Overview
The Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse is a federal database recording drug and alcohol program violations by holders of commercial driver’s licenses. It is operated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and became mandatory in January 2020.
Unlike most components of a background check, querying it is not an employer’s choice. Federal regulation requires employers of commercial drivers to query the Clearinghouse before a driver performs safety sensitive functions and at least once every 12 months thereafter.
The Gap It Closed
Before the Clearinghouse existed, an employer learned about a driver’s testing history by asking previous employers, and a driver who failed a test could take a job with a carrier that never found out. A violation with one employer was effectively invisible to the next unless someone volunteered it.
The Clearinghouse replaced that arrangement with a central record. Violations are reported into it by employers, medical review officers, and substance abuse professionals, and any employer querying the record sees what is there regardless of who reported it.
What the Clearinghouse Records
- Verified positive, adulterated, or substituted drug test results
- Alcohol confirmation tests at or above the regulatory threshold
- Refusals to submit to required testing
- An employer’s actual knowledge of prohibited use, as defined by regulation
- Negative return to duty test results and completion of follow up testing
Records are tied to the individual driver rather than to an employer, so they follow the driver.
Full and Limited Queries
| Full query | Returns the detail of any violation in the record. Requires the driver’s specific electronic consent given through the Clearinghouse itself. |
| Limited query | Returns only whether any information exists, with no detail. Requires general written consent obtained outside the system, which can cover more than one year. |
A limited query returning information must be followed by a full query before the driver continues in safety sensitive work.
When a Query Is Required
Before hire. A full query is required before a driver performs any safety sensitive function. This one also satisfies the requirement to investigate drug and alcohol history with previous employers regulated by FMCSA. Violations under other Department of Transportation modes are not recorded in the Clearinghouse, so those must still be requested from the previous employer directly.
At least annually. Every currently employed commercial driver must be queried at least once every 12 months. A limited query satisfies this.
Employers may designate a third party administrator to query and report on their behalf, and owner operators are required to designate one, since a driver cannot fulfil the employer role for their own record. Responsibility for compliance stays with the employer regardless.
Prohibited Status and Return to Duty
A driver with an unresolved violation is recorded as prohibited from performing safety sensitive functions. The status is not a hiring recommendation. It is a regulatory bar, and it applies to the work itself.
The route back runs through a defined process: evaluation by a substance abuse professional, completion of the prescribed treatment or education, a negative return to duty test, and a period of follow up testing. Completion is recorded in the Clearinghouse, and the driver’s status changes accordingly.
A record therefore describes a point in a process as much as it describes an event, and the status matters as much as the violation.
What It Does Not Cover
- Non-commercial drivers, and testing outside the FMCSA program. General workplace testing is covered on our Drug Testing page.
- Other Department of Transportation modes, including aviation, rail, and transit, which maintain their own arrangements.
- Traffic violations and license status, which come from a state MVR.
- Crash and inspection history, covered on our PSP Crash History page.
- Criminal records, established through a county criminal search.
Where It Fits Under the FCRA
Where a screening company conducts a query or reports Clearinghouse information to an employer, that information forms part of a consumer report, with the disclosure, authorization, accuracy, and dispute requirements that attach to one. Our FCRA Overview covers those requirements in full.
The consent required by the Clearinghouse is a separate requirement and does not replace the FCRA authorization. A query run through a screening company involves both, and they exist for different reasons.
Drivers can register with the Clearinghouse to view their own record and are notified when information about them is added or changed. A driver who believes a record is inaccurate can challenge it through the process the regulation provides, in addition to disputing a consumer report.
Where Clearinghouse information contributes to a decision not to hire, the required notice steps apply. See The Adverse Action Process.