CDL Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse registration opens

Registration is open for the congressionally mandated Commercial Driver’s License Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced.

Photo: iStock.com/Urupong

Commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders, employers, medical review officers and substance abuse professionals can visit clearinghouse.fmcsa.dot.gov to register and create a secure online user account.

Registration, at no cost, is required to access the clearinghouse once it is fully implemented on Jan. 6, 2020. Authorized users of the clearinghouse include:

• Drivers who hold a CDL or commercial learner’s permit.
• Employers of CDL drivers. This includes those who employ themselves as CDL drivers (owner-operators), typically a single-driver operation.
• Consortia/third-party administrators.
• Medical review officers.
• Substance abuse professionals.

Commercial drivers are not required to immediately register for the clearinghouse, but will need to register to respond to an employer’s request for consent prior to a pre-employment query or other full query being conducted, the FMCSA says. 

FMCSA’s clearinghouse website contains resources, including user brochures and instructional aids with step-by-step registration instructions for all users.

The clearinghouse will be a secure database that will allow the FMCSA, commercial motor vehicle employers, state driver licensing agencies and law enforcement officials to identify – in real time – CDL drivers who have violated the requirements of federal drug and alcohol testing programs.