The short answer first. If you hold a CDL, run under your own USDOT number, and you are the only person who drives — yes, you need a consortium, and not because a vendor says so. The rule that requires a random testing program also requires the pool to hold at least two people, and one person is not a pool.
If you are leased to a carrier, its program covers you. If you have two or more drivers, you have a choice the rule leaves open. Everything else in this article is the detail behind those three sentences: what a consortium actually is, where in Part 382 the one-truck requirement lives, and what a membership has to deliver so it counts.
What a consortium actually is.
The pool is the consortium. The company running it is the C/TPA. Most people mean both.
Two words get mashed together in every forum thread. The consortium is the pool — a group of drivers from many different employers combined into one random selection pool, so the federal rate can be met across the group instead of inside each tiny company. The C/TPA — consortium/third-party administrator — is the service agent that runs it. Part 40 defines it plainly:
“A service agent that provides or coordinates the provision of a variety of drug and alcohol testing services to employers.”
In practice the C/TPA does the random draws, keeps a network of collection sites, sits between the laboratory and the Medical Review Officer, holds the records, prepares the annual summary, and — when you designate it — reports violations to the FMCSA Clearinghouse on your behalf. What it is not: a license, a certificate that makes you compliant on its own, or a substitute for the tests and queries that stay in your name. Membership is the machinery. You still own the program.
The rule written for one truck.
Two sentences in Part 382 exist specifically for the carrier who is also the driver.
Most of Part 382 reads as if every employer has a roster and a safety department. Two paragraphs were written with the one-truck carrier in mind, and together they settle the question:
The two-person pool
“An employer who employs himself/herself as a driver must comply with both the requirements in this part that apply to employers and the requirements in this part that apply to drivers. An employer who employs only himself/herself as a driver shall implement a random alcohol and controlled substances testing program of two or more covered employees in the random testing selection pool.”
You cannot randomly select from a pool of one. The rule closes the argument before it starts: the pool has to hold at least two people, and the only way a one-driver company gets there is by pooling with other companies.
The designated reporter
“An employer who employs himself/herself as a driver must designate a C/TPA to comply with the employer requirements in paragraph (b) of this section related to his or her own alcohol and controlled substances use.”
Nobody reports their own positive test. If you are both the employer and the driver, a third-party administrator has to be the one holding the reporting duty in the Clearinghouse.
The third piece is permission rather than obligation. § 382.305(j) says your covered drivers “may be part of a larger random testing pool of covered employees” run by a service agent — provided that agent tests at the percentage set for your industry. That sentence is what makes the consortium a legitimate program rather than a workaround, and it is also the standard a membership has to meet.
◆ Sources: 49 CFR § 382.103(b); § 382.705(b)(6); § 382.305(j). Quotations checked against the current CFR text on 2026-09-12.
Do you need one?.
Four questions. Each one either ends the conversation or hands you to the next.
Does the truck require a CDL?
Part 382 reaches anyone who operates a commercial motor vehicle requiring a CDL in commerce in any State — so intrastate-only carriers are included, which surprises people. § 382.107 defines that vehicle four ways and meeting any one is enough. The full test, and what still applies if you fall under it, is spelled out right after this tree.
If yes
Part 382 applies. Keep going.
If no
No Part 382 program and no consortium. Other federal rules can still reach you — see the two weight lines below.
Do you run under your own authority — or are you leased to a carrier?
The definition of driver in § 382.107 includes “leased drivers and independent owner-operator contractors.” Under lease, you are a driver in that carrier's program; the carrier is the employer. Under your own USDOT and MC, you are the employer.
If yes
Own authority: you are the employer. Keep going.
If no
Leased: the carrier's pool covers you. Get it in writing which pool you sit in — and note that many carriers still require you to hold a consortium membership of your own.
Are you the only driver?
This is the question § 382.103(b) answers for you. A random program must have two or more covered employees in the pool. One person is not a pool, so a one-driver company has to join one.
If yes
You need a consortium. This is not a judgment call — it is the text of the rule.
If no
Two or more drivers: keep going. The rule gives you a choice.
Two or more drivers — do you want to run the pool yourself?
