MassPrivateICommercial drivers who use drugs will have a tough time keeping a job or finding a new one, once a new federal drug database goes live Oct. 1. The Commercial Driver’s License Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse is under development by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) , which is accepting public comments until April 21.
The American Trucking Associations supports the bill and has been pushing for its passage for some time. ATA president Bill Graves in July 2012 said “The long overdue national clearinghouse will be a far more effective way to address the ongoing problem of some commercial drivers evading testing program rules.”
The clearinghouse (private company) will compile a database of commercial drivers’ positive drug and alcohol tests, as well as any refusals to submit to testing. Prospective employers would be required to obtain written permission to access the applicant’s data, but a refusal would most likely exclude an applicant from further consideration.
Summary of Major Provisions:
The proposed rule would revise 49 CFR part 382, Controlled Substances and Alcohol Use and Testing to establish the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse. It would require employers and service agents to report information about current and prospective employees’ positive drug and alcohol test results to the Clearinghouse. In addition, it would require employers to search the Clearinghouse for positive drug and alcohol test results, and refusals to test, on an annual basis for current employees and as a part of the pre-employment process for prospective employees. Finally, this proposal would require laboratories to provide FMCSA with annual summary reports on the testing activities of FMCSA-regulated motor carrier employers for whom they have provided testing services.
Reporting positive test results and refusals to test would create a database employers could check to determine whether current or prospective employees are prohibited from operating CMVs under the DOT drug and alcohol screening program. This would diminish or eliminate the problem of a currently-employed commercial-driver’s-license (CDL) holder testing positive for illegal drug or alcohol use with a second employer or another potential employer while continuing to operate commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) under his or her current employment without the current employer knowing and acting on the positive test.
It would also diminish or eliminate the problem of a driver with previous positive tests seeking and obtaining work without prospective employers knowing and acting on that information. This could occur if a driver is fired for a positive test but does not inform prospective or future employers about the previous positive test result. Thiscould also occur if a new driver entering the workforce tests positive for drugs or alcohol during a pre-employment test, waits for the drugs to leave his/her system, then takes and passes another pre-employment test and gets hired without the employer having any knowledge of the previously failed pre-employment test.
Currently motor carrier employers are required to implement DOT drug and alcohol testing programs for CDL holders and they must provide FMCSA with a summary of their annual drug and alcohol testing results. To improve employers’ compliance, the proposed rule would require all laboratories performing DOT drug and alcohol testing for FMCSA-regulated employers to file annual summary reports identifying the motor carrier employers for whom they performed testing services. The FMCSA would use the data provided by the laboratories to identify employers of CDL drivers that do not have an active drug and alcohol testing program
FMCSA proposes to establish the Commercial Driver’s License Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse (Clearinghouse), a database under the Agency’s administration that will contain controlled substances (drug) and alcohol test result information for the holders of commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs). The proposed rule would require FMCSA-regulated motor carrier employers, Medical Review Officers (MROs), Substance Abuse Professionals (SAPs), and consortia/third party administrators (C/TPAs) supporting U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) testing programs to report verified positive, adulterated, and substituted drug test results, positive alcohol test results, test refusals, negative return-to-duty test results, and information on follow-up testing. The proposed rule would also require employers to report actual knowledge of traffic citations for driving a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) while under the influence (DUI) of alcohol or drugs. The proposed rule would 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. Finally, it would require laboratories that provide FMCSA-regulated motor carrier employers with DOT drug testing services to report, annual, summary information about their testing activities. This rule is mandated by Section 32402 of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act.
The process, according to a posting by the FMCSA, would “increase highway safety by ensuring CDL holders, who have tested positive or have refused to submit to testing, have completed the U.S. DOT’s return to duty process before driving [commercial motor vehicles] in interstate and intrastate commerce.” It will also help ensure that employers are meeting drug and alcohol testing responsibilities, according to the FMCSA. (Predictably the government’s reason for spying on EVERY commercial driver in the U.S. is… to “increase highway safety”)
The testing and other requirements would apply to all commercial license holders, including school bus drivers, according to School Bus Fleet.
http://www.govtech.com/transportation/Feds-to-Launch-Drug-Test-Database-for-Commercial-Drivers.html
http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/about/news/news-releases/2014/RELEASE-14-02-12.aspx
http://massprivatei.blogspot.com/2014/03/massive-new-national-drug-testing.html
OK, so just who are gonna be testing the testers.
