OOIDA opposes motion picture group’s exemption request

April 7, 2020

Mark Schremmer

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OOIDA opposed a motion picture group’s request for an exemption to the FMCSA’s Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse pre-employment full query, saying it would diminish the intended safety benefits of the program.

In March, Motion Picture Compliance Solutions said the requirement would “significantly slow down our members’ ability to hire at the speed needed.” MPCS seeks an exemption from the requirement that an employer can’t employ a driver who is subject to drug and alcohol testing before conducting a full query of the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse. Instead, the group asks for its members to be allowed to conduct a limited query of the Clearinghouse before hiring a driver for a project.

“If the limited query indicates that information about the driver exists in the Clearinghouse, the driver would not be permitted to perform safety-sensitive functions unless and until a full query subsequently shows that the driver is not prohibited from operating a commercial motor vehicle,” the notice stated.

OOIDA, in formal comments submitted to FMCSA on April 6, opposed the exemption request.

“In their request, MPCS acknowledges that the motion picture industry “employs a pool of approximately 12,000 production drivers who are considered ‘multiple-employer drivers,’” OOIDA wrote.

Motion Picture Compliance Solutions argued that its drivers often find themselves working for more than one production-related motor carrier in a week and, sometimes, two or more in the same day.

“This type of scenario was one of the reasons the Clearinghouse was enacted,” OOIDA wrote. “So drivers with drug/alcohol violations cannot simply move around to different carriers. Waiving the pre-employment full query requirements may prevent carriers from accessing necessary hiring information and allow drivers with drug/alcohol violations to return to the road before proper evaluation and treatment is completed.

“OOIDA urges FMCSA to deny the Motion Picture Compliance Solutions’ exemption request.”