Update December 13, 2019:
Clearinghouse effective date is less then 1 month away. What should employers be doing now to get ready:
- Register in the Clearinghouse
- Conduct queries to access a driver’s Clearinghouse record, after obtaining the driver’s consent. Beginning January 6, you will be required to conduct a full query in the Clearinghouse before hiring any CDL driver.
- Designate a consortium/third-party administrator (C/TPA), if you work with one, which enables your C/TPA to access the Clearinghouse on your behalf. This is a requirement of all owner-operators.
- Purchase a query plan, which must be in place before you, or your designated C/TPA, can conduct queries.
- Report violations of FMCSA’s drug and alcohol testing program.
Beginning January 6, 2020, employers will be required to:
- Report drug and alcohol violations.
- This will include alcohol test results with a concentration of 0.04 or greater, refusals to take an alcohol or drug test, as well as actual knowledge of a violation.
- Employers will also report negative return-to-duty (RTD) test results and the successful completion of a driver’s follow-up testing plan.
- The information above must be reported by the close of the third business day after the employer is informed.
- Conduct queries to check if prospective employees are prohibited from performing safety-sensitive functions, such as operating CMV’s, due to an unresolved drug and alcohol program violation.
- Employers are also required to query all current employees at least annually. All queries require driver consent.
- Until January 6, 2023, conduct both electronic queries in the Clearinghouse and manual, offline inquiries to previous employers for pre-employment driver investigations.
