What happens if I or one of my employees tests positive for drugs or alcohol
                     What happens if I or one of my employees tests positive for drugs or 
alcohol? 
The driver must be removed from his safety-sensitive position immediately upon any drug or 
alcohol test positive. Note that a positive alcohol test is determined to be a 0.04+ BAC level, but 
any driver with an alcohol level below 0.04 should be immediately removed from their safety-
sensitive functions for at least 24 hours before performing DOT safety-sensitive work functions. 
 
 
If the MRO determines that the drug test is positive, or the BAC level determines that the alcohol 
test is positive, the employee must be referred to a Substance Abuse Professional (SAP) as 
required by the DOT. This does not mean that employees must be maintained, employment 
depends on your drug/alcohol policy. Before an employee can return to a DOT safety-sensitive 
function, the employee must complete the activities outlined by the substance abuse professional 
and have a negative drug test on file as a result of the "return to work" test. In addition, 
employees are subject to additional random drug/alcohol testing as determined by SAP, 
known as "follow-up" testing (DOT mandates a minimum of 6 follow-up tests in the first 12 
months after an employee's return to work). Subsequent testing may last up to 5 years, according 
to SAP. Employers are not required to pay for return to work or follow-up testing, as this is 
usually paid by employees. 
Why do I or an employee seem to be getting tested all the time? 
DOT requires a compliant program to be truly random, and that DOT testing is based on 50% of 
the testing pool for drug testing and 10% for alcohol testing. Let's take an average random test 
pool of 1000 people for a monthly test cycle as an example. About 42 people are tested for drugs 
and 8 people are tested for alcohol each month. Now, in order for the monthly schedule to be 
truly randomized, all individuals must have the same chance of being selected for a drug or 
alcohol (or even both) test. Some people will be tested multiple times a year, while others won't 
have it at all. This is a truly random selection process, supported statistically, no one will ever be 
selected outside of a random process.