GOVERNMENT NEWS
Updates from the FMCSA CDL Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse By Gian Marshall, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation More than 80,000 positive drug and alcohol tests and test refusals were reported to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse between its launch in January 2020 and June 30, 2021. This makes the clearinghouse a valuable tool for safety investigators, auditors and law enforcement personnel to determine if a driver is prohibited from operating a commercial motor vehicle due to a drug and alcohol program violation. Safety investigators, auditors and state law enforcement personnel may not need to log in to the clearinghouse to access this information. It can be accessed by using the tools described below.
Clearinghouse Compliance Report During an investigation or audit, safety investigators and auditors verify that employers of CDL holders are meeting their clearinghouse requirements including: • Registering in the clearinghouse • Conducting pre-employment and annual queries to check if CDL holders are prohibited from performing safety-sensitive functions, such as operating commercial motor vehicles, due to an unresolved drug and alcohol program violation • Reporting drug and alcohol program violations, including test refusals and actual knowledge of a violation, as needed
Checking Driver Status: Query Central and CDLIS Gateway
• Reporting negative return-to-duty (RTD) test results and the successful completion of a driver’s follow-up testing plan, as needed
As stated in CVSA’s 2020-04 inspection bulletin, law enforcement may use FMCSA’s Commercial Driver’s License Information System (CDLIS) Gateway (https://cdlis.dot.gov) or Query Central to access a driver’s clearinghouse status to determine if a driver is prohibited from performing safety-sensitive functions.
Registered employers can easily produce a report for enforcement personnel upon request that summarizes the employer’s clearinghouse activity. Employers may also download their clearinghouse compliance report to provide to law enforcement personnel. Please note, the compliance report will only include those violations the employer is required to report. It will not include positive results reported by the medical review officer. Instructions to download the report are as follows: • Log in to the clearinghouse.
In Query Central, clearinghouse status results will display in the upper right-hand table as “driver prohibited,” “driver not prohibited” or “driver not found.” When using Query Central to determine a driver’s clearinghouse status, state partners must select either “History” or “Status” as a Query Type.
• Open the “Current Role” drop-down list at the top of the screen. If the user has more than one user role, they will need to select the employer for which they require a report. • Go to My Dashboard > Compliance Report, which opens an activity summary page. • Click the “Download” button at the top of the activity summary page, which allows the compliance report to be downloaded in an Excel format.
View Monthly Summary Reports Motor carriers and enforcement personnel can also review the latest data in the clearinghouse monthly summary reports. The monthly report includes statistics on the number of clearinghouse registrations, queries conducted, violations reported and drivers in the RTD process. Download the current and past monthly reports on the Clearinghouse Learning Center under “News and Events.” Visit https://clearinghouse. fmcsa.dot.gov/learn. If you have any questions about the clearinghouse, visit https:// clearinghouse.fmcsa.dot.gov or fill out an online help form at https:// clearinghouse.fmcsa.dot.gov/contact. n
To Access CVSA’s 2020-04 – Commercial Driver’s License Queries Should Be Conducted Through CDLIS Inspection Bulletin, visit www.cvsa.org/inspections/inspection-bulletins.
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