The roll out of oral fluid testing by the Department of Transportation (DOT) is taking it’s sweet time but the wait will be worth it.

With new technology and development oral fluids testing has become as reliable as lab based urine testing. As an employer you can move forward with confidence in the integrity of your drug testing program to maintain a safe work environment for your employees and the public.

Oral fluid testing will eliminate privacy concerns when it comes to observed collections. Instead of having to have a collector of the same sex watch you provide a urine sample you can simply provide an oral fluid sample under observation fully clothed.

Most employers aren’t aware of the fact that a certain number of drivers who come in for random testing while on the clock that purposely provide an insufficient quantity of urine. Once that happens, collectors start the driver on a shy bladder protocol where they are given 40zo of water over a period of up to 3 hours. Some drivers purposely do this so they can sit for 2-3 hours, play on their phone and getting paid while enjoying the internet. Oral fluid testing will help eliminate “time theft” as it is called because getting saliva from a driver, even if dehydrated, is a much faster process taking less than 20 minutes.

Employers can use oral fluids or urine for any test (random, reasonable suspicion, return to duty, follow ups, pre-employment, and post accident) with one exception. For a post accident test under the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) the test must be urine not oral fluid.

The only draw back to oral fluid testing at this time is that it will cost $5-7 more than urine collection because the cost of the oral fluid kit. Urine collection kits are usually provided free of charge by the lab.

The roll out of oral fluids is taking longer than expected for two reasons. First, there has to be at least to labs certified to test oral fluids. The reason behind this is important because there have to be labs that can do a confirmation test if the first test results are challenged. Secondly, some lab or manufacturer has to produce a collection kit that will meet the DOT standards including the ability to split the sample incase an confirmation test is required.

When oral fluid testing finally rolls out and is functional, it will be a net positive for your drug testing program keeping maintaining the same integrity and reliability but saving time and increasing privacy.

Additional Resources and References
https://disa.com/news/why-the-dot-approved-oral-fluid-testing-but-you-cant-use-it-yet

https://disa.com/news/dot-oral-fluid-testing-rules-key-updates-insights

https://www.transportation.gov/ODAPC/Notice_Summary_Nov_2024