The FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse, explained

The FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse is the federal database of drug and alcohol violations by drivers who hold a commercial driver's license (CDL) or a commercial learner's permit (CLP). Employers must check it before a driver starts and at least once a year after that, and they must report certain violations to it. If a driver has an unresolved violation in the Clearinghouse, no employer may let that driver drive a commercial motor vehicle until the return-to-duty process is done.

Below: what the Clearinghouse holds, who has to register, the two kinds of query, what gets reported and by whom, how long a violation stays visible, what happens to the driver's license, and what queries cost.

What the Clearinghouse holds

The Clearinghouse records violations of the drug and alcohol rules in 49 CFR Part 382 by CDL and CLP holders (§382.701(a)):

• a verified positive, adulterated or substituted drug test result;
• an alcohol confirmation test at a concentration of 0.04 or higher;
• a refusal to test;
• an employer's report of actual knowledge that the driver used alcohol on duty, before duty or after an accident, or used a controlled substance.

It also records the steps back: the substance abuse professional's report, the negative return-to-duty test, and the completion of follow-up testing (§382.703(b)).

Who has to register

Every employer of CDL drivers and every service agent (a consortium or third-party administrator, a medical review officer, a substance abuse professional) must register before reporting or looking up anything (§382.711). An employer registers with its USDOT number and names the people allowed to report and query for it; it must confirm those names every year and update its C/TPA details within 10 days of a change.

Drivers are not required to register, but a driver must register before an employer can run a full query, because the driver gives consent for a full query inside the Clearinghouse (Clearinghouse FAQ). In practice every driver you hire needs an account.

An owner-operator who drives under their own USDOT number needs both roles, employer and driver (Clearinghouse registration), and must designate a C/TPA to report for them (§382.705(b)(6)).

How to register

Registration starts at clearinghouse.fmcsa.dot.gov. You need a Login.gov account first; the Clearinghouse sends you to Login.gov to create one and brings you back to finish.

• Employers: confirm you are the company's Clearinghouse administrator, verify your identity, enter the company's details and USDOT number, say whether you are an owner-operator, and designate a C/TPA if you use one. If you already have an FMCSA Portal account that holds your USDOT number with the Clearinghouse role, you skip the identity steps.
• Drivers: enter and verify the current CDL or CLP and accept the terms.

The two kinds of query

• Pre-employment: a full query. No driver may perform a safety-sensitive function for you until you have run a full query, and a full query needs the driver's electronic consent given in the Clearinghouse (§382.701(a), §382.703).
• Every year: a limited query is enough. You must query each driver at least once a year. A limited query tells you only whether the Clearinghouse holds anything on the driver, and the driver's written consent for it can cover more than one year. If it does show something, you have 24 hours to run a full query; if you miss that, the driver may not drive until a full query comes back clear (§382.701(b)).

Keep a record of each query and its result for three years; an employer with a valid registration meets this through the Clearinghouse itself (§382.701(e)). Keep each driver's consent for three years from the last query (§382.703(a)). The full rules, including how the year is counted, are in the guide to the annual Clearinghouse query.

If a driver refuses consent, you may not let that driver perform safety-sensitive functions (§382.703(c)). And if a violation is entered for a driver within 30 days after you queried them, FMCSA notifies you (§382.701(c)).

Who reports what

• Medical review officers report verified positive, adulterated or substituted drug results and certain refusals, within 2 business days.
• Employers report alcohol results of 0.04 or higher, refusals that need no MRO decision, actual knowledge of use, negative return-to-duty results and the completion of follow-up testing, by the close of the third business day. An employer may have a C/TPA report for it but keeps the responsibility.
• Substance abuse professionals report the initial assessment and the date the driver became eligible for return-to-duty testing.

All three come from §382.705.

Return to duty, and how long a violation stays

A driver with a violation stays prohibited until the substance abuse professional has reported, the return-to-duty test is negative, and the follow-up testing the SAP prescribed is complete or managed by an employer who takes it on (§382.701(d)).

The violation stays visible to employers until all of these are done: the SAP report, the negative return-to-duty test, the completion of all follow-up tests, and five years since the violation. Whichever comes last decides (§382.719). Information that was reported wrongly can be challenged through the petition process in §382.717.

The driver's license is downgraded

Since 18 November 2024, when a CDL or CLP holder is prohibited under the Clearinghouse rules, the State must remove the commercial privilege from the license and record the downgrade within 60 days of being notified. If the driver completes the return-to-duty steps before that, the downgrade stops; if after, the driver becomes eligible to have the privilege reinstated (§383.73(q)).

What queries cost

A query costs 1.25 US dollars, limited or full. If a limited query finds something and you follow it with a full query, you are charged once for both. Queries never expire. Employers buy query plans in their own Clearinghouse account; a C/TPA cannot buy them for you (Clearinghouse query plans).

What to keep in the driver's file

• the pre-employment full query result, dated before the driver's first trip;
• each annual query result;
• the driver's written consent for limited queries;
• any return-to-duty paperwork and the follow-up testing plan, if the driver had a violation.

Ledger Road keeps these in each driver's file, with the date the next annual query is due.