Implementation Guidelines - Federal Transit Administration - U.S. ...

Suggested Frequencies of
Random-number Selections
Random
Tests
Per Year
Frequency of
Randomnumber
Selections
1-11* Quarterly
12-51 Monthly
52-364 Weekly
>364 Daily
* Small systems that conduct few
tests per year may need to conduct
more tests to ensure the testing is
spread throughout the year.
Once an employee is selected, the
employer should schedule the collection
within the testing period (i.e., week, month,
quarter) and make sure the employee is not
inadvertently notified of the test until it is
time to proceed to the collection site. Tests
should be performed evenly throughout the
testing period to eliminate predictability.
If the employee is off-duty or otherwise
unavailable at the time the employer desires
to conduct the test, the test should be
postponed until the employee is on-duty, if
the test can be performed during the testing
period for which the number was selected.
The only explanation for selecting another
number and substituting a replacement for
the original individual is in the rare event the
originally selected employee will not work
(or perform safety-sensitive duties in the
case of an alcohol test) during the entire
testing period. Logistical difficulties,
operational requirements, or complicated
personnel issues that make the testing
process more difficult are not acceptable
reasons for choosing a replacement.
Likewise, convenience of the employer,
collection facility, or mobile testing unit
should not influence whom to test. Anytime
the originally selected employee is not
tested, the employer should document the
reason for not testing and address the
individual’s unavailability during the whole
testing period.
All safety-sensitive employees must be
included in the random pool. Thus, the
random pool should be purged prior to each
testing period to ensure that the random
process will not be compromised. All new
hires and transfers into a safety-sensitive
position since the last draw must be added to
the pool. Similarly, all covered employees
that have retired, quit, are on leave or been
fired, or otherwise expected to be
unavailable throughout the testing period
must be removed from the pool.
If the transit agency decides to randomly
test non-safety-sensitive employees, those
employees must be placed in a separate pool
and tested under the transit agency’s
authority, and not under the authority of the
DOT and FTA.
Once the list of employee identification
numbers has been developed, use it for
random selection. One way to do this is to
contract out the random-number selection
process. Preferably, the contractor
organization would only have the numbers
and would not be able to correlate them with
any employee name. If an outside service
agent is used for this purpose, care must be
taken to ensure that the random-number
draw is communicated to the Designated
Employer Representative in a confidential
manner.
Chapter 6. Types of Testing 6-16 August 2002