Small fleets rarely fail a drug and alcohol review for lack of tests. They fail for the pieces around the tests — the policy nobody signed for, the supervisor nobody trained, the annual summary nobody prepared, the negative result that arrived a day after the driver's first load.
Two rules share the work. Part 40 is the Department of Transportation's procedure — how a specimen is collected, analyzed, reviewed, and reported. Part 382 is FMCSA's overlay: when a test happens, on whom, and what has to follow. This article is the Part 382 half for a 1–20 truck fleet, mapped to the section that requires each piece.
Who the rule covers.
If the truck needs a CDL, the program applies — in any State, whether or not you ever cross a line.
§ 382.103 applies the rule to every person and employer operating a commercial motor vehicle that requires a CDL, “in commerce in any State.” That phrase does real work: most federal safety rules stop at the state line, but Part 382 reaches intrastate-only carriers too. The vehicle threshold comes from § 382.107, and any one of four things meets it: a GVWR of 26,001 lb or more; a combination rated 26,001 lb or more where the towed unit is rated over 10,000 lb — both halves, which is what decides hotshot rigs; sixteen or more passengers including the driver; or a vehicle of any size carrying placarded hazardous materials.
The same definitions settle who a driver is: full-time, casual, occasional, and — explicitly — leased drivers and independent owner-operator contractors. A contractor under lease is a driver in your program. And a safety-sensitive function is all time from the moment a driver begins work or is required to be ready to work until relieved: waiting to be dispatched, inspecting, loading, driving, and sitting in the cab all count.
Note what that threshold is not. The definition that makes you a regulated motor carrier at all — USDOT number, driver qualification files, hours of service — starts at 10,001 lb under § 390.5. A carrier can sit between the two lines with a full set of safety obligations and no drug and alcohol program whatsoever. The consortium article works that test through in full.
One clause is written for the smallest carrier of all. § 382.103(b) requires an employer who is also the driver to meet both sets of obligations, and to run a random program with two or more people in the pool. For a one-truck company that sentence decides the consortium question by itself.
The six tests.
Each one has its own trigger, its own clock, and its own paperwork. Two of them sit on the new-entrant automatic-failure list.
Six circumstances require a test. Two are routine, two are triggered by events, and two only exist after a violation. The badge on a card marks a test whose absence is on the new-entrant audit's automatic-failure list under § 385.321(b).
01 · Pre-employment
§ 382.301
Before a driver performs any safety-sensitive function for you — including you, on day one of your own authority.
◆ Result in hand first · no exceptions on timing
Drugs are required; alcohol is optional, and only if you apply it to every driver after a conditional offer. The exception in (b) — driver was in a compliant program within the last 30 days and was tested in the past six months or pooled for the past twelve — only works if you obtain and file the prior program's records listed in (c).
02 · Random
§ 382.305
A draw from a scientifically valid selection — every driver an equal chance, every time. The pool must hit 50% of average driver positions for drugs and 10% for alcohol each calendar year.
◆ Unannounced · spread through the year · proceed immediately
Your drivers may sit in a larger pool run by a C/TPA, as long as that pool tests at the trucking rate. For a one-driver company the pool must be shared — here is why.
03 · Post-accident
§ 382.303
A fatality — always. An injury treated away from the scene, or a tow-away, only if the driver is cited for a moving violation arising from the crash.
◆ Alcohol: try within 2 hrs, stop at 8 · Drugs: stop at 32 hrs
Every missed window needs a written reason on file. The driver stays available for testing — but nothing in the rule delays medical care to get a sample.
04 · Reasonable suspicion
§ 382.307
Specific, contemporaneous, articulable observations of appearance, behavior, speech, or body odor — made by a supervisor trained under § 382.603. A hunch, a rumor, or a report from someone untrained does not qualify.
◆ Written record within 24 hrs · alcohol 2 / 8 hr windows
Until a test shows under 0.02 or 24 hours pass, the driver stays off safety-sensitive duty. No trained supervisor means no lawful reasonable-suspicion test.
