Who do O/O use for the random drug testing program ?

As far as I know you need some kind of safety program. At least that’s what I was lead to believe.

 

You have their fuel card? I remember inquiring when I was getting my authority but, they said I needed to come to Tennessee to take some class or something......Unless ive had my authority for over a year.....

 

They tried to get me to sign up for a safety program...... No you dont need a safety program. You have to have some safety training IF you have more than 1 truck under your authority.

 

Yes I have their fuel card. I chose to just pay the $300? Instead of the class. I was also required to choose one of their other programs so I chose the drug/alcohol program.

 

Can you point to the regulations for multi truck small operations and safety training? I'm 8 years into this as an interstate carrier and still haven't seen anything official. Like every other small guy I seem to be behind the curve every time I turn around.

 

The simplest pick is OOIDA.
Here's food for thought.
That consortium must have relatively a bigger pool of drivers, so the random is more random than the ones with smaller pools.
They should be able to help you to set up the clearing house account which is a must too.

 

I can't remember where I seen or found that info at but, someone on here mention and posted it on another thread. ill try to find it.

 

Do you happen to know if it's each individual motor carrier within a consortium that must meet the minimum random requirement or the entire consortium as a whole must meet the minimum?

I'm guessing it's the whole consortium, but if not that would raise a couple of interesting scenario's for single owner op carriers.

Also, I don't understand how random can be more random for any amount greater than 1. What exactly do you mean?

 

It is up to the consortium to manage the drawings. A carrier does not concern itself with the number of times the selections are made. It is possible that you won't be drawn for a random test for a year or two.
For example, in the last 6 years, I was selected for a random drug test only two times and it happend in the last two years only and for an alcohol test only once and it was back in April.

I meant "more random" by presuming that with a bigger pool of drivers, the chances of you being selected naturally decrease.

I only presume because I am not too sure if and how the pool size affects the frequency of drawings. But from my experience of the last 20 years, when I was a company driver or leased on, I was selected at least once a year and after I went on my own as a carrier, 6 years ago, only 3 times so I have reasons to believe that the presumption is safe.
Therefore, the bigger consortium, the better.

 

Thanks for shedding some light with your response. Another way to explain my question would be this: If a consortium had one customer which was a single driver carrier then to fulfill the 50% annual requirement it would ensure that the one driver would test every year. After a couple of years the consortium gets their second customer, another single driver carrier.

After that, does the consortium need to ensure both carriers meet the 50% testing requirement every year, which would mean both drivers test every year. Or would the entire size of the consortium fulfill the requirements which would mean only one drivers tests every year?

(I apologize in advance I'm weird and like to learn how things work and I'm killing time)

In terms of a larger pool decreasing the chance of being selected my gut tells me that may not be correct.

The reason I think that is if there is a game where everybody gets a red card or a green card randomly (and it has to be half and half) then it doesn't matter how many people are in the group because each individual has a 50/50 shot of getting a red card. But maybe I'm thinking of it the wrong way.