Procedures for Transportation Workplace Drug and Alcohol Testing Programs: Substance Abuse Professional and the Return-to-Duty Process

What it does

The Substance Abuse Professional (SAP) is the `gatekeeper' for the Department of Transportation's return-to-duty process (RTD). As the `gatekeeper', the SAP has a crucial role to play in recommending the level of treatment an employee may need in their path to returning to performing a safety-sensitive function after violating the DOT's drug and alcohol testing regulations. Given this critical role, the Department is publishing this notification in response to several SAP/ RTD-related issues that the Department has recently become aware of, to remind DOT-qualified SAPs to follow all the RTD process procedures in the drug and alcohol testing regulation (49 CFR part 40) and to remind DOT-regulated employers of the SAP responsibilities and RTD process.

The Transportation Department's summary, as published in the Federal Register.

What changed in the regulation

1 part of Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations:

49 CFR 40

Compared with

The Transportation Department has published 10 final rules in 2026 so far, compared with 9 in all of 2025.

Counted by the Tribune from Federal Register records since Jan. 1, 2025.

What happens next and when

March 4, 2026.

The agency's dates, word for word.

Check it yourself

• The document in the Federal Register
• Docket DOT-OST-2009-0092 on Regulations.gov
• Title 49 on eCFR

The record as published

Source: the Federal Register (public domain). The document in the Federal Register