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

Since each employer uses its own terminology to describe job categories that
involve safety-sensitive functions, each employer must continue to decide whether a
particular employee performs any of the functions listed in the definition of “safety­
sensitive function,” including bus dispatchers. As noted in previous guidance, the key
consideration remains the type of work performed rather than any particular job title.
Based on the comments received, FTA will not attempt a universal definition of
“dispatchers” at this time. Instead, FTA will allow each employer to determine whether a
particular dispatcher performs or may perform a safety-sensitive function.
Maintenance contractors. In the NPRM, FTA reiterated that maintenance
contractors that perform safety-sensitive functions are subject to the drug and alcohol
testing rules, for the reasons noted in the preamble to the 1999 rule change, i.e., fairness
and safety (64 FR 425, January 5, 1999). Most comments on this subject concerned the
difficulty employers have in requiring maintenance contractors to implement a drug and
alcohol program. Much of the discussion related to the difficulty in finding maintenance
contractors willing to comply with the drug and alcohol testing requirements, particularly
where the maintenance contractor provides service on an occasional basis. A number of
commenters offered that maintenance shops cannot afford to implement an ongoing
program for the amount of transit-related business generated. As a result, this would
severely restrict the grantee/subrecipient’s ability to properly maintain FTA-funded
vehicles. The majority of comments urged the FTA to completely exempt maintenance
contractors from the drug and alcohol testing regulations.
Several urban grantees commented on the fact that the type of work they are
14