Company requests Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse exemption

A trash collection company is asking the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to exempt its drivers from some of the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse requirements.

In a notice scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on Thursday, Aug. 22, Waste Management Holdings asks FMCSA for an exemption from certain driver qualification requirements and Clearinghouse regulations when its drivers are transferred among two or more Waste Management Holdings carriers with different USDOT numbers.

Specifically, Waste Management Holdings aims to remove the administrative burden of requalifying drivers every time they are reassigned to one of its motor carrier affiliates.

Once the notice is published, the public will have 30 days to comment. To do so, go to Regulations.gov and enter Docket No. FMCSA-2024-0200.

Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse Rule II

Questions regarding FMCSA’s Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse are likely to heat up in the second half of 2024.

Starting Nov. 18, state driver licensing agencies will be required to remove the commercial driving privileges of drivers in a “prohibited” status in the Clearinghouse, which will result in a downgrade of the CDL until the driver completes the return-to-duty process.

The Clearinghouse is a “secure online database that gives employers, FMCSA, state driver licensing agencies and state law enforcement personnel real-time information about commercial driver’s license and commercial learner’s permit holders’ drug and alcohol program violations.”

FMCSA’s first Clearinghouse rule, which began requiring compliance in 2020, required employers to query the Clearinghouse for current and prospective employees’ drug and alcohol violations before permitting them to operate a commercial motor vehicle. Employers are required to query current employees annually.

The second Clearinghouse rule continues the effort to ensure that only qualified drivers are eligible to acquire and retain a CDL.

The second phase of the rule requires state driver licensing agencies 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

State driver licensing agencies with the legislative authority can voluntarily query the Clearinghouse and downgrade CDLs for prohibited drivers before the Nov. 18 compliance date. LL