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What happens when a selected employee is not available for random drug or alcohol testing<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Immediate random testing after notification<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Compliance and monitoring of your random drug and alcohol testing program<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>More Information on Random Drug Testing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Listed below are several additional resources on random drug and alcohol testing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/blogs\/random-drug-testing\/\">DOT &amp; Non-DOT Random Drug Testing<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/blogs\/dot-guidance-on-random-drug-testing\/\">DOT GUIDANCE ON RANDOM DRUG TESTING<\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/faqs\/dot-drug-alcohol-testing-compliance\/what-happens-if-my-employees-dont-complete-the-random-drug-testing-selections\/\">WHAT HAPPENS IF MY EMPLOYEES DON\u2019T COMPLETE THE RANDOM DRUG TESTING SELECTIONS?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>For expert management of DOT or NON-DOT random drug and alcohol testing programs, contact <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/contact\/\">National Drug Screening, Inc.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&gt;VIDEO BLOG &gt;&gt; Is random drug testing legal?&nbsp; Yes, it is but, in some States, it is limited to safety sensitive positions. Random drug testing is more effective at detecting and deterring drug use or alcohol abuse than pre-employment testing because employees do not know when they may be selected for testing.&nbsp; The random test [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":56620,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"51379,50918,51182,51525,51097,55504","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[46,68,80],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56554"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}