Friday, September 27, 2019
FMCSA
Clearinghouse Ready Top 7 To Do List: - Procrastination is not an option.
By: Tommy
Eden, Partner Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP
As
with most mandated Federal Regulations, resistance is futile to the Federal
Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) Clearinghouse with FMCSA regulated employers
and CDL Driver registration opening October 2019. The
Clearinghouse is a secure online database that will give employers, the FMCSA,
State Driver Licensing Agencies, and State law enforcement personnel real-time
access to important information about CDL Driver drug and alcohol program
violations.
Take
these Top 7 steps to get your CDL Drivers, Company, City, County, State on the
compliance road:
1) Educate your staff on all the regulatory
mandates detailed in the FMCSA Clearinghouse Final Rule (183 Pages) which
became effective January 4, 2017, with a mandated Compliance Date of January 6,
2020, when the Clearinghouse database goes live. You can also learn, in a free 60-minute
Recorded Webinar from Constangy Partners Tommy Eden and Jonathan Martin, a
walk-through of all the new Regulations, the nine landmines they discovered in
their study of the regulations and wise counsel on how to avoid each.
·
view
the free Constangy Recorded Webinar FMCSA
CLEARINGHOUSE GOES LIVE 1.6.2020: POTENTIAL LANDMINES AND HOW TO AVOID THEM
and download the resources
found in the “Event Resources” tab.
2) Carefully Select who will enroll
your entity in the Clearinghouse and direct your entity’s compliance efforts.
Because the Clearinghouse contains multiple prohibitions on the misuse of
information in the database, warnings about inaccurate reporting, mandates that
all reports be truthful and accurate, criminal and civil penalties for
violations, it is advised that all your designated Clearinghouse users (Assistants)
sign an access agreement to show good faith compliance. Constangy Specimen FMCSA
CLEARINGHOUSE ACCESS CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT
3) Prepare for those persons you are
entrusting with your Clearinghouse access, a Clearinghouse Ready Compliance
notebook. It should contain the following (found in the “Event Resources” tab
for the Recorded Webinar):
4) Decide now who will be your certified
Medical Review Officer (MRO), Certified Third Party Administrator (C/TPA), Substance
Abuse Professional (SAP), so you can select them when your entity enrolls in
the Clearinghouse during October 2019. Learn from the FMCSA more about the
various Employer, Driver and Service Agents Reporting Obligations. You should also plan at time of
Clearinghouse Registration to purchase by credit card your “Query Plan Bundles”
directly from the Clearinghouse at the rate of $1.25 per Driver Query, which
can them be used by your C/TPA, or by your entity if your upload your own
Annual Query Request. Learn more from the FMCSA Query Factsheet.
5) Order your customized Clearinghouse
Ready FMCSA Policy and Clearinghouse Ready Forms Toolkit, and companion Company
Authority policy. Constangy can help with a proposal for an attorney drafted
FMCSA Clearinghouse Ready Policy and Clearinghouse Ready Forms Toolkit. For a
no obligation flat rate quote fill in the intake questionnaire to help us better understand your
compliance needs. The Constangy forms Toolkit is designed for the employer to
easily create “legal evidence” supporting a reported Clearinghouse violation as
fully discussed in the Constangy Recorded Webinar.
6) Educate your supervisors and CDL Drivers
on the Clearinghouse and encourage Drivers to sign up, otherwise they will not
have access to Clearinghouse reports on them. Disturbing this FMCSA Clearinghouse
Factsheet will help educate your Drivers FMCSA Driver’s Factsheet and Reporting Obligations.
Use this
Constangy Specimen acknowledgement of training of your CDL Drivers FMCSA
CLEARINGHOUSE CDL DRIVER ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF TRAINING MATERIALS
7) After
1.6.2020, the Clearinghouse will contain information on all CDL Driver drug and
alcohol program violations. These violations include:
·
Report for duty/remain on duty for safety-sensitive
function with alcohol concentration of 0.04 or greater or while using any drug
specified in the regulations (Part40), other than those prescribed by a
licensed medical practitioner
·
Alcohol use while performing, or within four hours of
performing, a safety-sensitive function
·
Alcohol use within eight hours of a post-accident
alcohol test
·
Test positive for use of specified drugs
·
Refusing to submit to a required alcohol or drug test
·
Actual Knowledge by an Employer of Driver Substance
Abuse
Encourage your CDL Drivers to get
help now if they have a substance abuse problem.
Tommy Eden is a partner working out of the
Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP offices in Opelika, AL office and
can be contacted at teden@constangy.com or 334-246-2901 and links at www.alabamaatwork.com On October 9, 2019, EASHRM will host an FMCSA
Clearinghouse Ready Breakfast Seminar at Southern Union to learn about this new
mandatory national database from Tommy Eden and Dr. Garth Stauffer at EAMC. Registration link: https://eashrm.shrm.org/join-now
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