Nearly four years after the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse was established, it continues to have a significant impact on the trucking regulatory landscape.
Michael Precia, president and chief strategy officer at Fleetworthy Solutions, joined FreightWaves in an interview to discuss the clearinghouse’s impact on the industry and its goal of improving safety on the road.
“The intent of the program was to shine a light on what could be called a black hole as you’re trying to bring in new drivers into your organization through the building of a nationwide database that’s accessible so you can identify drivers who’ve had DUIs or other things in the past or with previous employers,” said Precia.
How the Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse works
The first challenge is understanding what exactly the FMCSA Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse does. The federal website describes it as a database that contains information about violations of the FMCSA’s drug and alcohol testing program for CDL holders.
The wide-ranging rulemaking impacts all CDL drivers who operate commercial motor vehicles on public roads, as well as their employers and service agents. Beginning Nov. 18, it extends to state driver’s licensing agencies (SDLAs) that access and use clearinghouse data to check whether drivers have drug or alcohol program violations.
This primarily involves drug and alcohol testing, which occurs in various settings. These include preemployment drug and alcohol screening, Department of Transportation random drug and alcohol screenings, and drug and alcohol screenings shortly after an accident.
The FMCSA regs treats owner-operators as both employers and drivers, requiring extra steps. Regulations require the driver to designate a consortium/third-party administrator (C/TPA) to meet reporting requirements.
For drivers who have an incident like a DUI and for whom the data is reported to the clearinghouse, extra steps are required before they begin driving again. Precia notes that once your status is changed to ineligible, you must complete a return-to-duty process that includes being evaluated by a substance abuse professional (SAP) who determines whether you are fit to take a return-to-duty test.
If you pass the test, you then must get your clearinghouse status updated to “not prohibited.” A handy FMCSA pamphlet highlights this last step, stating, “To remain in a ‘not prohibited’ status, your employer must complete the follow-up testing plan with you as specified by the SAP, which must include a minimum of six unannounced follow-up tests in the first 12 months of returning to performing safety-sensitive functions. If you are an owner-operator, your designated C/TPA must complete your follow-up testing plan.”
Impacts on small fleets and owner-operators
In the years after the clearinghouse went live, issues with the website crashing were addressed, but Precia notes other challenges remain that are making it harder for carriers to get drivers seated. “A big thing to remember is that the first step in the clearinghouse requires the driver to take action by registering and getting their information into the clearinghouse,” he added.
For owner-operators, this meant extra work due to their being self-employed. Precia says if an owner-operator wants to join another fleet, there are more steps. “So you can imagine, especially for owner-operators, that’s now a new step they have to go through to be qualified and hired as a driver.”
Even drivers who have been with the same company for years still need to handle the self-reporting and keep up with the yearly requirement. It is then up to the carrier to track these self-reports and perform the queries annually. This is on top of the other compliance reporting requirements, which add to the workload.
Leveraging technology to tackle the added complexity
Precia notes the additional reporting requirements for the clearinghouse presented an opportunity to Fleetworthy, whose CP Suite platform was tailor-built to tackle these compliance challenges.
“We understood when we built CP Suite that carriers were already having a hard time keeping track of all the data coming out of the cab. So we wanted to build a platform that was agnostic in nature and could take that data coming out of the cab and put it in one place.”
The biggest back-office hurdle is the Driver Qualification File or DQ file. 49 CFR 391 is the reg that outlines the minimum requirements for commercial vehicle drivers, and motor carriers must maintain a qualification file that is periodically updated.
For smaller fleets that lack the resources, Fleetworthy steps in and uses technology to electronically house and manage the documents, allowing its client services department to do the heavy lifting. These DQ files are required for current and future driver applicants.
“We put it in an electronic platform, and we can overlay dashboards so the carriers and people responsible for safety understand how they’re doing from a compliance perspective both on the driver and asset side,” said Precia.
Another challenge is the proliferation of paper files that need digitalization. One solution Fleetworthy created was a driver mobile app.
“We created an electronic platform to make that more efficient,” Precia said. “We connect that to the driver by giving them a mobile app so they can take pictures of their driver’s license and med cards. We can digitalize those things that are paper-based then add them to our platform to make them available to the safety department.”
A bonus of the app is the ability to “nudge” drivers and remind them to upload their documents before they expire and potentially place them out of service.
Fleetworthy expands from partnership to acquisition
Precia also highlighted the recent acquisition of Fleetworthy by Bestpass.
“We’ve been partners with Bestpass for many years; it was very logical and natural for the two companies to combine,” he said. “Bestpass being a leader in toll management fits nicely when you look at the things we do at Fleetworthy.”
He added: “Now we have another dataset that we can put into CP Suite to allow carriers to really have a 360-degree understanding of how the behavior of the driver is impacting them financially. Our goal is to help our customers not only drive safely and with all the data we are starting to compile. We can really help them not only take the safest route but the most cost-effective one.”
The added value ties in to the three-legged-stool strategy: “It’s our technology, our people and our understanding of the data, but anything we can do to make the product even more user-friendly, we will do so,” Precia said.
To learn more, visit fleetworthy.com.
