The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is providing temporary relief to employers who are trying to hire new truck drivers but are unable to complete required background checks in the Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse.
“If you are an employer currently experiencing technical difficulties accessing the Clearinghouse and are unable to conduct required pre-employment queries, you may hire a driver using solely the procedures set forth in 49 CFR 391.23(e),” the agency states in an alert posted on the clearinghouse website. “Once FMCSA has determined and announced that users are able to access the Clearinghouse, pre-employment queries must also be conducted as required by section 382.701(a).”
Pre-employment queries became a federal requirement for carriers as of Jan. 6, when the clearinghouse opened for conducting such checks. However, the system began crashing over the past several days due to a flood of registrations and query requests.
“If the FMCSA didn’t provide this allowance, carriers would be in limbo with drivers that they couldn’t put to work until the query results were returned, potentially losing out on revenue,” said Marilyn Surber, transportation adviser for Tulsa, Oklahoma-based trucking compliance consultant Tenstreet. “They did the right thing.”
Surber cautioned, however, that while FMCSA’s query postponement means employers can temporarily hire drivers without conducting a full query, “the clearinghouse regulatory mandate is still in place, meaning that once the clearinghouse site is back up, employers still have to run a full query for all drivers hired on or after January 6, 2020.”
Bob
It’s just too bad that this industry has been been allowed to become so grossly oversighted and overregulated. Truck driver need to figure out what kind of power and control this industry really possess in relation to the continuance of everyday life as we know it. I just recently threw in the towel on trucking after a good kick to the sack with the Modern mandate ELD/hours of service regulations. Everybody just remember this, because this seems to get overlooked alot, while they(meaning the regulating agency or FMCSA) sit back in their fancy lavish accommodations relentlessly handing out more and more regs with more restrictions. There is a finite number of companies out there in America and they may be a little slow sometimes, but they are slowly realizing that they aren’t going to make it in the industry that was supposed to carry them into retirement. And because of this trucking companies, big and small are closing their doors forever over these Petty pointless controls being put into place that reap paltry benefits for the industry and the only effects it has for driver’s are all bad. It is teetering in a very fragile balance for now but it’s coming……
CaptainMidnight
Totally right Bob!
Joe Myers
This is the best shit ever, who the hell is regulating the FMCSA maybe we should take a look at you people, all the trucking companies that have gone under in the past few years is because of you fmcsa .
Keep up the great work of costing companies millions an NOT doing anything for safety..
Stacy Sprouse
If everyone including the company would tell the federal government were to go . We would not have all this shit going on.
Last real trucker
Lmao another failed attempt by tge no nothing nim rods to throw more bs at the industry
Bill Brown
Fmcsa is wholly incompetent. Even the eld mandate… When a telematics service provider “crashes” (PeopleNet) and fmcsa is notified, they offer no guidance.
Art
Overcomplicating leads to service failure.
I did not register anticipating the portal would be hacked or not work..
At least all the driver data was not hacked (yet?)
Jimmy
You got that Right! I haven’t Register yet,either. FMCSA’s always with some BullS…
GREG
The system is a joke. Register here first, then make this change, then give this permission, the login over here, then link this to that. Call the help desk. You are caller number 96. Lol….
David Eastburn
hilarious,… everything the FMCSA does crashes. or soon will.
Richard
These politicians need to be drug tested….who cares about what a driver does on their off time…
Meanwhile, tons of people drink in this company; which by the way , is done without government intervention,
We really need to look at this money crab the government is all about and stop big brother from screwing us over.
CaptainMidnight
Totally right!