The U.S. Department of Transportation issued three final rules on February 25, 2010 that affect petroleum marketers who must comply with federal drug and alcohol testing requirements for CDL/HAZMAT drivers. While the rules do not impose new regulatory burdens, they adopt changes that are required for full compliance.

U.S. DOT Issues Changes to Driver Drug and Alcohol Testing Program

1. The first rulemaking adopts in total an Interim Final Rule authorizing employers to disclose to State commercial driver licensing (CDL) authorities the drug and alcohol violations of CDL/HAZMAT drivers when a State law requires such reporting. This rule does not create an affirmative duty to report test results. It only allows such reporting if a state so requires. This is a technical amendment removing previous language that prohibited transfers of drug and alcohol testing results unless the employer first obtained written consent from the driver. Under the new rule, if a state requires reporting of drug and alcohol test results, the employer is not required to obtain consent from the driver to comply. The rule is available here.

2.The second final rulemaking makes technical changes to U.S. Department of Transportation driver drug and alcohol program forms. Both the U.S. DOT Alcohol Testing Form (ATF) and the Management Information System (MIS) Data Collection Form are updated. Petroleum marketers use these forms to comply with U.S. DOT drug and alcohol program testing and reporting requirements. The DOT recognizes that employers and alcohol testing technicians may currently have a large supply of the old ATF forms. Instead of discarding these forms, the DOT will permit their use until supplies are exhausted or employers may begin using the new forms immediately. Either way, only the updated forms may be used beginning August 1, 2010. Since the MIS is a single-page form that is an annual submission usually done electronically via the Internet, (at http://damis.dot.gov), it is less likely employers have a large number of these forms on hand. Therefore, employers may not use existing supplies of MIS forms for the next reporting deadline of March 15, 2010. Instead, the new MIS forms must be used. Both revised forms with instructions can be found here. The final rule can be viewed here.

3.The third final rule adopts an Interim Final Rule (IFR) that allows certain pre-screening devices for alcohol testing. When the federal alcohol testing rules for CDL/HAZMAT drivers were finalized on February 15, 1994 [54 FR 7302 et seq.], a provision was included requiring breath testing be conducted using evidential breath testing devices (EBTs). However, the DOT subsequently added flexibility in testing methods by allowing the use of non-evidential alcohol screening device (ASD). Regulations updating the types of ASD allowed for non-evidential screening purposes were made in an IFR on January 11, 2007 IFR [72 FR 1298]. The final rule adopts the IFR as written and can be viewed here.
Should you have any questions about these new forms or drug and alcohol testing requirements, please feel free to contact the Association Office.