The percentage of truckers required to undergo random drug testing will remain the same in 2025.
On Tuesday, Jan. 7, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced the 2025 minimum testing rates established for department agencies. For occupations falling under the umbrella of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the minimum percentage rate for random drug testing will continue to be 50% of the average number of driver positions.
As for the minimum annual percentage rate for random alcohol testing, the department said that too will remain the same as in 2024, with 10% of the average number of driver positions being selected for testing.
Those rates have remained unchanged since 2020, when the minimum percentage jumped from 25% to 50%. That increase was due to a 2001 final rule titled, “Controlled Substances and Alcohol Use and Testing,” which requires the FMCSA administrator to increase the minimum annual random testing percentage rate when the results received under the reporting requirements for any calendar year indicate that the positive rate is equal to or greater than 1%.
As far as where that data comes from, FMCSA randomly selects participants each year to report their drug testing results, which carriers are required to maintain for a period of five years. The agency “expects a 100% response rate” from those selected to report their previous year’s testing numbers. Failing to submit results can result in “civil penalties of up to $1,000 dollars per day that the motor carrier fails to comply.”
Conversely, falling below the 1% threshold can trigger the random drug testing percentage to decrease.
According to federal regulations, when results received in the Management Information System for two consecutive calendar years show a positive rate for controlled substances less than 1%, the FMCSA administrator “has the discretion to lower the annual testing rate to a minimum of 25% of a carrier’s driver positions.”
The last time a decrease occurred was in 2016, when the agency lowered the annual drug testing rate to 25%. LL
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