Great West Casualty Company Blog

  Contributed by Dave Osiecki, Scopelitis Transportation Consulting LLC   Since the inception of the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the trucking industry has been rightly concerned that its business partners would improperly use CSA scores to make business decisions. The scores, the trucking industry argued, were not an accurate depiction of a company’s safety posture.   

On June 12, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will not hear the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association’s (OOIDA) appeal to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) ELD mandate. 

What is the new drug and alcohol testing rule for motor carriers who lease drivers from a staffing agency?

In early December 2016, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued a final ruling on the creation and management of a first-ever federal clearinghouse for driver drug and alcohol test results. Administered and maintained in strict compliance with Federal Security Standards and the Privacy Act, the clearinghouse database will become a central repository containing the alcohol and drug test records of every driver for five years, or until the driver has completed the return-to-duty process, whichever is later.

In early December 2016, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued a final ruling on the creation and management of a first-ever federal clearinghouse for driver drug and alcohol test results. Administered and maintained in strict compliance with Federal Security Standards and the Privacy Act, the clearinghouse database will become a central repository containing the alcohol and drug test records of every driver for five years, or until the driver has completed the return-to-duty process, whichever is later.

The FMCSA announced last week they will be delaying the implementation of the Unified Registration System (URS) from September 30, 2016 until January 2017. The three-month delay is due to the substantial upgrades to the agency’s information technology systems and the process of moving millions of records to remote storage servers.