What is the Commercial Driver’s License Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse? It is a web page database that has every commercial driver who has had a commercial license. Doctors who do FMCSA physicals are required to upload the drivers information.
Also MROs and employers are to report to the Clearinghouse all positive drug and alcohol tests and refusal to test. Employers must search this database when they consider to hire a new driver and to review their drivers in the database every year.
DOT FMCSA regulated employers will have new responsibilities for the FMCSA drug & alcohol testing program beginning January 6, 2020. Known as the Commercial Driver’s License Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse – this new program affects hundreds of thousands of employers and millions of drivers. The program requires the Federal Motor Carrier Administration to provide a secure online database for storage of information about driver violations of the DOT FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Testing Program.
Here are the top five employer requirements:
Queries of new drivers
Currently, employers use paper forms to accomplish the previous employer checks to see if a driver has had drug or alcohol testing violations with no successful completion of the return to duty process. This process has several pitfalls. Starting January 6, 2020 employers will be required to query the Commercial Driver’s License Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse to see if there are any driver violations. If there are violations the employer will need to verify the driver has completed the Substance Abuse Professional (SAP) return to duty process. In some cases, the hiring employer might have to inherit the ongoing follow-up testing process.
Important to note that the paper process of previous employer checks will need to be in place for 3 additional years once the Clearinghouse takes effect on January 6, 2020. For the three years through January 6, 2023, employers will be required to conduct both electronic queries in the Clearinghouse and manual inquiries with previous employers to meet the three-year timeframe for pre-employment driver checks as required per current DOT and FMCSA regulations.
Annual queries of all existing drivers
In every 365-day period or 12-month period (annually), employers will be required to query all existing drivers that are employed. This may be a limited query. The purpose of the limited query is to determine if any of the drivers have had a violation at another employer during that annual period. If the limited query shows information in the Clearinghouse on a driver, a full query must then be performed within 24 hours. An uploaded file containing information on multiple drivers can be submitted for the annual queries. More information on this and costs of annual queries are pending from FMCSA as of August 2019.
Reporting alcohol test positives, employer-determined refusals to test and actual knowledge, as defined in Part § 382.107
Employers will be required to report violations of alcohol tests at 0.04 level or above and employer-determined refusals to test (drugs or alcohol). For drug test positive results and refusals to test as determined by the medical review officer (MRO); the requirement is for the MRO to report these violations.
Employers have two serious responsibilities when they have actual knowledge of an employee using drugs or alcohol at work.
Reporting negative return to duty tests and completion of follow-up testing programs
For drivers that have a violation and complete the Substance Abuse Professional (SAP) return to duty process, the employer conducting the return to duty (RTD) test must report the negative result to the Clearinghouse. The employer must also report to the Clearinghouse database once the driver successfully completes the follow-up testing that gets prescribed by the Substance Abuse Professional (SAP). The date of successful completion of required follow up testing is required.
Updating policies and education programs to notify drivers of what information will be reported to the Clearinghouse
The current version of 49 CFR Part 382 [382.601(12)] updated as of May 9, 2019; requires that employers provide information to employees regarding what information will be reported to the Clearinghouse. Employers should update their drug & alcohol testing policies as well as add this information to the employee education previously distributed to employees regarding alcohol misuse and controlled substance use. All 5 of the above employer responsibilities in the new FMCSA Clearinghouse can be handled for the employer by clearinghouseservices.com. Membership services are available for owner-operators, smaller trucking companies, and larger companies. Now is the time to prepare for your Clearinghouse responsibilities, check out our membership programs currently discounted through 12/31/2019.
Since 1995 the State of California requires people who transport people for hire to drug test Taxi Drivers, Limousine and Van drivers in a look-A-Like drug and alcohol testing program similar to the US DOT drug testing program.
Norton Medical Industries has been an active member of the Greater California Livery Association for many years as well as the National Livery Association.
Norton Medical Industries did a statistical measure of the rate of random positive drivers in the Taxi Industry as well as the California Limousine Industry and compared the numbers to the rate of the general population in the United States which can be reflected by ride share drivers.
The results are below
The Rate of Positive Drivers in the Taxi Industry in California
One in 644 random tests was positive which is extremely low
The Rate of Positive Drivers in the Limo Industry in California
One in 200 drivers had a positive Test
The rate of drug use as reported by the National Institute of Drug Abuse is one in 5 to 1 in 10 adults who can drive a private car or Ride Share like Lyft or Uber.
The rate of drug use among adults age 21 to 40 varies from one in 5 adults to one in 10 adults according to the National Institute of Drug abuse.
Have Cocaine, Marijuana or Amphetamines in their Urine.
To measure the effectiveness of safety programs, Texaco Corporation measured time lost after an accident in their own refinery employees and also in the employees of their contractors. Texaco corporation, after initiating a drug and alcohol program, found that over four years work related accidents causing the workers not to show up for work the following day dropped over fifty percent in their own employees (Fig. 1) and an even more substantial drop with contractors who work on their pipelines. (Fig. 2)
They estimate a 2.5 million-dollar savings on insurance costs at their New Orleans plant alone!
The following two charts represent the number of incidences per every 200,000 hours worked that led to an employee or contractor being unable to return to the job because of a work-related injury.
On Your Company’s Insurance & Worker’s Compensation
National Institute of Drug Abuse
National Institute of Drug Abuse
| Service Category | Illicit Drug Use in 2006 |
|---|---|
| Business & Repair Services | 19.8% |
| Finance, Insurance, Read Estate | 14.6% |
| Personal Services | 19.3% |
| Professional & Related Services | 11.1% |
| Public Administration | 8.8% |
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6265 Sepulveda Blvd. Van Nuys, CA 91423
6265 Sepulveda Blvd. Van Nuys, CA 91423
Norton Medical Industries
6265 Sepulveda Blvd. Suite 13 Van Nuys, CA 91411
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