Mr. Bill Jensen
CALTRANS
Mass Transportation Program
1120 N Street
Sacramento, California 95814

Dear Mr. Jensen:

Thank you for your May 23, 1998, e-mail, in which you seek clarification of the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) drug and alcohol testing regulations. You ask if employees of taxi cab companies from which rural communities purchase rides are subject to FTA regulations. You also ask if such taxi cab companies must submit an annual MIS report.

The FTA has stated that where a patron of a transit system which receives FTA funding can randomly choose from among a number of taxicab service providers, then the FTA testing regulations do not apply to those cab companies. The rationale for this opinion is the practical difficulty of a grantee requiring those companies to implement drug and alcohol testing programs. The rules do apply when the public knows that to take advantage of certain publicly funded services, it must choose a certain taxicab company.

Whether a taxicab company has to submit the annual MIS reports depends on whether it must comply with the FTA rules. If the company is required to comply with the FTA rules, it must submit its reports to the grantee, which will in turn submit the reports to the FTA.

If you have further questions, please contact Michael Connelly of my staff at (202) 366-4011.

Very truly yours,
(Signed)
Patrick W. Reilly
Chief Counsel