How drivers consent to text messages

United Talmudical Academy Of Monsey, d/b/a UTA Transportation
520 Chestnut Ridge Road, Spring Valley, New York 10977
Texts are sent from (845) 244-5044. Questions: [email protected] or (845) 709-7963.

Who is texted

Only people currently employed as school bus drivers by this company. Nobody else is ever messaged. Numbers are not bought, rented or collected from any other source, and there is no marketing of any kind.

How consent is given

  1. A driver is hired and completes their employment paperwork in the office, in person.
  2. On that paperwork the driver writes their own mobile telephone number.
  3. The driver is given the company's DOT drug and alcohol testing policy to read and sign. Directly above the signature line, that policy says, word for word:

By signing Below you agree to be contacted by Phone or text or email about your drug related testing.

Phone number ________________________   Email__________________________________________

Print Name_______________________________________   Signature _______________________________

The consent block as it appears at the end of the company's “UTA Transportation Drug and alcohol and smoke policy”, reproduced here blank. No driver's completed copy is published, because that would put their name, number and signature on a public page.

The form itself

This is the policy drivers sign, exactly as printed, blank. The consent sentence is in bold directly above the lines for the driver's phone number and signature.

The one-page UTA Transportation drug, alcohol and smoke policy. Above the phone number, email, print name and signature lines it reads: By signing Below you agree to be contacted by Phone or text or email about your drug related testing.
UTA Transportation drug, alcohol and smoke policy — blank copy as given to every driver at hire and again each year.
  1. The driver writes their mobile number on that line and signs the policy.
  2. The signed policy is kept in that driver's file and is produced at DOT and NYS Article 19-A audits. It is reviewed and signed again every year.

Consent is therefore written, signed, and specific to text messages about drug testing. It is collected in person on paper. There is no website sign-up form to show, because no driver is ever enrolled from a website.

What is then sent

Only notices about that driver's own DOT drug and alcohol test or DOT physical examination: that they have been selected or booked, which collection site to attend, and a question asking whether they are going that day. The driver answers YES or NO by text.

How often

Only when a driver is actually selected or booked - for most drivers a few times a year. An unanswered notice is repeated once a day, between 7am and 6pm, until the driver answers or the office stops it. Message and data rates may apply.

Stopping them

A driver may reply STOP at any time and no further messages are sent to that number; reply HELP for help. Stopping the texts does not change anything about the driver's employment or their testing obligations - the office rings them instead.