U.S. DOT announces random drug and alcohol testing rates for truck drivers in 2025

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has announced the random drug and alcohol testing rates for safety-sensitive workers, including truckers, for 2025.

U.S. DOT recently released released the annual minimum drug and alcohol random testing rates for operating agencies, including the FMCSA, for this year.

For 2025, the random drug testing rate will remain at 50%. The random alcohol testing rate will also remain at 10%.

The random drug and alcohol testing rates remain unchanged since 2020, when the Random Drug Testing Rate increased from 25% to 50%.

The FMCSA is required to increase the random drug test rate from 25% to 50% following any calendar year during which the reported positive drug test rate is equal to or greater than 1.0%. This requirement was laid out in a 2001 FMCSA Final Rule entitled “Controlled Substances and Alcohol Use and Testing.”

The FMCSA said prior to the 2020 testing rate increase that the positive rate for controlled substances random testing in 2018 was 1%, up from an estimated positive drug usage rate of 0.7% in 2016 and 0.8% in 2017.

In order for the random drug testing rate to decrease from 50% to 25% for all driver positions, the violation rate must be less than 1.0 percent but equal to or greater than 0.5 percent for two consecutive calendar years.