Any individual, who has received training specified in 49 CFR Part 40 (§40.33) for conducting the required collection procedure, may serve as a collector EXCEPT in the following situations:
- The immediate supervisor of a particular employee may not act as the collector when that employee is tested, unless no other collector is available and the supervisor is permitted to do so under a DOT operating administration’s drug and alcohol regulation. (The immediate supervisor may act as a monitor or observer (same gender) if there is no one else available at the collection site to conduct a monitored or observed collection.)
- An employee who is in a safety-sensitive position and subject to the DOT drug testing rules should not be a collector, an observer, or a monitor for co-workers who are in the same testing pool or who work together with that employee on a daily basis. This is to preclude any potential appearance of collusion or impropriety
- An individual working for an HHS-certified drug testing laboratory (eg, as a technician or accessioner) may not act as a collector if that individual can link the employee with the specimen drug test result or laboratory report
- The employee may not be the collector of his or her own urine specimen.
Note: To avoid a potential conflict of interest, a collector should not be someone that is related to the employee (eg, spouse, ex-spouse, relative) or a close personal friend (eg, fiancée).
You, as a collector, have a great deal of responsibility in the collection of urine for drug testing. It is imperative that you know, understand, and stay current with the rules and regulations. Do the very best you can to make every collection "error free." A collection site must be ready to demonstrate that it satisfies all requirements. Guidelines now mandate that "Federal agencies" inspect each year up to five percent of randomly selected sites used by the agency.