Legally you may. Practically, an in-house pool of three still owes a scientifically valid selection method, the 50% / 10% rate spread across the year, an MRO contract, five-year records, and an annual MIS summary. That is the same work a C/TPA does for a few dollars per driver, which is why most fleets under about fifty drivers pool.
If yes
Build the program in § 382.305 end to end and document every draw.
If no
Join a consortium. Your drivers sit in a larger pool the rule explicitly allows.
◆ The vehicle test in full
Any one of these four makes it a commercial motor vehicle under § 382.107.
Heavy straight truck
A gross vehicle weight rating — or the actual weight, whichever is greater — of 26,001 lb or more.
Heavy combination
A gross combination rating of 26,001 lb or more, and a towed unit rated over 10,000 lb. Both halves have to be true, which is what decides most hotshot rigs.
Passengers
Designed to carry 16 or more passengers — counting the driver.
Placarded hazmat
A vehicle of any size at all, carrying a quantity of hazardous material that requires placards.
10,001 lb
§ 390.5
USDOT number and the safety rules
Driver qualification files, hours of service, inspection and maintenance records, an accident register. This is the line that makes you a regulated motor carrier at all.
26,001 lb
§ 383.5 · § 382.107
CDL and the drug & alcohol program
Random pool, pre-employment testing, written policy, Clearinghouse — everything this article is about. Or 16 passengers, or placarded hazmat, at any weight.
◆ Two different rules, two different jobs. Crossing 10,001 lb (§ 390.5) makes you a regulated motor carrier. Crossing 26,001 lb — or carrying 16 passengers, or placarded hazmat — is what adds the CDL and, with it, Part 382. A carrier can sit squarely between the two lines: a USDOT number, full safety obligations, and no drug & alcohol program at all.
A few operators land above the line and are still excepted. § 382.103(d) carves out active-duty military drivers the States must waive from the CDL rules, operators of covered farm vehicles as § 390.5 defines them, and — where a State chooses to exercise the option — farm-vehicle operators, firefighters, and emergency responders. These are narrow, State-specific, and worth confirming with your State agency rather than assuming.
Notice where the rule stops deciding for you. For the one-driver company the answer is written down. For a fleet of three or eight it is a workload decision — and the workload is the whole of § 382.305, every draw documented, every year. If you also want to know what the rest of the program looks like once you have a second driver, the first-hire sequence walks it in order.
What membership has to do.
Seven things the rule expects the pool to deliver — and four it cannot do for you.
A membership counts only if the pool does what § 382.305 and Part 40 expect of a program. Use the left column as the test of any consortium — including ours. The right column is what stays in your name whatever you sign.
What the rule expects a consortium to deliver.
- Draw names by a scientifically valid method — every driver an equal chance, every time
- Hit at least 50% (drugs) and 10% (alcohol) of average driver positions across the pool
- Keep every selection unannounced and spread reasonably through the calendar year
- Route every result through a licensed Medical Review Officer before you see it
- Keep the program records for the periods in § 382.401 — five, two, and one years
- Prepare your annual MIS summary, and file it by March 15 if FMCSA asks in January
- Report violations to the Clearinghouse for you when you designate it as your C/TPA
Obligations that never transfer with a membership.
- A verified negative pre-employment result before any driver’s first safety-sensitive duty
- Clearinghouse pre-employment full queries and annual queries — unless you contract them out
- A written policy handed to every driver, with the signed receipt on file
- Sending a selected driver to the site immediately — the DER decision stays with you
◆ Left column: § 382.305(b), (i), (j), (k); Part 40 (MRO review); § 382.401; § 382.403; § 382.705(c). Right column: § 382.301(a); § 382.701(a)–(b); § 382.601(a), (d); § 382.305(l) and the DER definition in § 382.107.
Before you join anyone's pool, four questions separate a program from a certificate:
01 · Ask
How big is the pool, and how do you hit the rate?
A real answer names the selection software, the draw cadence, and how the pool is trued up when membership changes.
02 · Ask
Who is the MRO — and what happens on a positive?
