DOT SAP Assessment

A SAP assessment is a clinical assessment of an individual performed by a substance abuse professional. It intends to determine whether they have issues linked to alcohol and/or drug use and what steps are necessary before being allowed to return to safety-sensitive functions at work.

Ultimately the SAP’s responsibility is to consider the public's safety and only approve individuals for a return to duty alcohol and/or drug test when it is safe to do so from a professional and clinical perspective.

If someone has not passed a DOT alcohol or drug test at work or refuses to take one, they are required to take a SAP evaluation. During the evaluation, the substance abuse professional may discuss many areas, such as any current drug or alcohol use, family history, and health history.

The FMCSA Clearinghouse return to duty process after an alcohol or drug testing violation is a 6-step process following federal rules (Title 49 Code of Federal Regulations 382). The truth is that those steps also have a lot of details attached to them that can trip people up if they don’t dedicate a little time to learning the process. Here is a summary of those steps along with some added explanation for greater clarity:

1 Register/Login and find your violation on the FMCSA Clearinghouse (clearinghouse.fmcsa.DOT.gov)
Once here select/request your SAP
2 Schedule & attend the initial evaluation in person or by video with your SAP; the SAP will give you recommendations to complete, and all persons are given recommendations regardless of the severity of their violation or personal background. This is a DOT rule not subject to the opinion of the SAP.
3 Complete and obtain documentation of completion of all recommendations as directed by your SAP (education, counseling, or treatment).
4 Schedule & attend a follow-up SAP evaluation one or more times to reach compliance with your recommendations as determined by your SAP
5 Complete a return to duty drug DOT alcohol and/or drug test ordered by an employer willing to put you into an active duty position if your test is negative
6 Complete your full follow-up drug testing schedule AND wait a total of 5 years total of continuous or intermittent employment for your violation to be removed from the clearinghouse. Note: some individuals may have a SAP-recommended aftercare plan to complete even after they are back to work. It is very important that you follow the recommendations and document completion of them for the employer. 

The SAP evaluation is not a one-size-fits-all process so the answer is,  “it depends”.  The purpose of the initial assessment is to determine what sort of corrective action or prevention is good for your situation.  One person might have a long-standing alcohol or drug problem while another may have simply used poor judgment in a one-off situation but by no means has an “addiction” or “substance dependence” requiring a treatment program.  It is important to recognize also that even if you don’t have an addiction or substance dependence, the DOT requires that SAP assessments include a recommendation for education at a minimum. Of course, you might ask, what kind of education, how long does the minimum take, and how much does it cost?  Those are all reasonable questions, but the DOT rightly does not want a cookie-cutter, jump-through-the-hoops approach.  They want safe highways, airways, public transit systems, and so forth. That means your best approach to answer this question is to pick an experienced SAP who knows the difference between a substance use incident, a substance use problem, and a substance use addiction or dependence.  After your initial evaluation, you will know the next steps to remedy the problem. And if you get busy working on the recommendation immediately and with a determination to learn from it, no matter how short or long the process, the faster you will complete the process. One individual might be completed with their assessment and recommendations in a week, while another might need 3 weeks, and another might require months. 

In 95% of cases, we can get you started the same day you call. You first need to complete a questionnaire that prepares us for your interview.  You will need an initial interview with a SAP (substance abuse professional) after completing the questionnaire.  We typically schedule these within 24-48 hours. We understand that when your work comes to an abrupt stop, usually there are numerous problems that all happen simultaneously, possibly making things very stressful until you complete this DOT-required process to return to your normal duties.

If you are a CDL holder you will also need to spend a little time getting your FMCSA Clearinghouse account setup. We can help you get this started the same day you call. In some cases, your DOT violation may not be listed because the Medical Review Officer and/or employer who reports your violation, has not listed your violation on the Clearinghouse yet. They are the only authorities that can do this for you, but if you have a violation it is typically just a matter of a few hours to days before your violation will show up on your account.  

