Clearinghouse rule change could downgrade over 175,000 CDLs

August 30, 2024

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The compliance date for a rule that would see the commercial driving privileges revoked from truckers with a “prohibited” status in FMCSA’s Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse is quickly approaching.

In November 2021, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration published a final rule that would require state driver licensing agencies to “remove the CLP or CDL privilege from the driver’s license of an individual” carrying a prohibited status due to one or more drug and alcohol program violations. Once downgraded, CMV privileges can only be reinstated after the “driver complies with return-to-duty requirements.”

The agency’s first Clearinghouse rule, which took effect in 2020, required employers to query the Clearinghouse for drug and alcohol violations from current and prospective employees prior to allowing them to operate a commercial motor vehicle. Additionally, employers are required to run a query on all current employees annually.

According to FMCSA, the second Clearinghouse rule “will improve the enforcement of the current driving prohibition by requiring that states refrain from issuing, renewing, transferring, or upgrading the CLP or CDL of affected drivers.”

Under the second phase, state driver licensing agencies will be required to:

Query the Clearinghouse before issuing, renewing, upgrading or transferring CDLs and issuing, renewing and upgrading commercial learner’s permits
Review a driver’s information when notified by FMCSA of a driver’s Clearinghouse status change

According to the July 2024 Clearinghouse Report, a total of 175,650 CLP and CDL holders currently carry a prohibited status. Of those drivers, 133,414 have not begun the return-to-duty process.

Taylor Richey with CMCI, the Owner-Operator Independent Driver Association’s Drug and Alcohol Consortium, says drivers who currently carry a prohibited status will want to complete the return-to-duty process before the Nov. 18 compliance date. If they don’t, those drivers could be subject to fines or other requirements implemented by the state their CDL was issued from prior to having their commercial vehicle privileges reinstated.

“After the compliance date, it will be more difficult for prohibited drivers to complete the return-to-duty process,” Richey told Land Line. “Because then it’s up to the state to determine what requirements are needed to get their CDL back.”

It should be noted that the November deadline is when states will be required to comply with the new regulation, rather than when states will begin to downgrade drivers. Currently, state licensing agencies with the legislative authority can voluntarily query the Clearinghouse and downgrade CDLs of prohibited drivers ahead of the compliance date. LL