FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse for owner-operators

The database itself is defined at 49 CFR 382.107: "Commercial Driver's License Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse (Clearinghouse) means the FMCSA database that subpart G of this part requires employers and service agents to report information to and to query regarding drivers who are subject to the DOT controlled substance and alcohol testing regulations." It was created by statute: 49 U.S.C. 31306a(a)(1) required the Secretary of Transportation to "establish, operate, and maintain a national clearinghouse for records relating to alcohol and controlled substances testing of commercial motor vehicle operators."

Four roles are built into the rule, and each has its own duties in subpart G:

• Employers — § 382.107: "a person or entity employing one or more employees (including an individual who is self-employed) that is subject to DOT agency regulations requiring compliance with this part." Employers query and, for their own drivers' violations, report.
• Drivers — § 382.107 again: "any person who operates a commercial motor vehicle. This includes, but is not limited to: Full time, regularly employed drivers; casual, intermittent or occasional drivers; leased drivers and independent owner-operator contractors."
• Medical review officers (MROs) — report verified positive, adulterated, or substituted drug results and certain refusal determinations under 49 CFR 382.705(a).
• Service agents, including C/TPAs — § 382.107 defines a Consortium/Third-party administrator (C/TPA) as "a service agent that provides or coordinates one or more drug and/or alcohol testing services to DOT-regulated employers ... C/TPAs are not 'employers' for purposes of this part, except as provided in § 382.705(c)."

Every one of those roles has to register with the Clearinghouse before it can touch the database: 49 CFR 382.711(a), "Each employer and service agent must register with the Clearinghouse before accessing or reporting information in the Clearinghouse." A driver registers separately, and only to see their own record: § 382.709, "A driver may review information in the Clearinghouse about himself or herself, except as otherwise restricted by law or regulation. A driver must register with the Clearinghouse before accessing his or her information."

How we verified this: we read the full XML of 49 CFR part 382 from the eCFR API for the text in effect 2026-09-01, retrieved 2026-09-23, including every section of subpart A and subpart G and every effective-date note, and 49 U.S.C. 31306a from the Legal Information Institute the same day.

A one-truck owner-operator with no other employees is not exempt. The rule puts that person on both sides of the transaction at once. 49 CFR 382.103(b): "An employer who employs himself/herself as a driver must comply with both the requirements in this part that apply to employers and the requirements in this part that apply to drivers. An employer who employs only himself/herself as a driver shall implement a random alcohol and controlled substances testing program of two or more covered employees in the random testing selection pool."

That last sentence is the whole problem in one clause: a random testing pool has to contain "two or more covered employees," and a single owner-operator is one person. The regulation solves it by routing the owner-operator into a shared pool run by a service agent. 49 CFR 382.305(j)(2) gives the general mechanism available to any employer: "you may use a service agent (e.g., a C/TPA) to perform random selections for you, and your covered drivers may be part of a larger random testing pool of covered employees. However, you must ensure that the service agent you use is testing at the appropriate percentage established for your industry and that only covered employees are in the random testing pool." For an owner-operator, joining a C/TPA's combined pool is not an option among several — it is the only way to satisfy § 382.103(b)'s "two or more" requirement without employing a second driver.

The Clearinghouse-specific rule reinforces the same point from the reporting side. 49 CFR 382.705(b)(6): "An employer who employs himself/herself as a driver must designate a C/TPA to comply with the employer requirements in paragraph (b) of this section related to his or her own alcohol and controlled substances use." Ordinarily a C/TPA is optional plumbing — § 382.705(c) says "Any employer may designate a C/TPA to perform the employer requirements in paragraph (b) of this section," and the employer "retains ultimate responsibility for compliance." For a self-employed driver, that optionality disappears: § 382.705(c) carries its own exception, "An employer does not retain responsibility where the C/TPA is designated to comply with employer requirements as described in paragraph (b)(6) of this section" — because an owner-operator obviously cannot be the one who reports, with any independence, on their own positive test.

FMCSA's own published guidance states the practical conclusion in one line. Its Clearinghouse query-plan factsheet reads: "Note: Working with a C/TPA to manage a drug and alcohol testing program is a requirement of all owner-operators." That is agency guidance, not regulatory text, but it matches exactly what §§ 382.103(b) and 382.705(b)(6) require and is the clearest single statement FMCSA has published on the point.

