DOT moves to renew drug and alcohol testing paperwork: what the ATF and MIS forms cover, with comments due Jan. 8

The U.S. Department of Transportation wants to renew the paperwork approval behind its workplace drug and alcohol testing program, and it is taking public comments until Jan. 8, 2027.

The notice, published in the Federal Register on Nov. 9 under docket DOT-OST-2026-4192, covers the records required by 49 CFR Part 40, the testing procedures that apply to FMCSA-regulated motor carriers and other transportation employers. DOT needs approval from the Office of Management and Budget to keep collecting this information under control number 2105-0529.

What it covers

The renewal includes 45 paperwork items across the testing program and two official forms:

• Alcohol Testing Form (ATF), DOT F 1380: records each alcohol test, including the employee's name, the type of test, the date and the employer.
• Management Information System (MIS) Data Collection Form, DOT F 1385: an employer-level summary of testing, such as the reasons for tests and the total numbers of negative, positive and refusal results. It does not collect data on individual employees.

FMCSA and the other DOT agencies use MIS data when they calculate their industry's annual random drug and alcohol testing rate.

The one form change

DOT says it will ask OMB to approve a small change to the MIS form. It would remove the pipeline-type check boxes on the PHMSA pipeline line, because PHMSA already has that information, and update an office room number. DOT says the change will not affect the form's burden estimate. Nothing in the notice changes the MIS fields motor carriers fill out.

The biggest paperwork items

DOT estimates 2,383,126 respondents and 723,484 burden hours a year in total. Among the items listed:

• Testing records from previous employers [40.25(a)]: 668,581 responses a year at about 8 minutes each, or 89,144 hours.
• Employee release of information [40.25(f)]: 668,581 responses at about 4 minutes each.
• MIS form submission [40.26]: 27,680 respondents at about 90 minutes each, or 41,520 hours.

For carriers, those first two items are the familiar pre-employment step of asking a new driver to sign a release and requesting the driver's DOT testing history from past employers.

How to comment

Comments can be filed on Regulations.gov under docket DOT-OST-2026-4192, or by mail or hand delivery to DOT Dockets Operations. DOT asks commenters to include the agency name and docket number at the top of the comment. All comments are posted publicly without changes, including any personal information.