FMCSA - Commercial Driver's License Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse

The proposed rule would allow FMCSA and regulated motor carrier employers to more easily identify unsafe drivers based on USDOT drug and alcohol testing program violations and to ensure that such drivers receive evaluation and treatment before resuming safety-sensitive duties.    
The proposed rule would revise the 49 CFR part 382, Controlled Substances and Alcohol Use and Testing to establish the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse.  It would require employers and service agents to report information about current and prospective employees’ positive drug and alcohol test results, as well as refusals to submit to testing, to the Clearinghouse.   Employers would also be required to search the Clearinghouse for positive drug and alcohol test results and refusals to submit to testing on an annual basis for current employees, and as part of the pre-employment process for prospective employees.  In addition, to help FMCSA identify those employers who do not have a drug and alcohol testing program, the proposal would require laboratories to provide FMCSA with annual summary reports on testing activities of FMCSA-regulated motor carrier employers they have provided testing services for. 
The reporting and verification requirements would make employers better able to determine whether current or prospective employees are prohibited from operating CMVs under the DOT drug and alcohol screening program.  This would diminish or eliminate the current problems with employees, who are employed by multiple operators, failing to report drug and alcohol testing violations to all of their employers and thus, enabling them to continue  operating commercial motor vehicles without completing the requisite return-to-duty process.
It would also diminish or eliminate the problem of a driver with previous positive test results, or refusals to test, from seeking and obtaining work without completing the requisite return-to-duty process. For example, this could occur if a driver is fired for a positive test but does not inform prospective or future employers about the previous positive test result. This could also occur if a new driver entering the workforce tests positive for drugs or alcohol during a pre-employment test, waits for the drugs to leave his/her system, then takes and passes another pre-employment test and gets hired without the employer having any knowledge of the previously failed pre-employment test.
Finally, currently motor carrier employers are required to implement DOT drug and alcohol testing programs for CDL holders.  To improve employers’ compliance the proposed rule would require all laboratories performing DOT drug testing for FMCSA-regulated employers to file annual summary reports identifying the motor carrier employers for whom they performed testing services.  The FMCSA would then use the data provided by the laboratories to identify employers of CDL drivers that do not have an active drug and alcohol testing program.