Drug and Alcohol Testing: Determination of Minimum Random Testing Rates for 2019

AGENCY:

Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), Department of Transportation (DOT).

ACTION:

Notification of determination.

SUMMARY:

This notification of determination announces FRA's minimum annual random drug and minimum annual random alcohol testing rates for covered employees and for maintenance-of-way (MOW) employees for calendar year 2019.

DATES:

This determination takes effect December 28, 2018.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Gerald Powers, FRA Drug and Alcohol Program Manager, W33-310, Federal Railroad Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590 (telephone 202-493-6313); or Sam Noe, FRA Drug and Alcohol Program Specialist, Federal Railroad Administration (telephone 615-719-2951).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

FRA is announcing the 2019 minimum annual random drug and alcohol testing rates for covered service employees, and the 2019 minimum annual random drug and alcohol testing rates for MOW employees. For calendar year 2019, the minimum annual random testing rates for covered service employees will continue to be 25 percent for drugs and 10 percent for alcohol, while the minimum annual random testing rates for MOW employees will continue to be 50 percent for drugs and 25 percent for alcohol.

To set its minimum annual random testing rates for each year, FRA examines the last two complete calendar years of railroad industry drug and alcohol program data submitted to its Management Information System (MIS). The rail industry's random drug testing positive rate for covered service employees (employees subject to the hours of service laws and regulations) remained below 1.0 percent for 2016 and 2017. The Administrator has therefore determined the minimum annual random drug testing rate for the period January 1, 2019, through December 31, 2019, will remain at 25 percent for covered service employees. The industry-wide random alcohol testing violation rate for covered service employees remained below 0.5 percent for 2016 and 2017. Therefore, the Administrator has determined the minimum random alcohol testing rate will remain at 10 percent for covered service employees for the period January 1, 2019, through December 31, 2019. Because these rates represent minimums, railroads may conduct FRA random testing at higher rates.

MOW employees became subject to FRA random drug and alcohol testing in June 2017. The Administrator has determined that the minimum annual random testing rates initially established for MOW employees will remain in effect since FRA does not yet have MIS data on their industry-wide performance rates. Therefore, for the period January 1, 2019, through December 31, 2019, the minimum annual random drug testing rate will continue to be 50 percent for MOW employees, and the minimum annual random alcohol testing rate will continue to be 25 percent for MOW employees. As with covered service employees, because these rates represent minimums, railroads may conduct FRA random testing of MOW employees at higher rates.