Completing your SAP evaluation and return-to-duty process is a major milestone. However, returning to safety-sensitive duties after your first return to duty alcohol or drug test work is not the end of the entire process to resolve a DOT drug or alcohol violation.
Once you have produced a negative return to duty test, you will be subject to unannounced follow-up drug and/or alcohol testing under the testing plan established by your Substance Abuse Professional (SAP). This can last anywhere from 1 to 5 years, and employees sometimes run into problems simply because they assume their employer, HR department, or testing administrator is tracking everything correctly.
The employee does not control the testing schedule, and should not be given the confidential follow-up testing plan. But that does not mean you should be passive about your own compliance. You can understand the rules, keep your own records of completed tests, communicate appropriately with your employer, and monitor important milestones.
If you have worked hard to complete the SAP process and return to work, staying informed during the follow-up period can help prevent an administrative mistake from creating a much larger employment problem months or years from now.
1. Expect at Least Six Follow-Up Tests in the First 12 Months
DOT rules require a minimum of six unannounced follow-up tests during the first 12 months after you return to safety-sensitive duties.
That is the minimum. Your SAP may require additional testing based on the circumstances of your case.
Your first return-to-duty test is counted as one of the six minimum tests in the first 12 months. All other tests on your SAP determined schedule are considered “follow-up” testing. You must complete all of them to close your case – no more and no less.
2. Follow-Up Testing Can Continue for Up to Five Years
The SAP determines the number and frequency of required follow-up tests and may require testing for as long as 60 months. (see information below about any temporary breaks in DOT employment)
Not every employee will have a five-year testing period. The length of the plan is determined by the SAP based on the individual evaluation and at the SAP’s clinical discretion.
For the employee, the practical lesson is simple: do not assume that testing is finished just because the first year has ended.
3. Your SAP Creates the Plan, but Your Employer Chooses the Actual Test Dates
The SAP establishes the follow-up testing requirements, including the number and frequency of tests. The employer is responsible for carrying out that plan.
The employer chooses the actual dates of the tests within each 12-month period. Follow-up testing must be unannounced and should have no predictable pattern.
This distinction causes a lot of confusion. Your SAP does not schedule your individual collection dates and is not tracking each test as you take it. Questions about when you will actually be sent for testing belong with the employer or the employer’s testing administrator (C/TPA), not with the SAP.
4. Do Not Ask Your SAP for the Confidential Testing Schedule
Employees naturally want to know exactly how many tests remain and when testing will end. But DOT rules intentionally keep the follow-up testing plan confidential from the employee so the tests remain truly unannounced and random..
You can still take an active role without knowing future test dates. The goal is to monitor your compliance and preserve documentation of tests that have already occurred, not to learn when future tests are coming.
5. CDL Holders Should Keep Their Own Documentation
For CDL holders, the FMCSA Clearinghouse does not display the employee’s full follow-up testing plan or a running list of every follow-up test.
That makes your own documentation especially valuable. Ask your employer or testing facility what records of completed tests are available to you and retain appropriate documentation (a copy of the completed test with the result) showing the testing you have completed.
This can become important if HR or safety personnel change, you change employers, or an employer goes out of business. Reconstructing years of testing history later can be difficult.
Keeping an organized personal record gives you something to refer back to if questions arise about whether your follow-up requirements were completed.
6. Periodically Check In With HR or Safety About Your Compliance
You should not ask when your next unannounced test will occur. But it is reasonable to periodically communicate with the person responsible for administering your DOT testing program and confirm that your follow-up requirements are being managed.
A simple quarterly check-in can be useful. Also when companies have staff turnover, infrequent DOT violations, or multiple people sharing compliance responsibilities it is possible for your next test to be missed..
The purpose of communicating is obviously not to interfere with the testing schedule. It is to respectfully make sure your follow-up obligations have not been overlooked.
7. CDL Drivers Should Monitor Their FMCSA Clearinghouse Record
For CDL drivers, employers have reporting responsibilities in the FMCSA Clearinghouse during the return-to-duty process. The Clearinghouse does not contain the full confidential follow-up testing plan, but completion of the follow-up testing plan is a reportable return-to-duty milestone. You should be notified when you have completed the last one but if someone has failed to direct you to your last test or did not realize they had to enter it, you can catch it quickly by checking in quarterly with HR/Safety personnel.
If you have been told that you have completed the final follow-up test, check the Clearinghouse to make sure it is posted. Two things need to occur for your violation to be completely cleared – 1) all tests on the schedule must be complete; 2) a 5-year period has pased while you were working in a DOT regulated role. Even if your last taste on the schedule finished after 36 months, your violation will still be visible on the Clearinghouse until the 60th month passes.
Do not assume that the Clearinghouse record will always take care of itself, especially if your employer rarely handles return-to-duty cases. Communicate with your employer all the way through to the end!
8. A Break From Safety-Sensitive Work Can Pause the Testing Timeline
The follow-up testing requirement follows the employee through subsequent DOT-regulated employers and breaks in service.
If you leave safety-sensitive employment before completing the required testing period, the remaining follow-up requirements do not simply disappear. They resume when you return to covered safety-sensitive work.
This is another reason to preserve your records when changing jobs and to make sure a new DOT-regulated employer is aware that you have an unfinished follow-up testing requirement. For CDL holders, by regulation the employer should know when they run a Clearinghouse query. Regardless, communicate with the employer so you can complete all your tests in a timely manner.
9. Random Tests Do Not Count as Follow-Up Tests
Follow-up testing is separate from an employer’s regular random testing program.
If you are selected for a random DOT drug or alcohol test, that test does not replace one of the follow-up tests required by the SAP’s plan.
You may therefore be tested more often than coworkers who are only participating in the normal random testing pool. That does not necessarily mean anything is wrong with your follow-up plan; these are two testing requirements that operate separately.
10. A Longer Testing Plan Is Not Something to Negotiate Away
Some employees become frustrated by a longer follow-up testing period and want the SAP to reduce it.
The SAP’s responsibility is not to advocate for the employee or the employer. The SAP’s role is to protect the public interest in safety and establish an appropriate individualized follow-up testing plan.
From that perspective, follow-up testing is part of the accountability structure that allows an employee to return to safety-sensitive work after a DOT violation.
Rather than focusing on how quickly the testing can end, it is more useful to focus on staying compliant and protecting your ability to continue working.
The Practical Takeaway: Stay Involved Without Trying to Control the Schedule
After completing a SAP evaluation and first return-to-duty test, you have already done significant work to move through the DOT return-to-duty process. The next phase is largely about staying compliant.
You cannot choose your testing dates. You should not know your future testing schedule. And your SAP is not the person administering each individual test.
But you can understand the process, keep records of completed testing, communicate periodically with the appropriate employer representative, monitor your FMCSA Clearinghouse record if you are a CDL holder, and make sure important compliance milestones are not lost during job changes or personnel turnover.
For many employees, this is the most helpful mindset for the months or years after returning to duty: congratulations on getting through the SAP process – now stay on your toes until the follow-up testing requirement is truly complete.
Questions About Your SAP Evaluation or Return-to-Duty Process?
New Directions Assessments provides SAP evaluations for CDL holders and other DOT-regulated employees who need to complete the return-to-duty process.
If you have a DOT drug or alcohol violation and need to begin a SAP evaluation, or have questions about the SAP portion of the return-to-duty process, contact ND Assessments.