For each employee who has committed a DOT drug or alcohol violation and who seeks to resume the performance of safety-sensitive functions, we must establish a written follow-up testing plan. We will not establish this plan until after we determine that the employee has successfully complied with our recommendations for education/treatment.
The SAP is the sole determiner of the number and frequency of follow-up tests and whether these tests will be for drugs, alcohol, or both (unless otherwise directed by the appropriate DOT agency regulation).
We must, at a minimum, direct that the employee be subject to six (6) unannounced follow-up tests in the first 12 months following the employee’s return to safety-sensitive functions. We rarely recommend the minimum. We generally will require a greater number of follow-up tests and often for longer than the first 12-months. Follow-up testing may go on, at our discretion, for up to 60-months following the employee’s return-to-duty.
As the employer, you must not impose additional testing requirements on the employee that go beyond the SAPs follow-up testing plan.
And—this is very important—the requirements of our SAP follow-up testing plan must “follow the employee” to subsequent employers or through breaks in service.
DOT Office of Drug and Alcohol Policy and Compliance – can direct to employer or employee page