“The Clearinghouse is a secure online database that gives employers, FMCSA, State Driver Licensing Agencies, and State law enforcement personnel real-time information about CDL driver drug and alcohol program violations, thereby enhancing safety on our Nation’s roadways.”
The Clearinghouse stores driver violations (ie., positive drug and alcohol results, refusals, etc.) that employers can search for during pre-employment and annual queries.
ALL employers that are subject to FMCSA regulations are required to register in the Clearinghouse and run queries. This is NOT optional. Assigning a C/TPA is not a requirement unless it is an owner/operator.
Query – An electronic “check” of a driver’s record in the Clearinghouse
Query Plans – Must be purchased by the employer before queries can be ordered. For annual queries there must be a balance with at least enough “query plans” to cover all drivers being queried.
C/TPA – Consortia/Third Party Administrator
SAP – Substance Abuse Professional
RTD – Return to Duty
CH - Clearinghouse
What can Tomo, as C/TPA, do in the Clearinghouse?
As a C/TPA, Tomo CAN complete the following tasks on behalf of the employer:
- Order queries
- Enter violations
- Enter negative RTD tests
- Check the employer's query balance
- Send the employer resources, or instructions, for how to do certain things in CH (Registering as employer and/or driver, order queries themselves, report RTD information, report violations, purchase query plans, consent to query request for driver, etc.)
Tomo CANNOT:
- Purchase additional query plans for the employer
- Obtain employee consent for annual queries
- Help with registering an employer or driver account
- OR help them if they have issues logging in, they will have to call the CH directly
- Assign ourselves as C/TPA
- Assign a driver’s SAP
- See the results of any queries that were not ordered by us
- Check a driver’s status without the employer ordering a query first
- Automatically order pre-employment queries when a pre-employment drug screen is completed
- Make any changes to client/driver Clearinghouse accounts
Different Types of Queries:
Pre-employment queries are ordered before a driver begins performing safety-sensitive functions with an employer.
Annual queries are queries ordered no later than once every 365 days on all currently employed drivers.
The purpose of the queries is to “catch” any violations that a driver might have obtained outside of their regular employment, and therefore was not reported to their employer.
Violations:
Tomo receives many questions regarding entering positive drug tests. Positive drug tests are entered by the MRO as they make the determination on positives. Tomo does not enter positive drug tests.
Tomo can only enter the following types of violations:
- Alcohol Confirmation with a concentration of 0.04 or higher
- Refusal to test (alcohol)
- Refusal to test (drug) NOT requiring a determination by the MRO
- Actual knowledge of a drug or alcohol violation
If you are uncertain of or not comfortable answering any questions regarding Clearinghouse, please direct them to:
Savannah Seibert
Compliance Coordinator
417-887-7697 ext 1028
savannahseibert@yourdrugtesting.com
