The Clearinghouse Annual Query: One Per Driver, Every Year

Once a year, for every driver you employ who is subject to part 382 testing, you owe the Clearinghouse a query. 49 CFR 382.701(b)(1) states it without qualification: employers “must conduct a query of the Clearinghouse at least once per year for information for all employees subject to controlled substance and alcohol testing under this part to determine whether information exists in the Clearinghouse about those employees.”

Which drivers need an annual query, and when in the year?

Every employee subject to part 382 testing, with no carve-out in the text for drivers you queried at hire. 382.103(a) sets the reach: anyone operating a CMV in commerce who is subject to the CDL requirements of part 383, the Mexican Licencia Federal de Conductor requirements or the CDL requirements of the Canadian National Safety Code. That includes you if you drive — 382.103(b) requires an employer who employs himself or herself as a driver to meet both the employer and the driver requirements of the part.

The section says “at least once per year” and prescribes no anniversary date, nor whether a pre-employment full query starts that year running. The reading that satisfies it either way: query each driver within twelve months of the last query you ran on him.

What does a limited query actually return?

One bit of information: whether a record exists. 382.701(b)(2) is explicit that the limited query “will tell the employer whether there is information about the individual driver in the Clearinghouse, but will not release that information to the employer.” Not what the violation was, not when, and not how far along the return-to-duty process is.

What a full query releases is itemized at 382.703(b): a verified positive, adulterated or substituted test result; an alcohol confirmation test at 0.04 or higher; a refusal under 382.211; an employer’s report of actual knowledge under 382.205, 382.207, 382.209 or 382.213; a SAP report of successful completion of the return-to-duty process; a negative return-to-duty test; and an employer’s report of completion of follow-up testing. Either query buys one extra thing: under 382.701(c), FMCSA notifies you if qualifying information is entered about that driver in the 30 days after it.

What do you do in the 24 hours after a limited query shows a record?

You run a full query, and if you do not, the driver comes off safety-sensitive work. 382.701(b)(3) sets both halves: the full query must happen “within 24 hours of conducting the limited query,” and on failure “the employer must not allow the driver to continue to perform any safety-sensitive function until the employer conducts the full query and the results confirm that the driver’s Clearinghouse record contains no prohibitions” as defined in 382.701(d).

Convert the limited hit into a full query

What you do: request the full query and have the driver submit electronic consent through the Clearinghouse. Read the result against 382.701(d), which bars safety-sensitive work on a disqualifying record unless the query shows the driver completed the part 40 subpart O process, achieved a negative return-to-duty test and completed the SAP’s follow-up testing plan — or, under 382.701(d)(2), completed the first two while you assume responsibility for the remaining follow-up testing. A belief that the underlying record is wrong does not pause any of this; removal is a separate process.

Status: required.

The gotcha: you cannot complete the full query on your own. The consent you already hold under 382.703(a) covered the act of querying; under 382.703(b) it takes a second, electronic consent submitted through the Clearinghouse before the record itself is released. 382.703(c) says no employer may permit a driver to perform a safety-sensitive function if the driver refuses the consent required by 382.703(a) or (b). A driver who stalls does not run out your 24 hours in his favor; he takes himself off the truck. Note the resumption condition too: he returns not when you finally run the query, but when the result comes back clean.

Where is the record of the annual query retained?

Not in the driver qualification file. The DQ file has eight items under 391.51(b)(1)–(8) — application, MVRs, road test documentation, the annual review note, medical certification, any FMCSA medical variance and the National Registry verification note. No Clearinghouse query is among them.

The middle row gets missed. The registration shortcut covers “a record of each query and all information received.” The 382.703(a) consent is a document you collected outside the system, and that section still requires you to hold it three years from the date of the last query you ran on it. Failures here are part 382 violations, penalized under 382.507 and 49 U.S.C. 521(b); check the current civil penalty schedule rather than a figure quoted secondhand.

What the annual query cannot tell you

It answers exactly one question: does part 382 currently prohibit this driver from safety-sensitive work. A clean result is not a clean history either — under 382.719(a) a violation drops out of view only after the SAP report, a negative return-to-duty test, completion of all follow-up tests, and five years since the violation determination.

The other required annual record is just as narrow: the annual review of driving record under 391.25 returns the motor vehicle record each licensing authority holds. Between the two you learn about tested substances and what the States recorded against the license, and nothing about whether the driver abandoned a load, refused dispatch, damaged equipment or left mid-contract. No federal record has a field for it.

That gap is what cdlscan covers: reviews written by carriers that actually employed the driver. It sits on top of the required checks and never in place of any of them — the annual query, the pre-employment full query, the MVR review under 391.25 and the driver qualification file all remain yours to satisfy. Before relying on third-party information about a driver in an employment decision, confirm with your own counsel which obligations attach under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Our overviews of the Clearinghouse and the hiring sequence cover how the checks fit together.

Frequently asked questions