05 · Return-to-duty
§ 382.309 · Part 40 Subpart O
After a violation, once a Substance Abuse Professional has evaluated the driver and confirmed they completed the prescribed education or treatment.
◆ Must be a verified negative before any safety-sensitive work
Collected under direct observation. Until this result is reported, the driver is prohibited — in the Clearinghouse and, since November 2024, at the state licensing agency.
06 · Follow-up
§ 382.311 · § 40.307
The SAP's written plan: at least six unannounced tests in the first twelve months back on duty, and it may run as long as sixty months.
◆ On top of — never instead of — the random pool
Also directly observed. Completing the plan is itself reportable to the Clearinghouse; until it is reported, the record stays open.
The post-accident trigger is the one most often applied wrong in both directions — drivers tested after a fender-bender that never qualified, and drivers not tested after a tow-away because nobody checked whether a citation was issued. The rule's own table:
Human fatality
● Test
● Test
Bodily injury with immediate medical treatment away from the scene
○ No test
● Test
Disabling damage to any vehicle requiring tow-away
○ No test
● Test
◆ Source: 49 CFR § 382.303(a)–(b). “Cited” means a citation under State or local law for a moving traffic violation arising from the accident, issued within 8 hours (alcohol) or 32 hours (drugs) of the occurrence. Test windows per § 382.303(d).
The paper that makes it a program.
A test is an event. A program is the policy, the people, and the records around it.
Auditors do not ask whether you test. They ask for the six things below, and the order they ask for them in is roughly the order they are missing from small-fleet files.
Written policy
Educational materials covering the twelve items in § 382.601(b) — who is covered, what counts as a refusal, the consequences, the Clearinghouse — handed to every driver before testing starts and to every new hire. Each driver signs a receipt, and you keep it.
Supervisor training
At least 60 minutes on alcohol misuse and 60 minutes on controlled substances for anyone who supervises drivers, covering the physical, behavioral, speech, and performance signs. Once; the rule requires no refresher. Without it, reasonable-suspicion testing is off the table.
Designated employer representative
The person authorized to receive results from the MRO and the C/TPA and to pull a driver from safety-sensitive work on the spot. The DER must be your employee, not a service agent. In a one-truck company, it is you.
Medical Review Officer
A licensed physician who reviews every laboratory result before it reaches you and contacts the driver about any legitimate medical explanation. You never receive an unreviewed positive — and you never see the prescription behind a downgraded one.
C/TPA
Optional on paper for a fleet with two or more drivers; required in effect for a self-employed driver, who must run a two-person pool and designate a C/TPA for Clearinghouse reporting. Most fleets under fifty drivers use one for the whole program.
Clearinghouse registration
Register the employer, buy a query plan, and designate your C/TPA if you use one. Then the cadence: a full query before every hire, and a query on every driver at least once a year — a limited query with standing consent counts, with a full query inside 24 hours if it comes back with a record.
The Clearinghouse deserves its own reading — the queries, the consents, and the registration are a program inside the program, and the portal can run the cadence for you.
When a result comes back.
Removal is immediate, reporting has a three-day clock, and the road back runs through a SAP.
A verified positive, an alcohol result of 0.04 or higher, or a refusal means the driver comes off safety-sensitive duty immediately under § 382.501 — not at the end of the run, not after a conversation. A refusal is a violation in its own right (§ 382.211), and § 382.107 lists nine behaviors that count as refusing, from not showing up to not cooperating with the collector.
One result is a stand-down rather than a violation. An alcohol reading between 0.02 and 0.039 keeps the driver off safety-sensitive functions until the next regularly scheduled duty period and at least 24 hours (§ 382.505). It is not reported to the Clearinghouse, and the rule bars you from taking further action on that result alone.
Remove
Off every safety-sensitive function the moment the DER learns of the result. Driving, loading, waiting to be dispatched — all of it.
