FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse
No, I’m not talking about the clearinghouse where they show up at your doorstep and give you a giant check for 1 million dollars. This is the FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse that took effect just over a year ago.
On January 6th, 2020, the FMCSA started the clearinghouse, and every company that has CDL drivers had to start pulling annual queries on all of the CDL drivers.
A ton of companies have already done this for the drivers, but if you’re not one of those, then you are already out of compliance, and there’s no way to fix it.
Here’s what you can do. Don’t wait another day to get this done. Head on over to https://clearinghouse.fmcsa.dot.gov/. and get started by setting up your company and also pulling a limited query on all of your drivers today.
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) are:
What is the clearinghouse?
The clearinghouse is one of the last items passed during Obama’s last term as president. It took effect on 1/6/2020 and is set to remain in effect until further notice. It is a database where all drug and alcohol violations are stored for all CDL drivers. When a CDL driver fails a drug test, the results are then entered into the clearinghouse, and that driver will not be able to operate CDL vehicles until they have completed a return-to-duty drug test with negative results (meaning that the test comes back negative for drugs and alcohol in their system).
Why do I have to pull a query?
Because it is now a federal regulation that you have the results of a full query before any CDL drivers may operate a CDL vehicle for your company, It is also a federal regulation that you need to pull an annual limited query for all current CDL drivers for your company.
How much does it cost?
Both a full query and a limited query will cost $1.25.
Can I do it myself?
Of course, you can do it yourself. It is fairly easy, and you get the results back almost instantly. If you need more help, don’t hesitate to reach out to us so we can help get you set up and ready to go.
What’s the difference between already-employed drivers and new drivers?
There’s not much difference except that with the existing driver, you run a limited query, and with new drivers, you need to run a full query.
The limited query only requires a consent form to be signed and in the driver file. While a full query requires the driver to log into the clearinghouse and give the company permission to view their results,.
What are the penalties if I don’t do it?
The penalties are pretty steep. They are treating any clearinghouse violation as though it were a drug and alcohol violation. This means that if you don’t have the query back in your hands before allowing the driver to operate a CDL vehicle, then it is the same as if you didn’t conduct a drug test and get negative results back before allowing them to operate a CDL vehicle for you.
Fines usually start at around $5,000 for those types of violations.
How much should I pay to have this done?
Honestly, if you use our driver file service, we include the clearinghouse pull for free. You only get charged $1.25 for the query itself. We have seen a lot of companies charging anywhere from $7.5 to $25 per employee to run the query.
Can you help us with this?
Of course, we can help with this. The best deal that we have is utilizing our driver file service. You get all the forms you need to get your drivers set up; we monitor expiration dates and give you at least 30 days’ notice before anyone’s documents expire. This service charges a meager $10 per driver per month. No hidden fees or charges ever.
If you don’t want to use that service, then we can pull your clearinghouse queries for $10 per driver; this does not include the $1.25 required for the FMCSA. By federal regulation, you must purchase those for your company.
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