Request a DOT collection
For a driver in your DOT group. In this guide we request one post-accident DOT collection with urine and breath alcohol, answer the five federal post-accident questions, send it, and follow it until the results are in. At the end we cover how the other DOT reasons differ.
Step 1
Start the request
A DOT collection starts from the same card as any other.
Dashboard → Request a Collection
This sends the request to nearby collectors as soon as you submit it, which is what an accident needs. The form works out the DOT parts from the driver you choose next.
Step 2
Choose the driver
Who is being tested decides which tests the form offers.
Request a Collection → Donor
Because the driver is in your company's DOT group, the form offers DOT test types only and says so under Test type. If the driver is not on your roster yet, click Add someone who isn't on the team yet and mark them DOT.
Step 3
Choose Post-Accident and answer the questions
Choosing Post-Accident for a DOT driver opens five questions about the accident. The answers decide whether federal rules require a test, so they come before the test itself.
Reason for test → Post-accident questionnaire
- What about the other DOT reasons?
- Pre-employment, random, reasonable suspicion, return-to-duty and follow-up tests are requested the same way. Choose the reason, then the DOT test type and the panel, add a breath alcohol test if your policy calls for one, and send it. The five questions are asked only after an accident, so the form skips them.
Was there a fatality, was the driver cited, did police already give a breath alcohol test, was a vehicle towed, and was anyone taken for medical treatment? Answer every one and READI Collect applies 49 CFR 382.303 and says whether a DOT test is required. Here the driver was cited and a vehicle was towed, so it is. When the answers say a DOT test is not required, the form says so and offers Non-DOT tests for your own company policy instead.
Step 4
Choose the test, the panel and alcohol
With a DOT test required, the form offers DOT test types only.
Test type → Drug panel → Alcohol testing
- How soon does the test have to happen?
- Alcohol is the urgent one. Test within two hours, and never more than eight, because alcohol leaves the body quickly. The drug test should happen as soon as possible and no later than thirty-two hours after the accident.
The form fills in DOT Urine Drug Test and adds a breath alcohol test, because a post-accident test needs both, so check them. For the panel, choose the lab-based DOT 5 panel, which covers the five drug classes DOT requires. Leave Alcohol testing on Add a breath alcohol test, so the collector does both on the same visit. Then say whether you have test materials and forms on site, so the collector knows what to bring.
Step 5
Say where and when, and send it
Last, where the collector should go.
Schedule → Address → Request collection
Leave Schedule blank so it goes out now. For Address, pick one of your sites, type an address, or drag the pin to the roadside where the driver is waiting. Check the count of qualified collectors under the map, then click Request collection.
Steps 6 to 9
Follow the collection
Once it is sent, the collection page tells you where things stand. You also get an email or text at each step, so you do not have to keep it open.
Collections → your collection
The request goes to the nearest qualified collectors first, then wider if nobody accepts. Each one is listed under Collectors with how far away they are.
When a collector accepts, you see who it is and their arrival time, and the map shows them driving over. You hear again when they are close and when they arrive.
The post-accident answers stay on the collection with READI Collect's determination, so anyone checking later can see why a DOT test was done.
The collector's reports and forms land here when the collection is complete, and laboratory results follow when the lab reports them. Click any one to open it.
- Request a collection for a driver in your DOT group, who is offered DOT test types only.
- Choose Post-Accident and answer the five FMCSA questions, which decide whether a DOT test is required.
- Choose the DOT urine test, the panel and a breath alcohol test on the same visit.
- Send it now from a site, an address or the roadside.
- Follow it from the offer to the collector arriving, then read the answers and the results on the record.
- Request the other DOT reasons the same way, without the post-accident questions.
That is a DOT collection from start to finish. Topic 7 covers everything else on the collection page, from the people working it to the timeline.