In this CSA Basics podcast episode, host Sam Tucker explains the FMCSA regulatory updates effective January 6 2023 that affect safety performance history (SPH) and the Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse. The Clearinghouse now stores three years of prior‑employer drug and alcohol information, eliminating the need for carriers to request that data directly from previous employers. However, SPH requirements remain unchanged: carriers must still contact the last three years of DOT‑registered employers for each driver, verify employment dates, and obtain PSP (Pre‑Employment Screening Program) crash reports. Tucker discusses practical hiring implications, noting that most of the process stays the same but forms must be updated. He outlines two scenarios where prior‑employer drug/alcohol data is still required—drivers who previously worked for other federally‑regulated carriers (e.g., pipelines, aviation, rail) and drivers with unresolved DOT violations requiring return‑to‑duty or follow‑up testing. The episode details the return‑to‑duty process, the new employer’s responsibility to ensure required testing, and the challenges of obtaining responses from prior employers despite vendor improvements (e.g., 10Street). Tucker offers resources, including updated forms, assistance from Carrier Risk Solutions, and contact information for further help.
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All right, welcome back to the podcast. I'm your host, Sam Tucker. Today we're going to talk a little bit about safety performance history changes that are happening on January 6th, 2023. So you may have read about this, seen something about it in the popular news press, or anything, maybe even received information directly from the FMCSA if you're signed up for the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse. Now, a lot of people are saying, oh, this is a big event, big event. It's really a non-event for Almost everybody. The deal is this, here are the changes that are being made. So effective January 6th, 2023, the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse finally contains enough previous employer information to avoid people having to go back to the prior 3 years of employers and get that information like we previously had to do. And a real reason for the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse to begin with was the fact that the safety performance history, either nobody was doing them, or if they were doing them, They weren't doing them effectively because a lot of the prior carriers simply wouldn't respond back to you if you sent the request to them. So there were a number of holes in the system and a lot of people were having drug tests or having positive drug tests or positive alcohol tests, and it just wasn't being reported. So all those were falling through the system. So that's why the whole Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse was created to begin with. So now fast forward to today, 3 years worth of implementation afterwards has now been accumulated. So we have all this data sitting there. So on January 6th, you no longer have to ask, or no longer can ask, I guess depends on how you look at it, prior employers for this information. Now, does that mean that you don't have to do safety performance histories anymore? No, you absolutely have to do safety performance history still. And what that means is you still have to contact the last 3 years of DOT employers for that specific driver candidate that you're talking with, and you have to still check their DOT crash history and general employment information, you know, like dates employed and those kind of things, just to make sure they were employed. And that's still written into the FMCSA regulations. It's always been there, or it's been there for a long time, and it will continue to be there for a while. I wish they would just do away with it because generally speaking, now everybody can access the accident history or crash history from the PSP reports or pre-employment screening program reports. And yeah, it costs $10, but you should really be running a PSP report anyway. So if you're hiring drivers, PSP is a wonderful thing. And the general employment information, I mean, yes, you could call and verify that or do that, but— Then again, too, I mean, like I said, with Sage Performance History, and we still see this with our business too, 90% of the time, I guess it's probably too high, I mean, 75, 80% of the time, we're still not getting responses back from a lot of folks. Now, other vendors like 10Street and some other people out there who are doing some different things in the space have improved that a little bit, and you could probably get a little bit easier or more of a response out of some of the carriers who use 10Street, but at the same time too, it's still a lackluster response at best in most situations. So going forward, I mean, it's pretty much business as usual. You still have to do safety performance history. You just have to change your forms. If you need a new form, give us a shout. We'll help you out. We'll send you a new form that you can use with your prior employers for your new drivers. For my safety manager members, everybody who's kind of in our network, we actually take care of the safety performance history process for you. So I mean, the cool thing is, is you absolutely have nothing to worry about. So that works out a lot better. There are 2 situations you might still have to go through and do the drug and alcohol information, try to get that information from prior employers. One is a very rare circumstance, and that's if a driver used to work for another federal-regulated carrier, meaning a pipeline, or if they are a pilot in the air, or a rail conductor, or something like that. The other one, which is actually a lot more common, or I presume would be more common, is if the driver has an unresolved DOT. Uh, violation. So if they haven't completed the return to duty process, essentially that means, or, or their follow-up program, either of the two, then you have to find out the information. If you're bringing that new care or the new driver candidate on, you have to find out that information about where they are in the process. And okay, so what I mean by that is if you have a driver who has, um, who has a hit in the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse, so they may be not prohibited in that case, so they can physically drive and that's okay. But the problem is, is they're still responsible, or you as the new employer will be responsible for completing their follow-up program or their return-to-duty testing, whichever the case may be. And with that, your responsibilities lie with contacting that prior employer and getting information about that driver. So we have a client, large client in Savannah, Georgia, that we work with. They, in their driver qualification, having prior drug and alcohol issues isn't a problem for them. And so we see this a number of different times, and what happens is with this client, You know, that's one thing that we— I don't wanna say struggle with doing, but it certainly adds another layer of complexity to the hiring process— is we have to contact the last employer and see, okay, well, we have this driver, he tested positive for this drug test on such and such date. Well, now here we are 7 months ahead. Where are they in the process? How many of these tests have they gone through? And if you're not familiar with the return to duty process, essentially once the driver fails the pre-employment drug or fails a drug test, a pre-employment test, random test, whichever the case is, That they have to go through the return to duty process. That includes going and visiting with an SAP or a substance abuse provider. And that's essentially a nice way of saying it's a counselor or a therapist who can help them talk about their drug and alcohol-related issues. And then what they do is prescribe a treatment with them. And part of that treatment plan that they come up with is saying, okay, well, when the driver returns to duty, they have to do X number of tests, either alcohol or drug or both. within X number of months of returning to duty. And so, as the new employer, your responsibility would be to ensure that all those tests are done essentially to the letter of the law with that SAP's information. So, part of that is going back to the prior employer, which you still have to do now, and that's going to continue. So, again, a lot of people are saying, oh, this is a big deal, it's lots of changes. I think it's just kind of a slow newsday type situation. It doesn't irritate me as much, but it's something that you have to take a look at and say, okay, well, how is this really going to impact our business? And at the base level, it's seriously the largest change to it is you just have to update your form that you go back in and do the safety performance history with, with the prior 3 years of employers. So that's essentially the deal. So if you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us. Love to help you out with this or any other issues that you're finding with your fleet safety or DOT compliance. If you need help, give us a shout, 855-211-5550, or check out our website at www.mysafetymanager.com. Talk again soon. Be safe.
Welcome to CSA Basics. CSA Basics. The podcast where we talk about all things related to safety, compliance, and insurance for the trucking industry. We're here to help you save money, save time, and save lives. Now, here's your host, CEO of Carrier Risk Solutions, Sam Tucker. Thanks for listening to the CSA Basics Podcast. Please rate and subscribe to make sure you receive all of our future episodes. Also, be sure to check out www. www.csabasics.com for more great ways to help improve your fleet safety and DOT compliance programs. See you next time on the CSA Basics Podcast.