I also think that it is about time to be drug testing all in goverment also too then -especially obama. I bet obama would turn up dirty.
yeah, and what percentage of the population is on drugs anyhow — I think it is kind of a lot. A lot of these pharmaceuticals can definitely impair a person.
does this include pharmaceuticals and does this include the new Americans?
our small city is being inundated with foreign speaking people like i’ve never seen before. not just from Mexico either. what’s worse is these people speak openly in their native language. that was unheard of years past when people who came to America had respect for America and learned the English language and used it when in public. not anymore.
Mel, you bring up a very interesting point. Where I live, one of the local grocery stores has hired a significant number of African men in recent years. I have found myself increasingly annoyed while shopping in this store I’ve shopped in for over 10 years (this store used to employ only native-speaking Americans — until quite recently). The reason I am getting annoyed is because these men are conversing loudly throughout the store in their native tongue, which I do not understand — there are several of them. Since I live in a very diverse area and a very liberal area where we “celebrate diversity” I have found myself unable to really articulate what it is about this that bothers me, without being labeled a bigot.
Now I think I know what it is: it is a matter of politeness. I have been accustomed to shopping in stores where the employees and customers will converse with each other in a friendly fashion. This speaking in foreign tongues sounds unfriendly to me — indeed, these men do not say a word of greeting in English to any of the shoppers. And yes, they are quite loud. This conversation of theirs is jocular and clearly has little or nothing to do with the work they are doing. I end up feeling like I am not welcome there — that I am somehow intruding on “their” environment or have walked into a foreign country.
They DO speak English…. because sometimes they are the checkout clerks. If they would stop their conversation when a customer approaches and greet them in English and see if we need help finding anything…. I think I would not be so offended and disturbed by their employment there. I am pretty sure that if they were white and speaking Swedish here in America and ignoring the American customers, I would be equally offended.
I have been voting with my dollars and shopping there less and less, but it has been one of my favorite stores which is the only place that carries certain items I am accustomed to using. A shame.
But everyone around here loves this diversity and thinks I’m the one with the problem. (sorry — I know this topic was drug testing — got a bit carried away)
the reason it bothers you is because its being done purposely. don’t think for a moment that the globalists don’t know what they’re doing because they do.
an Asian friend of mine brought up the subject of how her and her family immigrated and assimilated learning the English language and only used their native language in private out of respect and gratefulness to even be here in the U.S. the respect just isn’t there anymore.
Since most of the (so-called) ‘drinking water’ in U.S. reservoirs has been found to have pharmaceuticals in it, if they test for those, then it’s a slam dunk for them, and the truck/bus drivers are screwed. IF they drink tap water, that is.
Sick isn`t it #1.
Hey #1, drinking tap water out of just about any public water service is asking for trouble. Bottled water, better check out exactly what your drinking and hope the plastic bottle doesn’t add to the mix of chemicals. I feel fortunate to have good, safe drinking water here in Wisconsin (private well) but that is under attack by the frack sand miners and their dirty deeds to pad their wallets at the expense of public health. Yes, the Great Lakes are under duress and we need public support to stop the pollution and exploitation of our most valuable resource, fresh water. How does that oil taste when you get thirsty? Just sayin’. Regarding the issue at hand, pee in a cup, have them draw blood, and get a DNA profile on you right before they hold you down and give you the RFID chip in your arm!
Now bottled water has fluoride added too, Millard. Plus, the bpa leaches into anything that is stored in plastic bottles.
Glass is the only truly safe container these days.
So much to remember. Aaagh! Driving me crazy. Life used to seem way simpler.
It did used to be way simpler, EE.
That was before television.
Yes, #1. And before some other stuff too, I reckon. What gets me is things we have been taught to take for granted or trust, like water. Water we drink, water we bathe in, it soaks into our skin, into our bodies. We who choose not to pollute our bodies with pharmaceuticals become contaminated by other people’s naive and trusting decisions to consume pharmaceuticals. This is so effed up.
Agreed.