Drug & Alcohol Compliance and Clearinghouse Support

Who this is for

This service is for carriers that employ CDL drivers and are required to maintain a DOT drug and alcohol program, but do not have the time or internal safety staff to keep every piece of it organized. That includes owner-operators, small fleets, growing fleets, and new authorities setting up a program for the first time.

What drug and alcohol compliance includes

A DOT drug and alcohol program is more than sending a driver for a test. In general terms it involves a written policy, pre-employment testing, random testing through a pool or consortium, and testing tied to specific events such as reasonable suspicion, return-to-duty, follow-up, and post-accident situations. It also involves recordkeeping and FMCSA Clearinghouse participation. Confirm the exact requirements that apply to your operation against FMCSA.

• Written drug and alcohol policy and driver acknowledgment.
• Pre-employment and ongoing testing program records.
• Random testing pool or consortium enrollment records.
• Reasonable-suspicion and return-to-duty documentation.
• Post-accident testing procedures and records.
• FMCSA Clearinghouse registration, queries, and reporting.

Clearinghouse support

The FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse is the federal database of driver drug and alcohol program violations. Carriers generally must run pre-employment full queries and annual limited queries on their drivers, with the required consent, and report certain information. Missing or late queries have become a common audit finding. We help carriers keep Clearinghouse registration active, run and document queries on schedule, and keep the consent and results where they belong in the driver file.

Common carrier mistakes

• Assuming enrollment in a consortium is the whole program. It is one piece.
• Missing annual Clearinghouse queries or skipping the consent step.
• No written policy, or a policy no driver ever signed.
• Not knowing the post-accident testing triggers and windows before a crash happens.
• Keeping records so scattered that nothing can be produced in an audit.

What Fleet Regulators helps with

• Organizing and reviewing your drug and alcohol program documentation.
• Building a query and testing calendar so nothing lapses.
• Keeping Clearinghouse queries, consents, and results in the driver files.
• Setting up post-accident procedures your drivers and dispatch can actually follow.
• Preparing your program records for a DOT audit or new entrant audit.

What this service is not

• Not a laboratory, collection site, Medical Review Officer, or Substance Abuse Professional.
• Not legal advice or legal representation.
• Not a government or FMCSA affiliation.
• Not a guarantee of any audit, CSA, or enforcement outcome.

How this connects to the rest of your compliance

Drug and alcohol compliance does not sit in a silo. Clearinghouse queries and consents live in your DQ files. Post-accident testing ties into your accident procedures and post-accident audit support. And the whole program is something a DOT audit or new entrant audit will review. For carriers that want all of it handled together, our fractional safety department covers the drug and alcohol program alongside HOS, DQ files, and the rest.

Frequently Asked Questions