In project-based industries — construction, resources, infrastructure, and energy — the workforce is inherently transient. Workers mobilise to a project site for weeks or months, complete their scope, and demobilise to the next assignment. This cycle of mobilisation and demobilisation creates unique challenges for drug and alcohol testing programs, particularly around pre-access testing, record management, and cost control.

Organisations that treat transient workers as an afterthought in their testing program expose themselves to compliance gaps that are both predictable and preventable. This article examines how to build a testing framework that accommodates the reality of project-based work.

Testing Windows and Validity Periods

Pre-access testing requires a worker to return a negative drug and alcohol test result before being permitted to enter a work site. The critical question is: how recent must that test be?

Defining Validity Periods

Most project drug and alcohol management plans specify a validity period for pre-access tests — commonly ranging from 48 hours to 30 days before the worker’s first day on site. The appropriate period depends on the risk profile of the work:

• High-risk, safety-critical roles — 48 to 72 hours provides the highest assurance but creates the most logistical pressure.
• Standard construction and resource roles — 7 to 14 days is a common and practical window.
• Low-risk roles (office-based, non-operational) — 30 days may be sufficient.

Whatever the validity period, it must be clearly defined in your policy and consistently enforced. Allowing exceptions erodes the program’s credibility and creates a precedent that is difficult to reverse.

Alignment with Mobilisation Timelines

Mobilisation timelines are often compressed. A worker may be notified on Monday that they need to be on site Wednesday. If your pre-access testing requirement specifies a 48-hour validity window, the worker needs to be tested on Monday or Tuesday — and the result needs to be available before they travel.

This demands either:

• A testing provider with rapid response capability (same-day or next-day collections)
• A network of collection sites where workers can present for testing at short notice
• In-house testing capability at your mobilisation hub or office

Any of these approaches requires advance planning. The worst outcome is a worker arriving on site without a valid test, forcing a choice between delaying their start (at significant cost) or waiving the requirement (at significant risk).

Logistics of Rapid Mobilisation

Pre-Mobilisation Testing Hubs

Organisations with large project workforces often establish pre-mobilisation testing hubs — centralised locations where workers complete all pre-access requirements (testing, inductions, medical assessments, PPE fitting) in a single visit. This streamlines the process and ensures nothing is missed.

Testing hubs work best when:

• They are located near the workforce catchment area (typically a capital city or major regional centre)
• They have flexible operating hours to accommodate workers who may need to attend outside business hours
• Results are processed and communicated rapidly — ideally within hours for screening tests
• They are integrated with your project management or HR system so that testing status is automatically updated

Fly-In Fly-Out (FIFO) Considerations

For FIFO projects, pre-access testing should occur before the worker boards the aircraft. Testing at the point of departure — whether an airport, a charter terminal, or a bus muster point — ensures that only cleared workers travel to site. This avoids the cost and disruption of flying a worker to a remote site only to send them home because they cannot pass a pre-access test.

Batch Testing

When mobilising multiple workers simultaneously — a new crew rotation, a project ramp-up, or a subcontractor bringing a team on site — batch testing is the most efficient approach. Key considerations include:

• Scheduling — Coordinate with the testing provider to ensure sufficient collectors and equipment are available for the batch size.
• Throughput — A single experienced collector can typically process 6-10 oral fluid collections per hour, including observation periods and documentation. Plan your batch schedule accordingly.
• Privacy — Even during batch testing, each collection must be conducted privately. Avoid creating a visible queue that identifies who is being tested.
• Results management — Have a clear process for handling non-negative screening results during a batch. The affected worker should be discreetly separated from the group, and the remaining collections should continue without disruption.

Maintaining Records for Transient Workers

One of the greatest challenges with short-term project workers is maintaining accessible, accurate testing records. A worker who moves between projects and employers may have testing records scattered across multiple organisations and providers, with no centralised view.

Centralised Worker Records

The ideal solution is a centralised testing record that follows the worker, rather than being tied to a specific employer or project. Some industry approaches include:

• Worker-held records — The worker carries a testing passport or card that records their test history. This is simple but relies on the worker to maintain and present it, and is vulnerable to loss or falsification.
• Industry databases — Some sectors maintain shared databases (for example, site access systems in mining) that record testing status. These provide reliable, real-time information but require industry-wide adoption.
• Platform-based records — Digital testing platforms can maintain a continuous record for each worker, accessible to authorised employers and project managers regardless of which organisation conducted the test.

Data Transfer on Demobilisation

When a worker demobilises from a project, their testing records should be retained by the employer and, where applicable, transferred to the next employer or project. This transfer must comply with privacy legislation and should be covered by the worker’s consent obtained during onboarding.

Cost Management

Pre-access testing for short-term workers can represent a significant cost, particularly for organisations that mobilise and demobilise frequently. Strategies to manage costs include:

• Volume agreements with providers — Negotiate per-test pricing based on annual volume, not individual mobilisations.
• In-house testing capability — For organisations with sufficient volume, training internal staff as collectors can reduce per-test costs significantly.
• Mutual recognition — Where possible, accept recent test results from other projects or employers, reducing the need for duplicate testing.
• Risk-based testing — Apply pre-access testing selectively based on risk — requiring it for safety-critical roles while accepting declaration-based approaches for lower-risk roles (where your policy permits).
• Bundled mobilisation services — Combine testing with other pre-mobilisation requirements (medicals, inductions) to reduce the number of separate appointments and associated administrative costs.

Demobilisation Testing

While pre-access testing receives the most attention, some organisations also conduct demobilisation testing — testing workers as they leave a project site. This can be valuable for:

• Identifying substance use that may have occurred during the project
• Providing a baseline for any workers’ compensation claims that emerge after demobilisation
• Maintaining the deterrent effect through to the end of the project engagement

Demobilisation testing should be included in your drug and alcohol management plan and communicated to workers during onboarding so there are no surprises at the end of their assignment.

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