A reminder that motor carriers' annual Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse queries are due Jan. 5, 2021.
Per §382.701, employers of CDL drivers must conduct a query of the FMCSA’s Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse at least once per year for each CDL driver they employ. If an employer has already conducted a query on all currently employed CDL drivers, that employer has met the annual query requirement for 2020 and is not required to conduct a query for one year from the initial query date. This includes any limited queries, full queries, and pre-employment queries of the Clearinghouse conducted in 2020.
RELATED: What You Need to Know About the Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse
Employers can log in to their Clearinghouse accounts and access the Query History page (under My Dashboard > Queries) to verify which drivers have been queried and when each completed query was conducted. Any outstanding queries of currently employed CDL drivers must be completed by Jan. 5, 2021, to satisfy the annual query requirement.
As a reminder, employers must receive consent from the driver before conducting a limited or full query. Employers may also designate a consortium/third-party administrator (C/TPA) to conduct these queries on their behalf.
For more information about the Clearinghouse, purchasing a query plan, and the regulatory requirements, visit https://clearinghouse.fmcsa.dot.gov/.
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