What if random/ out of country?

As long as you are not the contact person it's not a issue. Law states that you have x amount of time after you are notifyed. Appoint someone you trust to be in charge of your drug alcohol program make them the contact with your consortium. For me it's my wife. She can be notified and then it can be scheduled at a later date when it's convenient. She can set up the date and time for when I'll be home and then she can tell me about it within the time window and it's all good. They contact your contact they tell the consortium your on vacation and schedule it for when. Your return

 

They'll just give you a random when you get back. There's actually a set amount of time for a company to test you once a driver's name is called.

 

Well let's see ...

I am an owner operator.


I go on vacation


Say it is just in my front yard and watch the chickens


I don't answer the phone .....




PROBLEM SOLVED!



One thing I tell owners, have a separate phone for business and personal ... even a dual sim phone.


When you are on vacation, you change your VM message saying you are on vacation and turn the phone OFF.

The second phone is cheap. $50 a month at most. Don't have to be fancy but functional.

You guys make things soooooo complicated,

 

When driver is notified of random selec

 

I have my notifications sent by snail mail so they really have no proof as to when I received it.
The way it was explained by the people at the consortium,is as long as it’s done by the end of the quarter,then you’re good to go.

 

Can you elaborate on that further?

I have never heard of such a thing. I thought that as long as your MC number is active and your insurance is active you have to be part of a Consortium and available 365 days a year for a random drug test.

You are saying that you can put yourself out of service and that makes you ineligible for a drug or alcohol test?

That does not sound right to me.

 

Your company doesn't get put ineligible for the pool. You the driver are ineligible for a alcohol test.
Alcohol test requires the driver either just getting done driving, currently driving or just getting ready to drive.
Fmcsa calls is safety sensitive operation or something like that.

When a driver's name is picked for a random. The company has until the end of the quarter or 3 months to test. I'm not sure which it is.
I had a driver that was picked he was in Mexico on vacation. Consortium just used an alternate.

I would call the consortium you belong to.
Let us know what they say.

 

Dinosaur, let's take another example which could occur to anyone.
I am hospitalized with an illness for say 2 weeks. During that period, and a convilecient period after I am taking any number of medications that would easily cause positives on any drug screen to make me ineligible to drive, possibly for life.
The drug testing rules have various exceptions for any driver who isn't going to get behind the wheel.
My own company for example is not allowed to call me and ask me to go for a drug screen when I have told them I will be off duty and unavailable from date x to date y, or off duty until further notice. Of course I also cannot drive for them at all during those periods.
The moment I return to available duty it is possible I may be asked to go for a drug screen.

 

I'm glad we don't do this crap up here. Sounds like a pain in the rear.

 

Thank you for posting that.

I think that is a policy of the company that you work for a which is a really good policy.

But unless FMCSA has changed the rules, the employer is allowed to actually call you on your day off and force you to go in for a drug screen if they choose to. I think that's completely ridiculous, but as far as I know that is part of the rule under FMCSA.

It's a little bit different for an owner operator with his own authority, which is the reason why I started this thread.

I just wanted to make sure that I understand the rules as an owner operator.