In an article entitled ‘There are many opportunities in our industries,’ InOut Labs founder Tim Thoelecke Jr answers a number of questions about his industries and things that have contributed to the success not only of InOut Labs, but also to his personal success.

A few snippets:

Q: Describe your company.
A: InOut Labs works with employers nationwide to create safe, secure, drug-free workplaces. Experts in U.S. Department of Transportation drug and alcohol testing regulations, we keep employers of Commercial Drivers License drivers compliant with federal rules and regulations. (DOT requires that workers in the transportation industry be drug tested. The largest segment of the transportation industry is employees who hold CDLs). With our focus on safety, InOut Labs is now working with employers providing on-site COVID-19 screening. We also provide direct-to-consumer lab testing, DNA testing and criminal background checks.

Q: What’s the hottest trend in your industry?
A: There are a number of them. In the DOT-regulated drug testing industry, we are still educating our clients about the FMCSA Clearinghouse. The Clearinghouse is a federal database for drug and alcohol testing violations. All employers of CDL drivers must register and must participate, or face fines up to $1,100 per day. Many employers are overwhelmed when they first see the requirements, so they tune it out. There is a lot to learn and absorb. We began by offering Clearinghouse support only for existing clients but learned there are many employers out there who do not want to change drug-testing providers, so we launched clearinghousesupport.com to serve them.

We are also going to be seeing more oral fluid drug testing and hair testing in the coming year. Oral fluid (saliva) drug testing has been available for years for non-regulated employers. This year, the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. DOT approved oral fluid testing for federal testing and we are waiting for it to become available.

There are also the issues with legal marijuana. Employers don’t like it, and each state has its own rules about workplace testing. Federal (DOT) testing is unaffected, but non-DOT testing for multistate employers can be tricky.

Employment screening is more than drug testing. In addition to criminal background checks (we do that too), COVID testing is evolving as a need. Because a COVID test is a medical test, it requires not only HIPAA privacy rule compliance but also a physician’s order. We are uniquely positioned to offer these tests locally and across the United States. I suspect that in the not-so-distant future, when a vaccine is available, that certain employment sectors will require immunity testing for COVID-19.

Q: Do you have a business mantra?
A: Take care of the customer.

You can read the article in its entirety here.