Effective July 1, the AWC Drug & Alcohol Consortium has added Coast Guard (46 CFR Parts 4, 5, 16 and CFR Part 40) to the federal drug testing pool. All marine employers, regardless of size, are required to implement a drug program.
The operators and crewmembers aboard a commercial vessel who have duties which affect the safe operation of the vessel must be subject to drug testing. On inspected vessels, this includes all persons who are listed on the Certificate of Inspection (COI). On uninspected vessels, persons licensed as operators of uninspected passenger vessels, masters, operator of uninspected towing vessels, and individuals authorized to engage in assistance towing are all covered by the regulations. All crewmembers who hold safety intensive positions aboard a vessel must be in compliance.
Additionally, an annual report must be submitted to the Coast Guard so similar to FMCSA, FTA, and Pipeline, the AWC D&A Consortium will continue to provide all the required paperwork, recordkeeping, random number generation, report submission to the USCG and chain of custody testing required by the regulation.
What are the penalties of non-compliance?
The Coast Guard is authorized to suspend licenses and operating papers of individuals found not to be in compliance with the drug testing rule, and issue fines of $5,000 per day to non-compliant firms. In case of a marine accident, a firm or individual not in compliance with a Coast Guard regulation can be deemed automatically responsible under admiralty law. The AWC D&A Consortium is a simple, and inexpensive solution to this federal requirement.