CDL EMPLOYER CONSULTING
As part of my work as a qualified Substance Abuse Professional, Designated Employer Representatives started to ask me questions about their role in the Department of Transportation's safety program and about other Service Agents. I realized it wasn't good enough for me to know the sections of 49 CFR 40 and FMCSR 382 relevant to the SAP process. I needed to study it all. And I needed to be familiar with the rules for the other transportation modes beyond what what was required to become qualified.
So I wrote a two hour CDL Supervisor training in compliance with FMCSR 382.603 and each time I presented it, someone would ask a question that would send me back to the regulations, regulatory guidance, and once in a while require an e-mail to Washington, DC. To the credit of the DOT and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, there was a straight answer to every question. There is no guess work: there is one way for employers to do everything right.
BEWARE OF CONSULTANTS
There is a disturbing trend in the transportation safety program and evidence of it lands in my e-mail in box almost once a month: fear mongering. One outfit sells a two day conference in a hotel for Designated Employer Representatives so DERs can catch up on all the new regulations. Huh? There has been exactly one significant change in FMCSRs since 2001 relating to DERs: CDL employer background checks were extended from 2 years to 3. The other changes that have been made refer primarily to testing and Medical Review Officers. The testing rates change annually and that has always been so. The DOT and each transportation mode issue guidelines irregularly to clarify how to stay in compliance. You can go to their web sites and sign up to have them e-mail them to you. Click here to do that.
Compliance is serious business but it isn't rocket science. I have worked with many small family businesses who manage their own DOT files, work with a consortium to get testing, and send drivers who violate regulations to local Substance Abuse Professionals they trust.
If you pay a service to manage your DOT files, be aware that the regulations are silent about these vendors. Translation: you are completely responsible to ensure those files are in order and employers can be fined if those files are not in compliance, up to $10,000 per day per violation.
BEWARE OF NETWORKS
Another disturbing trend: national companies that retain Substance Abuse Professionals and try to control the relationship between the Designated Employer Representative and the Substance Abuse Professional. I have been repeatedly approached by these companies, who offered to send me cases if I signed an agreement that stated that I would not provide any services to the employer or employee they referred to me in any capacity without obtaining prior written consent from them.
They said that I would provide ONLY the initial and follow up evaluations and provide two letters and they would handle all case management, which means treatment referral and monitoring. What's wrong with that? Those are the SAP's duties (49 CFR 40.299, 301/2/b). I can prove they violate these regulations because a I have a copies of forms they use to refer employees to treatment, spelling out treatment recommendations, and the forms they require treatment providers to submit directly to them, not the SAP, to monitor treatment. Regulations are silent about these third parties and employers are ultimately responsible for the compliance of their Service Agents (49 CFR 40.15/c), including Substance Abuse Professionals. As an SAP I can't be fined, and neither can these third parties. Only an employer can: up to $10,000 per day per violation.
These network outfits that contract with SAPs will promise to save you money. I know they can because their fee agreement offered me just 26% of the average rate for SAP services in Illinois. But SAP services are a craft, not a commodity. Consider the quality of services provided by someone willing to work for so little. Consider the judgment of any Substance Abuse Professional willing to turn over their positive duties under DOT regulations to a stranger in another state in return for referrals. An employer can be audited and so can any Service Agent. I have been. I wouldn't want to be in the room when a federal auditor found out that someone other than the SAP was fulfilling the SAP's duties.
Transportation safety is serious business. Sometimes when you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
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