By Eric Arnold

From a safety and regulatory standpoint, a driver who tests positive for drugs is not something to be taken lightly.

USDOT takes its drug rules very seriously, and will fine a company several thousands of dollars if every i is not dotted and t crossed. While they may take it a little too far, from a safety standpoint you want to make sure your employees are not using. If they are, its just a matter of time before they hurt themselves, or worse, somebody else.

There are five types of USDOT drug tests: pre-employment, random, post-accident, reasonable suspicion, and return-to-duty.

The most common test a driver fails is the pre-employment test. You may think, "why on earth would a driver apply for a job if hes on drugs, and he knows hes going to be drug tested?"

A better question is: "Why wouldnt he?" After all, it costs him nothing. It may have been two weeks since he smoked his last joint, so he thinks he might pass. If he fails, oh well, on to the next job.

This type of positive test is easy to handle, simply do not hire the driver. This is why you never, ever, put a new driver behind the wheel until you get his or her pre-employment drug test results back.

The more complicated scenario is when a driver fails a random test. If a driver flunks a random test, the medical review officer will notify you, probably with a phone call a week or so after the test was taken.

A phone call is not guaranteed, however. Sometimes they send the results via fax or e-mail. Once you receive the results, you are responsible for immediately removing that driver from all "safety-sensitive" functions.

The definition of safety-sensitive functions includes driving a commercial vehicle, fixing a commercial vehicle, loading a vehicle, or even riding in one.

USDOT expects you to act immediately. When they are conducting their audits they will find out if you had any positive tests, determine the time you were notified, and then search your time records, dispatch sheets and logbooks to determine how long a driver drove after you were notified. If it is more than an hour or two, they will likely nail you for using a positive driver.

You must use your cell phone and get the driver in question out of the vehicle immediately. You need to have that driver park his vehicle and get another driver to take over. Do not let the positive driver ride in the bus.

Under no circumstances ignore a positive test result. I have seen this happen time and time again -- a driver fails a test and the carrier just keeps on dispatching him. Get a positive driver out of the vehicle.

Now that you have removed a positive driver from duty, what do you do?

The simple answer is, fire him, but things are not always that simple.

Perhaps hes a long-time, loyal employee, and you want to give him a second chance. When making the decision on whether or not to keep a positive driver, some questions which should influence your decision are: What type of drug did he test positive? Was he using it on the job or while off-duty? Was it occasional or regular usage? How valuable is this employee?

Should you determine you want to keep the driver, he or she must go through the "substance abuse professional" process to re-qualify as a legal CDL driver. He or she must complete the substance abuse professional process exactly and completely, otherwise that individual will still be viewed as a positive driver by USDOT.

When this rare circumstance does happen, if you dont remember exactly what to do, call an expert for help.

Eric Arnold is a former enforcement agent with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and an expert on USDOT compliance for small businesses. He heads Arnold Safety Consulting in Birdsboro, Pa. Contact him at eric@arnoldsafety.com.