When Is a Shipping Container Required for DOT Drug Test Specimens?

A shipping container is required for DOT urine and oral fluid specimens unless a laboratory courier hand-delivers the specimens from the collection site to the laboratory. Under 49 CFR 40.45 for urine and 49 CFR 40.51 for oral fluid, the shipping container adequately protects the specimen bottles from damage in transport from the collection site to the laboratory.

Appendix A (urine) and Appendix B (oral fluid) to Part 40 add these details:

• Examples of shipping containers include a standard courier box, small cardboard box or plastic container
• The shipping container may be made available separately at collection sites rather than being part of an actual kit sent to collection sites
• The specimen bottles travel in a leak-resistant plastic bag with two sealable compartments, one for the two bottles and one for the CCF paperwork, sealed so that tampering or attempts to open either compartment are evident
• Absorbent material in the bottle pouch is enough to absorb the entire contents of both specimen bottles

Collection sites keep the materials for this step on hand. Under 49 CFR 40.42 for urine and 40.47(b)(4) for oral fluid, the operator of a collection site has all necessary personnel, materials, equipment and facilities to provide for the collection, temporary storage and shipping of specimens to a laboratory.

For urine collections, damage in shipping is treated differently from a collection error. Under 49 CFR 40.33(f), which covers urine collectors, when a specimen is crushed or otherwise damaged during transportation, or lost in transit, the cancellation is not the result of a collector error during the collection process and does not require retraining. The full kit lists are covered in What Must a DOT Urine Collection Kit Include? and What Must a DOT Oral Fluid Collection Device Include?.

Learn Laws® offers DOT Urine Specimen Collector Training, with qualification training and five live mock collections under 49 CFR 40.33.

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