On February 12th, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”) announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) to establish a national drug and alcohol clearinghouse for commercial driver’s license (“CDL”) holders. The public comment period ends on April 21, 2014.
The proposed rule would, among other things, “establish the terms of access to the database, including the conditions under which information would be submitted, accessed, maintained, updated, removed, and released to prospective employers, current employers, and other authorized entities.”The NPRM’s Executive Summary states, “[t]his proposed rule would . . . require employers and service agents to search the database for current and prospective employees’ positive drug and alcohol test results, and refusals to test, as a condition of permitting those employees to perform safety-sensitive functions.” 3 FMCSA Administrator Anne S. Ferro explained, “We are leveraging technology to create a one-stop verification point to help companies hire drug and alcohol-free drivers. This proposal moves us further down the road toward improving safety for truck and bus companies, commercial drivers and the motoring public everywhere.”
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