Drug Testing Q

The carrier only sees if you’re cleared to drive.

 

“Yes, a CDL driver can get into trouble if their carrier is not enrolled in the FMCSA drug and alcohol program.Carriers are required to have a drug and alcohol testing program for their drivers, and drivers who operate CMVs without being part of such a program face potential consequences.”

 

• Consequences for non-compliance:
  Both the carrier and the driver can face penalties for operating a CMV without being enrolled in a DOT-regulated drug and alcohol testing program.

 

You said general freight, which implies a trucking company. Anyway, sounds like they’re skirting the regulations. An audit would likely be pretty ugly since they probably don’t have a driver file or anything for you. Maybe they should pay a compliance company to do things for them.

 

As for the Clearinghouse, it is not something every officer checks but they do have authority to do so.

As for the new pre-employment test, a new employer is not going to see your tedting history so it won't matter, and you would have a good reason to explain it if they ever did ask.

 

Started this year 2025 CVSA has mandatory real time checks as part of an inspection. They closed the gap this year. Before a driver could fly under the radar due to carriers only needing to query once a year.

 

Not exactly correct, but close. A motor carrier officer is only required to check to see if the driver is in prohibited status, not to see if a query has been done on the driver. They may go beyond checking for prohibited or not prohibited status, but the level I and level III inspections performed roadside only require checking the prohibited status.

If the employer has never reported drug test results to the Clearinghouse then the driver will be in not prohibited status. When an Officer will go beyond simply verifying the prohibited status is when they have reason to believe that a driver or motor carrier may not be participating in a drug testing program, either due to suspicion of the driver being under the influence or through the answers to interview questions. While this does happen, it is very rare for a roadside inspection to go to this level.

Your timeline is also off a little. Checking the status has been part of the roadside inspection process since 2020. See Inspection Bulletin 2020-02, which also has screenshots of exactly what the Officer will see depending if they use QC (Query Central) or CDLIS to verify.

https://www.cvsa.org/wp-content/uploads/Inspection-Bulletin-2020-02-Clearinghouse.pdf

 

To clarify an earlier post of mine, where I said "it is not something every officer checks", what I meant is not every officer will use QC to verify, instead they will rely on the CDLIS record to show if a driver is in prohibited status. This is not a best practice because the CDLIS record is not always up to date, even though there are mandates that it must be. Also, if they are not checking driver documents, just inspecting the truck, cargo or doing a special enforcement check then they also will not check Clearinghouse status.