Clearinghouse annual query: what carriers must do

The FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse is a federal database of drug and alcohol program violations by CDL and CLP holders. Under 49 CFR 382.701, employers of CDL drivers must query it, and one of those queries must happen every year.

The rule in plain terms

• Pre-employment: run a full query before a driver performs any safety-sensitive function for you. The driver must give consent electronically through their own Clearinghouse account.
• Annual: run a query on every CDL driver you employ at least once a year. A limited query satisfies this requirement.
• Registration: your company must be registered with the Clearinghouse before you can run queries.

Limited and full queries

	Limited query	Full query
What it tells you	Whether the Clearinghouse has any record for the driver	The details of the record
Consent needed	General consent from the driver, which can be on your own written form	Specific consent given by the driver in the Clearinghouse
Use it for	The annual query	Pre-employment, and as a follow-up when a limited query finds a record

If a limited query shows that information exists about a driver, you must run a full query within 24 hours.

FMCSA publishes a sample limited consent form you can adapt. Check the rule text for how long the consent should cover, and keep it on file.

Calculate a due date

What to record for each query

For an audit, you need to be able to show:

1. The driver’s name.
2. The date you ran the query and the type (limited or full).
3. The result.
4. The driver’s consent, kept on file.

Keep these records for at least three years. Check 49 CFR 382.701 for the exact retention rule.

Mistakes that cause violations

• One company-wide query date. Every driver has their own clock, based on that driver’s last query. A driver hired in March is due in March, not in January with everyone else.
• No consent on file. The query result is not enough. You need to show the driver agreed.
• Forgetting new hires. The pre-employment query counts as the first one, and the annual date starts from it.
• Assuming someone else did it. A drug testing administrator may help you, but you remain responsible for your own queries.
• Missing a follow-up. A limited query that finds a record starts a 24-hour clock.

Nobody can run the query for you

FMCSA does not let outside software run Clearinghouse queries on your behalf. You log in to the Clearinghouse yourself, which takes a couple of minutes per driver. The part carriers miss is the date. DotReady tracks every driver’s due date, reminds you at 30, 14, 7 and 1 days ahead, links you to the FMCSA page and records the result and consent for your files.