Oral-fluid drug testing is still not an option for DOT tests — HHS says no laboratory is certified yet, and marijuana rescheduling is down to written arguments due Nov. 5

October brought three federal moves on drug testing, and trucking fleets can use none of them yet. Employers still cannot use oral-fluid testing to meet Department of Transportation drug testing requirements for safety-sensitive workers such as truck drivers, according to TruckingInfo on Nov. 2, because the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed in an Oct. 29 proposal that no laboratories have yet been certified to perform the tests — and certification of at least two laboratories is the step the whole method has been waiting on since DOT authorized it in 2023.

The mechanics explain the stall. DOT approved oral-fluid testing as an alternative to urine testing in 2023. Before employers can use it, HHS must certify at least two laboratories to perform the testing: one lab tests the original sample, and a second must be available to test the separately collected portion, known as the split specimen, if an employee requests that testing after certain results. In its Oct. 29 proposal, HHS confirmed that no oral-fluid laboratories had yet been certified. The proposal would update laboratory requirements and procedures for collecting, testing and reviewing oral-fluid samples, and would clarify that a laboratory could qualify to handle only split-specimen testing. Comments are due Dec. 28. These are proposed changes to federal workplace testing guidelines, and DOT would still have to determine how to incorporate any final changes into its own testing program.

The Food and Drug Administration’s October move is the one most likely to be misread as a green light, so it deserves precision. On Oct. 6, the FDA removed a requirement that certain drug-testing systems go through its premarket review process before being sold for use in federal testing programs. The change could make it easier for suppliers to bring testing systems to market, and the FDA acknowledged it could help move oral-fluid testing forward. But the FDA’s decision addresses the equipment used to perform tests. It does not approve laboratories, and it does not decide which testing methods fleets can use to meet DOT requirements. The agency also made clear that its action does not authorize hair testing in federal programs. Equipment being easier to sell is not the same as a test a fleet can legally run.

The separate marijuana track moved too, and it also did not finish. The effort to move marijuana from Schedule I to the less restrictive Schedule III category remains unresolved. On Oct. 22, Drug Enforcement Administration Chief Administrative Law Judge Derek Julius agreed to add a Government Accountability Office report to the evidence being considered; the report examined gaps in how federal agencies document and carry out drug-scheduling decisions. The judge declined to reopen the hearing for more testimony and instead gave the parties additional time to submit written arguments about the report, with final replies due Nov. 5. That is a filing deadline, not a decision date on rescheduling, and nothing in the proceedings changes a fleet’s obligations in the meantime. The proceedings follow President Trump’s December 2025 order to move reclassification forward.

One clarification from this year is already operative, and drivers should hear it plainly. Earlier this year, federal officials separately reclassified certain medical-marijuana products. DOT then clarified that a state medical-marijuana authorization still cannot excuse a positive DOT marijuana test: a medical marijuana card, a doctor’s recommendation or a dispensary receipt does not give a medical review officer grounds to report that test as negative. State permission and federal testing remain two different systems, and for a CDL holder the federal one governs the test result.

Why fleets want the oral-fluid option at all is worth stating, because it explains the attention each procedural step gets. An oral-fluid collection is observed by design, is quicker to administer than a urine collection, and does not require the collection-site logistics that urine testing does — which is why the 2023 authorization was treated across the industry as a when, not an if. The when is what October failed to deliver: the supplier side got easier, the laboratory side — the actual bottleneck — got a proposal and a comment deadline instead of a certification.

The practical takeaway for carriers and drivers is conservative and simple. Keep running DOT tests exactly as you run them today: oral-fluid results cannot be substituted for a required DOT test, no matter what a vendor’s marketing says about the FDA’s October change, and a state medical-marijuana card remains no defense to a positive federal test. Watch two dates: comments on the HHS laboratory proposal close Dec. 28, and the marijuana rescheduling case takes final written replies on Nov. 5 without any promise of a decision date. Until HHS certifies two laboratories, every other headline in this lane is progress toward an option that does not yet exist.