You want a named, licensed MRO and a written return-to-duty path: SAP referral, RTD test, follow-up schedule.
03 · Ask
Will you be my designated C/TPA in the Clearinghouse?
For a self-employed driver this is required, not optional. Confirm they register the designation, not just tell you to.
04 · Ask
What comes with me if I leave?
Your records are yours. A membership you cannot exit with a complete file is a membership you will regret at audit time.
What it costs to join — and to skip.
Membership is a rounding error on the ledger. The audit finding is not.
Our membership is a flat annual fee for the whole roster, with tests billed only when a driver is actually selected. The figures below are read from the same source the order page uses, so they cannot drift:
Annual consortium membership
unlimited drivers
$100 / yr
Drug test — when a driver is selected
MRO review included
$57
Alcohol test — when a driver is selected
MRO review included
$70
Against that, the exposure. Two of the items on the new-entrant audit's automatic-failure list are this program: failing to implement a random testing program (§ 382.305) and using a driver before a negative pre-employment result (§ 382.301(a)). Either one revokes a new carrier's registration on its own. Outside the audit, both carry civil penalties that FMCSA adjusts for inflation every year, and a Controlled Substances/Alcohol finding sits in the BASIC with the least tolerance for a second line.
What owner-operators actually ask.
I run a hotshot — one-ton pickup and a gooseneck. Am I in or out?
It turns on two numbers, and both have to be true for the combination prong to catch you: a gross combination rating of 26,001 lb or more and a trailer rated over 10,000 lb. A 14,000 lb pickup pulling a 9,900 lb gooseneck misses it on the trailer even though the pair feels heavy. Read the ratings on the door jamb and the trailer plate, not the scale ticket — and remember the hazmat prong catches any size at all.
My truck is under 26,001 lb. Does that mean no federal rules apply?
No — it means no drug and alcohol rules apply. The commercial motor vehicle definition that triggers a USDOT number and the rest of the safety regulations starts much lower, at 10,001 lb under § 390.5. Between the two lines you still owe driver qualification files, hours of service, inspection and maintenance records, and an accident register. You simply do not owe a random pool.
I am leased to a carrier. Do I still need my own consortium?
Under the rule, the carrier you are leased to is the employer and you are its driver, so its program covers you. In practice many carriers make their own membership a lease condition, and the day you move to your own authority § 382.103(b) applies to you directly. Holding a membership through the transition is the cleanest way to avoid a gap.
Does joining a consortium take care of my pre-employment test?
No — they are separate obligations. § 382.301 requires a verified negative result before a driver performs any safety-sensitive function, including you on day one of your own authority. Membership makes ordering the test easy; it does not replace it. See the full Part 382 program for the six test types.
What does “50 percent” mean when I am one driver?
The rate applies to the pool, not to you. Across a year you might be drawn twice, once, or not at all — all three are compliant, because the pool as a whole hit 50% for drugs and 10% for alcohol. What the rule forbids is a program where your name could never come up.
Can I switch consortiums mid-year?
Yes. The rule cares that you were in a compliant pool every day, not which one. Keep the records from the old program — the retention clocks in § 382.401 follow the record, not the membership — and make sure the new pool has you enrolled before the old one drops you.
I only run intrastate. Does any of this apply?
Yes. Part 382 applies to CDL drivers operating “in commerce in any State,” which reaches intrastate-only operations most other federal rules skip. If your truck needs a CDL, the random program — and the two-person pool — applies to you.
The rule never asks whether you can be trusted behind the wheel. It asks whether a stranger could have drawn your name. With one driver, nobody could — and the consortium is how a one-truck company answers that honestly.
One membership. Every driver you run.
Enroll your company in our FMCSA-compliant consortium — DOT-approved random selections, MRO-verified results, records kept to § 382.401, the annual MIS summary, and Clearinghouse violation reporting as your designated C/TPA — for one flat annual fee, however many drivers you run. Tests are billed only when someone is actually selected.
Disclaimer
For informational purposes only — not legal, tax, or regulatory advice. Always verify requirements with FMCSA, your state agency, and qualified compliance professionals. Regulations and fees change; verify current requirements on official .gov sources before filing.