Electronic Chain of Custody Forms (eCCF) ramping up for DOT Drug Testing

Written by Lucas Kibby, CleanFleet

Traditional drug testing requires an employer to provide the applicant with a five-part paper chain of custody form. Electronic Chain of Custody Forms (eCCFs) are electronic versions of these forms. This document is used for ordering drug test, specimen collection processing, and chain of custody documentation for workplace drug testing.

Back in April 2015, the DOT published a Final Rule allowing employers, collectors, laboratories, and MROs to use Federal eCCF. Only laboratories that are approved by HHS National Laboratory Certification Program (NLCP) can provide Federal eCCF.

Alere Toxicology Services, Clinical Reference Laboratory, Quest Diagnostics, and Labcorp are now certified to utilize eCCFs for all U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) urine workplace drug tests, following the successful of the NLCP inspection and certification process, which involves demonstrating proficiency in several areas, including data security and confidentiality.

With this approval, drug tests for each of the DOT administrations and agencies can now be processed with the same efficient eCCF that non-regulated companies have been using for over a decade by eliminating the need to utilize outdated, paper based forms.

Automated registration of the applicant and the use of eCCFs reduces the number of errors and legibility issues, as well as eliminates the need to inventory paper testing forms. It also ensures a more accurate data transfer between the employer, collector, and laboratory.

This change impacts federal programs governing transit, aviation, pipeline, motor carriers, and others.

CleanFleet and eCCFs

Our CleanFleet clinics are now able to process your electronic chain of custody forms. If you are having trouble finding clinics that can handle eCCFs, come to our sites. We are one of the industry leaders that can handle eCCFs.

If you have a lab account (Quest, LabCorp, PAML, or Legacy) that is registered with FormFox, just bring in or call us with your lab account number and authorization form, and we can start handling your testing for you. Be sure to contact your lab to be setup with electronic chain of custody if you have not done so already.

For our Consortium Members, our partner clinics nationwide are currently being vetted for eCCF capability. We expect by mid-2017 to have most partner-sites ready for eCCFs.