Personnel records · Small gas operators covered by Part 199, and public departments that employ CDL drivers
Drug & alcohol for a two-person system
The federal drug and alcohol rules are built around third parties: collectors, laboratories, medical review officers and consortia. A small operator doesn't build that machinery; it joins it and keeps the records. This paper explains the pieces and the records that prove the program runs.
Who is covered
Part 199 covers gas pipeline operators and their covered employees: the operator's own staff, contractors and contractors' employees who perform operations, maintenance or emergency-response functions regulated under 49 CFR 192, 193 or 195. It does not apply to covered functions on master meter systems, or on systems that carry only petroleum gas or a petroleum gas and air mix. A master meter operator is still a gas operator under 49 CFR 192, but its people are outside Part 199. A separate rule, 49 CFR 382, covers every employer of drivers who need a CDL, including a city, county or state utility.
The program's moving parts
A covered gas operator keeps a written anti-drug plan and a written alcohol misuse plan. Drug tests are required pre-employment, after an accident (no later than 32 hours after it), at random, for reasonable cause, for return to duty and as follow-up. The alcohol tests are post-accident, reasonable suspicion, return-to-duty and follow-up; there is no random alcohol testing under Part 199. Before someone starts safety-sensitive work for the first time, the employer gets written consent and asks DOT-regulated employers from the prior 2 years for that person's testing history. The testing procedures come from DOT's rules at 49 CFR 40. Oral fluid testing is allowed on paper but cannot be used yet: as of 1 September 2026 no laboratory is certified for it, and DOT requires at least two. Since 10 June 2026, when a same-sex observer is not present for a directly observed collection, the employer arranges one or sends the employee to another site, and collectors check for the employer's standing order. For CDL drivers, the employer runs a full Clearinghouse query before the first safety-sensitive work, and at least one query a year for every driver.
Random testing in a small pool
For calendar year 2026, the minimum random drug testing rate under Part 199 is 50 percent of covered employees. PHMSA kept it at 50 percent because the 2024 DAMIS reports showed a random positive rate above 1 percent. The FMCSA minimum random rates for CDL drivers in 2026 are 50 percent for drugs and 10 percent for alcohol. PHMSA publishes each year's rate in a notice, and the 2027 rate has not been announced.
The records and the annual report
Operators with more than 50 covered employees file the annual drug and alcohol MIS report by March 15 for the prior year. Operators with 50 or fewer file only when PHMSA requires it by notice in the PHMSA Portal. In Oklahoma, an operator that files also sends a duplicate to the OCC Pipeline Safety Department (OAC 165:20-11-2). Records are kept from 1 to 5 years: for example, verified positive results and MIS data 5 years, collection-process records 3 years, and negative tests 1 year. They are kept in a controlled-access location. A service agent may hold them, but the employer must be able to produce them when DOT asks. Indiana's rule incorporates the federal testing rules as they stood on 1 July 2024.
Why TheComplianceHQ
- We run your compliance program as a service: the calendar, the records, the plans and the filings for your signature.
- You stay the operator of record, and your people stay yours. When the work needs a credential or a field specialist, we bring in a qualified expert under contract.
- Every task leaves a dated record, and a correction is a new dated entry, never a quiet edit, so the file answers the inspector's question the day it is asked.
- One calendar across every system you run, so the same people, trucks and tickets are never tracked twice.
Sources
- eCFR, Title 49, drug and alcohol testing for pipeline operators
- eCFR, Title 49, DOT testing procedures: employer recordkeeping
- eCFR, Title 49, DOT testing procedures: previous-employer checks
- eCFR, Title 49, controlled substances and alcohol use and testing (382)
- Federal Register, PHMSA random drug testing rate for 2026, 9 December 2025
- Federal Register, DOT testing procedures final rule, 11 May 2026
- Federal Register, HHS list of certified laboratories, 1 September 2026
- DOT ODAPC, random testing rates
- Oklahoma Corporation Commission, pipeline safety rules, chapter 20 (edition of 1 August 2026)
- Indiana Administrative Code, 170 IAC 5 (pipeline safety)
This paper is provided for orientation and is not legal advice. Operators remain responsible for compliance with all applicable federal and state requirements.