Free 10-minute consultation for employers
Not sure how the return-to-duty process works, or where to start after a driver’s violation? Call 214-901-7079 for a free 10-minute consultation. We will explain your obligations, what happens next and how we can help.
Need DOT reasonable suspicion training for your supervisors, psychological safety and toxic workplace training, a drug-free workplace program or critical incident support? See DFW Workplace Solutions, our CEAP team’s workplace training.
How employers use the Clearinghouse
Employers, or the C/TPAs they designate, are required to:
- Report drug and alcohol violations. This includes alcohol test results with a concentration of .04 or greater, refusals to take an alcohol or drug test, as well as actual knowledge of a violation.
- Report negative return-to-duty (RTD) test results and the successful completion of a driver’s follow-up testing plan.
- Report the information above by the close of the third business day after the employer is informed.
- Conduct queries to check whether prospective employees are prohibited from performing safety-sensitive functions, such as operating CMVs, due to an unresolved drug and alcohol program violation.
- Query all current employees at least once within each 365-day period. The clock runs on a rolling basis, and a later query resets it. All queries require driver consent.
Pre-employment queries are Clearinghouse-only
During the first three years of the Clearinghouse, employers had to run both an electronic query and a manual, offline inquiry to previous employers. That transition ended. Since 6 January 2023, a pre-employment query of the Clearinghouse satisfies the three-year inquiry requirement on its own — the manual inquiry to previous employers is no longer required for that period.
Drivers in a prohibited status lose their CDL
Since 18 November 2024, under the second Clearinghouse rule, State Driver Licensing Agencies must begin downgrade procedures for any driver whose Clearinghouse status is Prohibited, and may not issue, renew, upgrade or transfer a CDL or CLP to them. The driver gets their commercial driving privileges back by completing the return-to-duty process.
What employers report, and what the SAP reports
The split is worth knowing, because it is a common source of delay:
- The SAP reports the date of the initial assessment and the date the driver is determined eligible for return-to-duty testing.
- The employer reports the negative return-to-duty test result and the date the follow-up testing plan was completed.
Follow-up testing plans are not stored in the Clearinghouse. If you take on a driver who is mid-plan, you must obtain the plan directly from the previous employer.
You are also required to give a driver with a violation a list of DOT-qualified SAPs, as set out in § 40.287. The driver may choose from that list or find their own SAP.
For more information
Go to https://clearinghouse.fmcsa.dot.gov. In the upper right, click on “LEARN”. You will find several informative links, including the Employer Brochure, which provides very important information.