The FMCSA Clearinghouse for NEMT fleets: which drivers and employers fall under it

What the Clearinghouse holds

The Clearinghouse is a federal database, run by FMCSA, that lists testing violations by CDL and commercial learner’s permit holders and tracks how each one gets resolved. It holds the results of the DOT testing program that the drug testing guide explains for NEMT drivers. The violations it stores are verified positive drug tests, alcohol tests at 0.04 or above, refusals to test, and employer reports of “actual knowledge” that a driver used drugs or alcohol in breach of the rules. Resolution shows up as dates: when the substance abuse professional first assessed the driver, when the driver passed the return-to-duty test, and when the last follow-up test was done.

Three limits shape what you will find there:

• DOT tests only. Results from non-DOT testing cannot be entered.
• Nothing older than January 6, 2020. The database started that day.
• At least five years. A violation stays available to employers for five years after it was determined, and longer if the driver’s return-to-duty steps or follow-up tests are still open.

Only registered users with a reason to look can open a record, and an employer sees violation details only with the driver’s consent. A registered driver can see their own record at any time, at no cost.

Which NEMT drivers it covers

The query and reporting duties attach to CDL jobs, nothing else. For passenger work, Part 382 treats a vehicle as commercial if it seats 16 or more with the driver counted, or if its weight rating is 26,001 pounds or more. The CDL guide explains where sedans, minivans, and wheelchair vans land against those lines.

A few situations still pull the database into a NEMT company:

• A CDL holder in one of your smaller vans. Querying that driver is allowed with consent but optional. If the record shows a prohibition, Parts 382 and 392 also keep the driver out of interstate commercial vehicles as Part 390 defines them, a group that includes vans carrying nine or more people, the driver among them, for pay (382.501 and 392.15).
• Transit contractor drivers. A driver whose only testing is under FTA’s Part 655, such as an ADA paratransit driver, is outside Part 382 and the database. One who also does FMCSA-covered work is inside it for that work.
• A one-person fleet. When the owner is the only person in the company who drives with a CDL, the owner has to designate a C/TPA (consortium/third-party administrator), which handles reports about the owner’s own violations.

Queries and what they cost

Each CDL driver gets a full query before their first safety-sensitive shift, then a query again at least once every year (382.701). In practice:

1. Register and buy a query plan. A query of either type costs $1.25. Purchased queries never expire. A C/TPA cannot buy them for the employer, and a limited query that leads to a full one on the same driver is billed once.
2. Get the right consent. For a full query, the driver approves the release electronically in their own account. A limited query just tells you if anything is on file, and it runs on a general written or electronic consent you collect outside the system, which can cover more than one year. Keep that form three years past the last query it covered (382.703).
3. Act on a hit. When a limited query shows something on file, the full query is due within 24 hours. Until it is done, the driver may not perform safety-sensitive duties.
4. Handle a refusal. If a driver will not consent, they cannot do safety-sensitive work for you.

Two later changes cut paperwork. Since March 8, 2023, FMCSA emails an employer when new information is recorded for a driver within 12 months of that employer’s pre-employment or annual query. And since January 6, 2023, keeping your registration valid satisfies the three-year rule for holding query records.

What employers report

The deadline is three business days from the day you learn of it (382.705). Employers enter:

• Alcohol confirmation tests at 0.04 or higher.
• Refusals the employer determines, such as a no-show at the collection site.
• Actual knowledge of use, which comes from four sources only: your own observation, a previous employer’s report, a citation for driving a commercial vehicle while impaired, and the driver’s admission.
• Negative results on return-to-duty tests, and the date follow-up testing ended.

Verified positive drug results come from the medical review officer, within two business days. A report entered late is still accepted, but the date goes on the record, and FMCSA may look at it during an investigation of your company.

The November 2024 CDL downgrade rule

Since November 18, 2024, a prohibited driver loses the CDL privilege on the license, not only the job. The second Clearinghouse rule, published October 7, 2021 (86 FR 55718), requires state licensing agencies to check the database before they issue, renew, upgrade, or transfer a CDL or permit. When FMCSA notifies a state that a driver is prohibited, the state has 60 days to complete the downgrade and record it (383.73(q)).

Return-to-duty is the way back. Where state law allows, a driver who finishes it before the state records the downgrade keeps the CDL, and a driver already downgraded can apply for reinstatement once FMCSA shows the driver as no longer prohibited. For a fleet with one bus and one CDL driver, the bus sits until another CDL driver is available, so add a backup plan to the drug and alcohol policy your drivers sign before you need it.