Drug and Alcohol Supervisor Training Guidance
The greatest mistake to make in life is to continually be afraid you will make one.
- Elbert Hubbard
U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Drug and Alcohol Supervisor Training Guidance
Have you ever received a notice stating the following?
- “Your company is out of compliance.”
- “Don’t fail your DOT audit!”
- “You are subject to a civil penalty up to $10,000 for being out of compliance.”
More than likely, the letter you received was sent from a private company that is aggressively marketing supervisor training to motor carriers. Neither FMCSA nor any other agency within the U.S. DOT is affiliated with or endorses the services offered by these companies.
What You Need to Know:
49 CFR 382.603 is the applicable regulation requiring supervisors of commercial motor vehicle drivers who operate vehicles that require a commercial driver’s license to take 60 minutes of training on the symptoms of alcohol abuse and another 60 minutes of training on the symptoms of controlled substance use (120 minutes in total). The purpose of this training is to teach supervisors to identify circumstances and indicators that may create reasonable suspicion that a driver is using or under the influence of alcohol or drugs, supporting the referral of an employee for testing.
If you operate vehicles that require a CDL on public roads and you have more than one employee in the company, you are required to get DOT supervisor training. To verify if you are subject to the drug and alcohol regulations, please visit DOT’s Am I Covered?
Owner-operators are not subject to DOT supervisor training. However, you are still required to register with a consortium for DOT drug and alcohol testing.
