Motor carriers must have performed required annual CDL Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse checks on all their drivers by Jan. 5 or face a fine of up to $2,500 per offense, if non-compliance is caught in a compliance review or safety audit.
Fleets must run a so-called limited query on all of their drivers at least once on a rolling 12-month basis. Drivers’ information can be run one at a time or in batches throughout the year – or all at once every year, should a fleet so choose. With the Clearinghouse rule having taken effect Jan. 6, 2020, that first rolling 12-month period for fleets to have conducted their queries is drawing near. The required limited-query check is meant to ensure that drivers haven’t failed a drug or alcohol test, such as a pre-employment screen when applying for a job at another fleet, for example, and failed, only to remain behind the wheel and employed at another fleet.
CCJ touched base with compliance firm J.J. Keller & Associates, who walked us through the process and provided screenshots of what that process looks like for fleets who haven’t yet performed their queries. J.J. Keller and other drug test administrators and compliance firms can run queries for a fleet if carriers choose not to run them in-house. The walk-through below is courtesy of Amber Crawley, service operations manager, and Kathy Close, transport safety editor.
To run a batch of annual queries, as described below, fleets will need written consent from each driver for which they’re going to run a query. This must be done prior to conducting Clearinghouse queries. J.J. Keller has a form available to fleets to help obtain consent from drivers, and there’s a sample form on the Clearinghouse.dot.gov website for reference. Consent can be obtained once for use on an ongoing basis, said Close. “It doesn’t need to be exact,” in terms of dates, she said. “It can be worded that says through the duration of employment,” or specify a range of years, she said.
First, fleets will need to log in to the Clearinghouse system:
Motor carriers who haven’t yet registered need to do so. Likewise, their accounts will need to be connected to FMCSA’s carrier portal website. There are guides on how to perform these steps on the Clearinghouse website, said Crawley, which include detailed photos and instructions. Close said the number of questions J.J. Keller has been fielding around registration have dwindled, likely a sign that most carriers have at least registered as employers in the Clearinghouse platform.
