TIGHTENING THE ROPE ON DRUG & ALCOHOL ABUSE

The long awaited Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse program is upon us. This electronic data base containing the vast alcohol and drug violations will certainly be a tool to identify commercial motor vehicle drivers that have violated these rules along with a source of information that can reduce Exposure to injuries & death to the motoring public and Exposure to litigation and compliance violations due to a drivers actions

 Carriers must ensure to supply the correct information such as:

There is specific information that employers will have to submit to the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse. The following is a list of them:

1. An alcohol test result with an alcohol concentration of 0.04 or more.

2. A negative return-to-duty test result.

3. A driver’s refusal to submit to a DOT drug or alcohol test.

4. An “Actual knowledge” violation. Actual knowledge means an employer has knowledge that a driver has used alcohol or drugs based on the employer’s direction observation of the driver, information provided by a previous employer, a traffic citation for driving a commercial motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or an employee’s admission of use.

5. A report showing that the driver successfully completed all follow-up tests.

As a Safety Professional for over 40 years I for one feel the additional information provided by the Clearing House is a important step forward to reducing the exposure from drivers choices of violating the Drug & Alcohol Compliance regulations.

The FMCSA deserves the industries and publics thanks for the hard work associated with this program.