STEER CLEAR OF THE MOST COMMON CLEARINGHOUSE MISCONCEPTIONS

“I don’t have to do Clearinghouse queries; participation is optional.”

No. It’s NOT optional. It is 100 percent mandatory for all carriers and all drivers operating within the United States. Let’s remember when we must run each query.

Pre-employment requirement

A full query must be run on all drivers hired or contracted on or after Jan. 6, 2020, prior to putting a driver behind the wheel of a truck. This applies to all CDL holders (all class types) that operate on roads within the U.S. (even Mexican or Canadian drivers). A full query provides all information about a driver’s violation history reported to the Clearinghouse. The driver must be listed as Not Prohibited before they can begin driving for a carrier.

Annual requirement

For ALL drivers operating under a carrier’s authority, a limited query must be run annually. A limited query result is either Not Prohibited or Records Found. If the result is Not Prohibited, the driver may continue operating a CMV. If the result is Records Found, a full query must be run, and results must be received within 24 hours of the limited query results. (If you use Tri-State Safety as your TPA, we automatically run the full query if a limited query comes back with Records Found, another example that TPAs are not all the same). If the result of the full query is Prohibited, the driver must be immediately removed from operating a CMV.

By Jan. 6, 2021, limited queries must be run on all drivers employed or contracted prior to Janu.6, 2020. The pre-employment query run on drivers after Jan. 6, 2020 is good for one year. A limited query must then be run at least once a year after receipt of the pre-employment query for as long as the driver is operating under the carrier’s authority.

“I only have to run limited queries on drivers I hire, and I don’t have to run a full query unless I get a hit.” No. The regulations require a full query pre-employment at the time of engagement, prior to placing the driver in a truck. A full query should be run on any driver hired or contracted on or after Jan. 6, 2020. Limited queries meet only the annual requirement and will not suffice for a pre-employment Clearinghouse check.

“The driver signed the written consent I have with my application; that’s all I need to get a full query.”

Understandably, consent may be the biggest source of confusion for carriers and drivers. There are two different types of consent depending on the type of query you are running. Here’s the breakdown:

BY ANTHONY MORREALE

• Full query: driver consents within the Clearinghouse. The driver must complete the registration process with the Clearinghouse, which requires setting up an account, entering authentication information, and verifying their CDL. This process is not simple, but once a driver goes through the registration process, they must provide consent within the Clearinghouse to release the full query information to a requesting carrier. Once that occurs, the carrier will receive the results of the full query.

• Limited query: driver consents in writing obtained outside of the Clearinghouse. The limited query consent must be in writing and signed by the driver (an electronic signature is fine). Since carriers will eventually need the limited query consent signed by ALL drivers to comply with the annual requirement, most carriers get the limited consent signed in connection with the application so it’s on file when a limited query needs to be run.

“Once a driver’s full query returns as Not Prohibited, I don’t need to do anything for a year.”

Not necessarily. Information about a violation can be added to the Clearinghouse at any time. A carrier will be notified if the information is added to a driver’s Clearinghouse record, but only within 30 days of running a full query. To find out what information was added, another full consent must be obtained from the driver within the Clearinghouse.

For example, if you initially ran a full query and got a Not Prohibited result and the driver is now operating under your authority when you get a notification that new information has been reported to the Clearinghouse, YOU NEED TO ACT QUICKLY! This means that a violation has been reported about that driver to the Clearinghouse, and most likely, the driver is now prohibited from operating a CMV.

From a risk management perspective, it may be a good idea to run a limited query more often than just annually. Remember that a carrier will not be notified if violation information is added to the Clearinghouse after 30 days from the full query unless a limited query is run. Violations can be reported to the Clearinghouse from other carriers conducting pre-employment drug screens or if the driver operates under multiple authorities. For this reason, running a limited query more than annually would catch any violations and help reduce the potential liability associated with having a driver operating under your authority that has a violation reported to the Clearinghouse. Similarly, you want to make sure your full query is conducted within the 30 days before actually bringing a driver on board so that you can get updates if the driver had a violation that caused them to leave the prior employer.

“I don’t need to go back and run queries for the drivers I hired when the Clearinghouse had technical difficulties.” Yes, you do. As you may know, the Clearinghouse experienced technical difficulties for several weeks shortly after going live. During those technical difficulties, the FMCSA allowed carriers to hire drivers using only the procedures under 49 CFR 391.23 for employment verifications. However, the FMCSA has said that carriers must go back and get full queries for all drivers hired when the Clearinghouse was experiencing technical difficulties.

If you hired a driver during that time and then by the time the technical difficulties were resolved, the driver was no longer