Report
Alcohol at 0.04 or higher and refusals go into the Clearinghouse by the close of the third business day. The MRO reports verified positives directly.
Refer
Give the driver a list of Substance Abuse Professionals. The SAP evaluates, prescribes education or treatment, and re-evaluates before clearing a return-to-duty test.
Return
A verified negative return-to-duty test, reported to the Clearinghouse, lifts the prohibition. The follow-up plan then runs for at least a year.
Since November 18, 2024, the prohibition also reaches the driver's license: state licensing agencies check the Clearinghouse and downgrade the CDL of a driver in prohibited status until the return-to-duty result is on record. The consequences for the driver are serious enough that anything beyond the removal the rule requires — termination, a lease dispute — is worth a conversation with counsel first.
Records and the annual summary.
Five years, two years, one year — and a March 15 deadline that only applies if January brings a letter.
§ 382.401 asks for the records to be kept “in a secure location with controlled access” — a locked drawer or a permissioned folder, not the shared drive — for three different clocks:
The records that define a violation, and the program itself.
- Alcohol results of 0.02 or higher
- Verified positive drug results
- Refusals to test
- SAP evaluations and referrals
- Breath-device calibration
- Program administration records
- Each year’s MIS summary
How each specimen was handled.
- Collection-process records
- Chain-of-custody and site documentation
The results that cleared.
- Negative and cancelled drug results
- Alcohol results under 0.02
◆ 49 CFR § 382.401(b)(1)–(3). Training records — supervisor, collector, technician — are kept for as long as the person performs the function plus two years. Clearinghouse query records are kept three years under § 382.701(e).
The annual summary is the record small fleets most often do not know exists. § 382.403 requires every employer to be able to produce a summary of the previous calendar year's testing — drivers tested, test types, results, return-to-duty activity — whenever FMCSA, another DOT agency, or a state official asks. And if a letter arrives in January selecting you for reporting, the MIS report is due by March 15. A C/TPA may prepare it; a company official still certifies it.
What small fleets actually ask.
I have one truck and I am the only driver. Does all of this apply to me?
Yes — and one extra sentence applies only to you. § 382.103(b) requires a self-employed driver to meet both the employer and the driver requirements, and to run a random program with at least two people in the pool. That is the consortium question, and we answer it in full here.
Can I use an instant test kit or a clinic’s standard panel?
Not for a DOT test. Part 40 requires a specimen collected under its chain-of-custody procedures, analyzed by an HHS-certified laboratory, and reviewed by an MRO. A non-DOT result cannot satisfy any of the six tests above, however clean it is.
Is a pre-employment alcohol test required?
No. § 382.301(d) makes it optional — but if you do it, you must do it for every driver, after a conditional offer, under Part 40 procedures, and require a result under 0.02. The drug test is the one that is mandatory.
A driver has a state medical-marijuana card. Does that change a positive THC result?
No. Part 40 does not allow an MRO to accept a state medical-marijuana authorization as a legitimate medical explanation, so the result verifies positive and is a violation under § 382.215 regardless of state law. Given the consequences for the driver, this is a moment to involve counsel before acting on anything beyond the removal the rule requires.
How does an auditor actually check this program?
Four questions, in order: is there a program at all (§ 382.115)? Did every driver have a negative pre-employment result before their first load? Is there a random pool that hit the rate, with draw records? Was any driver with a positive or refusal kept driving? Each of those is on the new-entrant automatic-failure list. Then the paper: policy receipts, supervisor certificates, MIS summaries, Clearinghouse queries.
A test is a moment. A program is what an auditor can reconstruct from your files a year later — the policy someone signed for, the draw that was actually random, the result that arrived before the first load.
Every test, every record, one place.
Order pre-employment, random, post-accident, and reasonable-suspicion tests in the portal, with MRO-verified results filed to the driver record automatically. Add consortium membership and the random pool, the written policy, the annual MIS summary, and Clearinghouse violation reporting ride along.
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.