FMCSA Resolves Issues with Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse

Due to the high traffic volume in FMCSA’s new Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse, employers experienced issues earlier this month registering and conducting pre-employment queries. According to an alert from FMCSA, those issues have been addressed and, to ensure compliance, employers or drivers previously unable to register or conduct queries in the system should retry completing those actions at this time. While the FMCSA worked to resolve the problem, employers were permitted to screen and hire drivers using manual background checks alone; however, now that the system is fully up and running, trucking companies onboarding new drivers are no longer eligible for this temporary relief. Employers or their designated consortia/third-party administrators (C/TPAs) must conduct queries for all prospective commercial drivers and annually for all employed drivers. For more information, visit FMCSA’s Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse FAQs.