As mentioned above, a DOT SAP assessment is not a one-size-fits-all program. The point of the initial evaluation interview is to determine what your risks are in regards to substance use and possible impact on safely carrying out your job responsibilities. Some individuals may have a relatively simple situation with a low risk for substance abuse problems, while others may have complicating factors such as a recent death in the family, a breakup, a family history of substance use problems, chronic pain conditions, and so forth.  Some individuals may be ready to return to work safely and with little risk after brief education.  Others might need to take time to speak to a counselor or therapist.  And others might need to enroll in a more intensive outpatient (or inpatient) treatment program to get a fresh start. We encourage you to be honest with your SAP evaluator. This will help ensure that you get the most out of the program and will help reduce the chances that you have similar problems later. Some individuals may be defensive enough or tempted to be dishonest about their past substance use or choices that led to the DOT test violation, but it is important to remember that once you finish the SAP evaluation you can be follow-up tested for up to 5 years in addition to any company random tests.  The DOT has put the follow-up testing requirements in place so that any individuals who attempt to fool the SAP evaluator will be identified later by additional follow-up testing. Follow-up testing frequency is set at the frequency of the evaluator.  This means that any individuals who raise suspicion about their own honesty and integrity during their SAP evaluation may face a very strict, costly, and time-consuming follow-up test plan.

All employees under federal DOT testing rules must submit to 6 tests (drug and/or alcohol as determined by the SAP) within the first 12 months of returning to duty. The SAP can submit a testing schedule for a period up to five years. The SAP is also allowed to schedule a year or more time period without a drug test followed by a year with multiple drug tests. If you have periods after your SAP assessment where you are not employed then the five-year follow-up testing period is paused until your return to DOT regulated employment. In the event of paused employment (or a missed testing period – see below), the “five-year” period is extended so that your testing period covers 5 actual employment years with the testing schedule completed as directed by the SAP during each year.  As an employee, you are not able to see or know your follow-up testing schedule. However, we strongly recommend you keep in touch with the safety/HR director of any DOT-regulated employer about any follow-up tests being on track for the year. (see below)

Most definitely, yes! While you should not ask and are not allowed to know the number of follow-up tests in any given year we encourage you to respectfully keep in touch with whoever is in charge of your testing. Here’s why.  Often in smaller companies, the safety/HR role can be extremely busy or possibly neglected.  If the employer falls behind on ordering his can create big problems for you later down the road, no pun intended for truck drivers. We frequently find employees come to us extremely upset and wanting help when they find out their follow-up testing was not done in the time period as specified by the SAP. Unfortunately, this can be long after the original SAP assessment – in some cases years if it has been completely ignored.  Isn’t it the employer's responsibility to have the follow-up testing schedule executed?  Yes!  However, do all employers make sure it is followed to a T?  Unfortunately, they do not.  Also unfortunately, you as the employee are the one who is impacted the most as you will still need to follow the testing schedule, making up all the time and tests that were missed even if it covers months or years.  And if you are a CDL holder, there is another risk with the employer.  Some employers have been known to order the tests but failed to list them on the FMCSA Clearinghouse.  If that happens and you have taken another job in the meantime it can be extremely difficult to get the previous employer to correct your testing history in the Clearinghouse. In many cases, you may have to start fresh and will have lost the time you could have been carving off of your overall 5 year testing period. The sooner your testing schedule is completed the sooner you can show prospective employers that your record is clear.

It is pretty easy to avoid all the complicated and frustrating problems that happen when your follow-up testing schedule is not being ordered and scheduled on time. Or in the case of CDL holders, you can avoid the same problem or the employer failing to record it on the clearinghouse.  Simply keep in regular touch with your HR department, safety director, or the C/TPA (consortium third-party administrator that handles your company’s drug testing execution), not to ask when your next test is, or how many tests you have, but to ask them if you are on schedule for the current testing year. Also if you are an owner-operator or your company uses a C/TPA to administer their alcohol and drug testing program you are less likely to run into problems with this.  That is because running drug testing programs is one of the main functions of a C/TPA, but that being said, it is a good policy to check in with them periodically and see if you comply with your follow-up alcohol and or drug testing as it pertains to your employment.