As a DOT-regulated motor carrier, you know how critical your drivers are to your business. You simply wouldn’t be able to run a business without them.
More importantly, though, is having safe, sober, qualified drivers on your fleet, especially during a historical driver shortage.
To help ensure carriers maintain compliant fleets, the DOT has strict, specific drug and alcohol testing and recordkeeping requirements. A huge part of ramping up these efforts was the introduction of the DOT Clearinghouse in January 2020 (which is changing in 2023, by the way!).
You know that falling out of compliance with the DOT can mean violation citations, steep fines, and out-of-service orders – all of which can take a major hit to your company’s bottom line and hard-earned reputation.
But you may not know everything you need to do to reach and maintain compliance with DOT drug and alcohol testing requirements.
Luckily, Foley does. Here’s a walkthrough of...
According to federal law, all CDL drivers considered “safety-sensitive” employees must participate in a DOT-compliant drug and alcohol testing program. This includes drivers who:
To ensure that you and your drivers maintain full compliance, all drivers listed above must participate in both a comprehensive drug and alcohol testing program and the DOT Clearinghouse that went into effect in January 2020.
Comprehensive drug and alcohol testing programs must include:
Violations of any of the above, such as positive DOT drug test results or test refusals, must then be reported to the DOT Clearinghouse.
Comprehensive drug and alcohol testing programs and the Clearinghouse do overlap, but the Clearinghouse specifically requires pre-employment queries for all new drivers and limited annual queries for all drivers for the duration of their employment.
Need a refresher on pre-employment or annual queries? Take a look at these related Foley articles:
Have You Run Your Pre-Employment Queries?
Compliance Reminder: Your Annual Clearinghouse Queries are Due
And remember: You as a motor carrier, as well as all your drivers, must have an active account in the Clearinghouse. If you haven’t registered for the Clearinghouse yet, Foley’s compliance experts can help you before you face your next compliance audit.
A drug and alcohol testing program and regular reporting to the Clearinghouse aren’t enough to keep you compliant.
As required by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), all DOT-regulated motor carriers must keep diligent records of their safety and compliance programs. Some of these files that contain sensitive driver information must be kept in a secure location.
Foley highly recommends maintaining all driver records in a digital format, in the event you’re called on for an offsite audit with an electronic record submission as your only option.
The FMCSA has designated minimum amounts of time that files must be maintained as well.
For the Clearinghouse, limited consent forms and results of pre-employment queries and annual queries must all be maintained for three years.
Several of the most significant drug and alcohol testing records must be kept on file for five years from the original document dates. These include:
A few other drug and alcohol testing-related retention requirements:
Keep in mind, this list is short and sweet for a quick review before 2022 comes to a close. Partnering with a compliance provider like Foley will help you meet every single recordkeeping requirement (and trust us, there are a lot of them).
Allowing safety-sensitive employees who have tested positive for drug and alcohol to continue operating CMVs can be incredibly costly—in fact, in a 2021 final ruling, the FMCSA doubled fines for Clearinghouse violations to roughly $5,830 per infraction.
After reading all the above requirements, learning the potential consequences, and getting a better understanding of what you must do as a motor carrier to remain compliant, you may feel overwhelmed. That’s why Foley is here to help.
Foley’s DOT compliance software solution eliminates the many risks with paper records – which could be lost or incomplete; easily damaged; and inconveniently accessible in only one location, like a filing cabinet in an office – and helps you stay on top of document retention times and expiration dates.
Our cloud-based platform offers limited profile access, so your files are always secure. But it’s also easy to use and accessible from any mobile device.
Bottom line – the Foley platform helps ensure your company is prepared for an offsite audit – which are up 400% since 2019.
Get audit-ready (and stay that way) with the best DOT compliance provider out there. Foley’s compliance specialists are ready to walk you through the platform with a free demo, so schedule yours today by filling out the form!