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FTA Drug & Alcohol Regulation Updates Issue 35, page 2 |
REGULATORY CLARIFICATION |
| Random Testing Rates Remain the Same for 2008 |
On December 21, 2007, the Department of Transportation (DOT) Office of Drug
and Alcohol Policy and Compliance posted the 2008 Random Testing Rates for
all DOT modal administrations on its website http://www.dot.gov/ost/dapc/rates.html.
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) random testing rate for drugs
remains at 25% and the random testing rate for alcohol remains at 10% for
2008.  The drug testing random rate is based on the transit industry’s random drug
testing positive rate for the preceding two years. The transit industry’s
random positive test rate for drugs was 0.78% in 2006 and 0.792% in 2005. In
2006, the transit industry’s random positive test rate for alcohol was 0.13%
up from 0.115% in 2005. The positive rate for drugs has remained below 1.0%
for four consecutive years. The positive rate for random alcohol testing has
remained below 0.5% since FTA testing first began.Transit employers should consider the 25% testing rate for drugs and 10% testing rate for alcohol to be minimums. Transit systems that establish their testing rates above these minimums are still considered compliant with 49 CFR Part 655. Employers and Third Party Administrators (TPAs) subject to more than one DOT agency drug and alcohol testing rule may combine covered employees into a single pool as long as tests are performed at or above the highest minimum annual random testing rates established by DOT agencies under whose jurisdiction they fall. Since the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) 2008 random testing rates are 50% for drugs and 10% for alcohol, employers that maintain one testing pool for employees that are covered under FTA’s jurisdiction and employees that are covered under FMCSA’s jurisdiction must be selected for testing at the FMCSA rate of 50% for drugs and ten percent for alcohol. |
| MIS Reporting Process Unchanged |
Each employer covered by the FTA drug and alcohol testing program is
required to submit annual MIS reports that summarize test results for the
preceding calendar year. The 2007 Management Information Systems (MIS)
reports are due by March 15, 2008. The reporting process will remain the
same as last year with continued emphasis on reporting on-line. To submit on-line reports, a User Name and Password is required. The 2006 User Name and Password will not work for 2007 reporting as these are changed every year. If you are a direct recipient, your new User Name and Password was mailed to you in late December. User Names and Passwords for contractors and subrecipients can be accessed by the grantee by logging in and clicking the “print Contractor/Subrecipients Names and Passwords.” Grantees can access this information and provide the User Names and Passwords to each contractor/subrecipient. Questions about the reporting process or problems with User Names and Passwords should be directed to the FTA Drug and Alcohol Management Information System (DAMIS) Project Office at FTA.DAMIS@volpe.dot.gov or call the FTA Drug and Alcohol Hotline at (617) 494-6336. |
