TPA rules, missing drivers, audits, and pricing — the questions that come up most before a fleet switches to running random selection in-house.
Not for random selection specifically. Running your own pool and pull is allowed under DOT rules as long as the process is documented and defensible — which is what DTSMS Online is built to capture. Some companies keep a TPA for other services, like specimen collection logistics or MRO review, and use DTSMS Online just for the selection step.
The selection method, pool snapshot, and record-keeping follow DOT's random testing requirements under 49 CFR Part 40. We're not your DOT consultant or attorney, though — if your program has unusual circumstances, like a recent violation or a multi-employer consortium, it's worth a quick check with whoever handles your compliance program before you switch.
A TPA runs the pull for you and bills a coordination fee whether or not anything unusual happens that quarter. A spreadsheet is free but editable — there's no way to prove afterward that the pool wasn't adjusted before or after a pull. DTSMS Online sits between the two: you run the selection yourself in a few minutes, but the record locks the moment it's created, the same way a TPA's would.
A list of your DOT-covered drivers — a CDL roster works, or you can add them one at a time. That's it. There's no setup call and no waiting period, and your first selection is free regardless of pool size.
Log the status change in the driver's record. DTSMS Online timestamps it and keeps it in the history, so that record is on hand if the missed test is ever questioned later.
DTSMS Online is built around random selection specifically. Reasonable suspicion, post-accident, and return-to-duty tests are logged manually the same way you likely handle them today — the platform doesn't automate those triggers.
Most companies pull quarterly to spread testing evenly across the year. The actual DOT requirement is that your annual rate — 50% for drugs, 10% for alcohol — is met by year's end and spread reasonably through the testing period. A single once-a-year batch can technically meet the letter of the rule, but it reads poorly to an auditor; quarterly or monthly pulls are the safer pattern.
Mark them inactive rather than deleting them. Their selection history stays intact for your records, and they drop out of future eligible pools without affecting the audit trail of pulls that already happened while they were active.
You pull up the selection history for the period in question: locked snapshots showing who was in the pool, who was picked, when, and by what method, plus the status history from notification through result. That's the record an auditor is looking for, and it's already there — nobody has to reconstruct it from memory or old emails. See the full compliance breakdown for how retention and pool locking work.
No. Once a selection is pulled or a result is entered, it's locked and timestamped. Nobody, including account admins, can go back and change it — an editable record doesn't hold up the same way in an audit, no matter how carefully it was kept.
Your first selection is free at any pool size. After that, it's $5 per driver per month for the first 25 drivers, tapering to $4 for drivers 26 through 100 and $3 beyond that, with no flat TPA coordination fee and no per-seat license on top. The pricing page has a calculator if you want your exact number.
Yes. Plans are based on pool size, so moving up a tier is a one-click change whenever your driver count crosses a threshold — nothing to call in or renegotiate.
Yes, billing is month to month with no contract.
Your first selection is free, any pool size. No card, no sales call.