Q & A

Q: When an employee is taken out of service following a post-accident test, pending the test results, is a stand down waiver required?

A: No. The stand down waiver is required for an employer that removes the employee from duty based solely on a laboratory result prior to verification of the results by the MRO. If an individual is removed from duty following an accident, it is the accident itself that is the reason for the employee removal, not the laboratory test result.

The information presented on this page should be used to update Chapter 2 of the Implementation Guidelines.

Part 655 Summary (Continued)

Immediate Action Items

Usually final rules are published at least thirty days prior to their effective dates to allow covered individuals sufficient time to come into compliance with the regulation. FTA’s drug and alcohol testing rule (49 CFR Part 655), however, became effective on August 1, 2001, the date of its publication. The exception was made to ensure that FTA’s drug and alcohol testing regulation was consistent with the August 1, 2001 effective date for the DOT’s regulation on testing procedures (49 CFR Part 40). Consequently, FTA covered employers must take action immediately to come into compliance with Part 655 and Part 40. A list of some of these immediate action items is listed below. The list is provided as guidance and should not be considered an exhaustive list. Employers should expand or modify the list as appropriate based on their own circumstances and knowledge of the revised regulations.

Obtain and read copies of the regulations including Part 655, the revised Part 40, and technical amendments.

Revise policy to eliminate all references to Parts 653 and 654. Replace citations to reflect Part 655.

Revise policy as necessary to reflect changes and new provisions set forth in Part 40 and 655.

Abolish the use of any consent forms used in the urine specimen collection procedure.

Develop a procedure or form that will be used to inform urine specimen collectors, Breath Alcohol Technicians (BAT) and Screen Test Technicians (STT) of the name and telephone number of the Designated Employer Representatives (DER) for each test.

Develop a procedure for notifying the appropriate service agent of the employees anticipated arrival time so that late arrivals can be so noted and reported to the DER.

Revise accident/incident forms to document testing decisions.

Make sure your service agents are aware of the Part 40 revisions and technical amendments that went into effect on August 1, 2001.

Ask them to describe their current level of compliance and ask them to outline their remaining compliance actions with a schedule.

Make sure your collections sites and Substance Abuse Professionals (SAP) have copies of the newly published collector and SAP guidelines (See article on Page 7 of this newsletter).

Should your service agents be unwilling or unable to comply with the regulatory requirements, seek out new service agents as soon as possible.

Make sure the new Chain of Custody and Control forms are being used and that collection personnel are aware of the corrections procedures that must be used in the event an old form must be used.

Discuss with your service agents, especially your MRO, the procedures that will be used to communicate test results, requirements for retests, and other confidential information.

Talk to your MRO about validity testing and invalid, dilute, substitute, and adulterated specimens to ensure these situations will be handled appropriately.

Encourage BATs and STTs to begin using the new Alcohol Testing Form (ATF).

Check the dates of existing service agent qualifications training and proficiency demonstrations to determine when refresher training is required.

Discuss with service agents, how and when qualifications, refresher and error correction training will be accomplished.

Incorporate SAP referral process into pre-employment testing process. All applicants that have non-negative test results must be provided a list of SAPs (§40.287).

Incorporate procedure to pre-employment test any covered employee who has not performed safety-sensitive duties and has not been in a random pool for 90 days or more.