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

• Conduct periodic review of
service agent employee
credentials including training
documentation.
• Investigate any employee reports
of flawed procedures.
• Provide service agents with
copies of appropriate DOT
guidelines, regulations, and
related materials.
• Although not a regulatory
requirement, recommend that
service agents hold
memberships with their
respective industry’s trade
association or otherwise
demonstrate methods for
remaining up to date.
• Monitor cancelled tests and
require detailed explanations for
each.
• Include minimum performance
standards in contracts that
provide disincentives for
cancelled tests or nonperformance.
If a service agent is unwilling or unable
to perform their duties consistent with the
regulations, cancel their contract and obtain
service elsewhere.
Under Subpart R of Part 40, employers
also have another recourse. If a service
agent fails or refuses to provide testing
services consistent with the regulations or
fails to cooperate with DOT or employer
oversight activities, the DOT may institute a
Public Interest Exclusion (PIE) that excludes
that vendor from participating in the DOT’s
drug and alcohol testing program. There
must be serious uncorrected noncompliance
violations that affect safety, test results,
privacy, employee due process, integrity of
the testing program, or a lack of cooperation
with the DOT to warrant the issuance of a
PIE.
A PIE is a serious action that the DOT
takes to protect the public interest and to
ensure that covered employers deal only
with responsible service agents. The DOT
intends to use PIEs to remedy situations of
serious noncompliance, but not as
punishment. The process for initiating a PIE
is described in the chart on the following
page.
The scope of a PIE can reach beyond the
service agent in question to other divisions
such as other corporate divisions, affiliates,
individuals, or service agents that are
involved with or affected by the
noncompliance that is the basis for the PIE.
The duration of a PIE will be between 1 and
5 years.
Service agents who receive a PIE will be
placed on a “List of Excluded Drug and
Alcohol Service Agents” published on the
DOT’s Web site at: www.dot.gov/ost/dapc
and in the Federal Register. The service
agent must also notify in writing each of its
DOT regulated employers for which it
performs services of the PIE. The notice
must be sent within 3 business days from
issuance of the PIE.
Once an employer is notified that one of
its service agents has received a PIE, the
employer must stop using their services no
later than 90 days after the DOT has
published the notice in the Federal Register
or posted it on its Web site.
The issuance of a PIE does not result in
the cancellation of drug or alcohol tests
conducted by the service agent.
Chapter 12. Program Monitoring 12-3 August 2002