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FREE DOT Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse Compliance Kit
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If you have a DOT alcohol & drug testing program under Part 382, you're subject to the FMCSA Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse rule. As of January 5, 2020, you are required to query the DOT's new Clearinghouse online database to identify CDL drivers who are prohibited from operating a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) due to drug and alcohol violations
The DOT Clearinghouse helps identify drivers who are prohibited from operating a CMV based on FMCSA drug and alcohol program violations. If you have a DOT testing program under Part 382, you must comply with pre-employment and annual queries! Annual queries are past due for those drivers that were part of your Part 382 program as of January 6, 2020.
For motor carriers that hired a driver since the implementation of the Clearinghouse last January, the first annual query is required within a year of the pre-employment query.
A motor carrier that does not request an annual query or fails to act on the results of an unresolved testing violation has committed a non-recordkeeping violation, which has a penalty up to $15,419 for each violation.
A new entrant will automatically fail a safety audit if a single instances is found of using a driver with an unresolved DOT testing violation. For existing carriers, such a violation is acute, meaning noncompliance with a single acute regulation is considered a serious violation. Noncompliance is so severe that it requires immediate corrective action by a motor carrier.
Frequently Asked Questions
Let the experts at J. J. Keller handle your Clearinghouse compliance for you by ...
♦ Reporting drivers' alcohol and drug violations on your behalf
♦ Providing instructions to drivers on how they should register in the Clearinghouse
♦ Tracking driver signatures and receipt of annual consent for all affected drivers
♦ Reviewing your current DOT drug & alcohol policy for accuracy and completeness
♦ Running limited queries on all CDL drivers according to the regulation
♦ Running full queries as required due to the results found in the annual limited query
♦ Conducting pre-employment queries on all potential new applicants