Registration reflects the same split identity. Registering as an employer under § 382.711(b)(3) requires "Identification of the C/TPA or other service agent used to comply with the requirements of this part, if applicable, and authorization for the C/TPA to query or report information to the Clearinghouse." The owner-operator also appears in the database as a driver, subject to being queried by anyone who hires them for a load, per § 382.107's definition of "driver."

How we verified this: §§ 382.103, 382.107, 382.305(j), 382.705, and 382.711 quoted from the eCFR API XML for 49 CFR part 382, text in effect 2026-09-01, retrieved 2026-09-23. The FMCSA factsheet quote is from "Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse: Query Plans" (FMCSA-MCE-19-010, September 2020), published at clearinghouse.fmcsa.dot.gov, retrieved 2026-09-23 — the only FMCSA-hosted document we were able to retrieve directly; the agency's other pages returned an automated-access block.

49 CFR 382.701(a)(1) sets the pre-employment duty: "Employers must not employ a driver subject to controlled substances and alcohol testing under this part to perform a safety-sensitive function without first conducting a pre-employment query of the Clearinghouse to obtain information about whether the driver has a verified positive, adulterated, or substituted controlled substances test result; has an alcohol confirmation test with a concentration of 0.04 or higher; has refused to submit to a test in violation of § 382.211; or that an employer has reported actual knowledge, as defined at § 382.107," of on-duty, pre-duty, post-accident, or controlled-substance violations under §§ 382.205, 382.207, 382.209, and 382.213.

Paragraph (a)(2) specifies what kind of query this has to be: "The employer must conduct a full query under this section, which releases information in the Clearinghouse to an employer and requires that the individual driver give specific consent." A limited query — which only says whether a record exists — does not satisfy the pre-employment requirement by itself; see section 5 below on consent.

This duty has replaced what used to be a phone call to a previous employer. 49 CFR 382.413(b): "As of January 6, 2023, employers must use the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse in accordance with § 382.701(a) to comply with the requirements of § 391.23(e) with respect to FMCSA-regulated employers," except that "employers must request the employee's follow-up testing plan directly from the previous employer" when follow-up testing isn't yet complete — the Clearinghouse flags that a plan is incomplete, but not what the plan itself requires.

49 CFR 382.701(b)(1): "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." This runs on every currently employed CDL driver, not just new hires, and an owner-operator's C/TPA relationship does not excuse the owner-operator's own employer-side duty to query themselves annually as a driver on their roster.

The annual query can be the cheaper limited kind. § 382.701(b)(2): "In lieu of a full query, as described in paragraph (a)(2) of this section, an employer may obtain the individual driver's consent to conduct a limited query to satisfy the annual query requirement in paragraph (b)(1) of this section. 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. The individual driver may give consent to conduct limited queries that is effective for more than one year." If it turns something up, the employer is not done: § 382.701(b)(3), "If the limited query shows that information exists in the Clearinghouse about the individual driver, the employer must conduct a full query, in accordance with paragraph (a)(2) of this section, within 24 hours of conducting the limited query. If the employer fails to conduct a full query within 24 hours, 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 paragraph (d) of this section."

There is also a passive layer running underneath both query duties. § 382.701(c): "If any information described in paragraph (a) of this section is entered into the Clearinghouse about a driver during the 30-day period immediately following an employer conducting a query of that driver's records, FMCSA will notify the employer." A query is a snapshot; the 30-day notice window is what catches a violation that lands the day after you checked.

An employer cannot even ask whether a record exists without permission first. 49 CFR 382.703(a): "No employer may query the Clearinghouse to determine whether a record exists for any particular driver without first obtaining that driver's written or electronic consent. The employer conducting the search must retain the consent for 3 years from the date of the last query." Getting the actual contents of a record requires a second, more specific grant: § 382.703(b) requires that "Before the employer may access information contained in the driver's Clearinghouse record, the driver must submit electronic consent through the Clearinghouse granting the employer access to the following specific records" — the seven categories listed run from positive or refused drug tests through completion of follow-up testing.

Refusing consent is not a way to avoid the process. § 382.703(c): "No employer may permit a driver to perform a safety-sensitive function if the driver refuses to grant the consent required by paragraph (a) or (b) of this section." A driver who won't consent to the query simply cannot be dispatched, hired, or kept driving.

Reporting duties are split by role under 49 CFR 382.705. MROs report drug results: § 382.705(a)(1), "Within 2 business days of making a determination or verification, MROs must report the following information about a driver to the Clearinghouse: Verified positive, adulterated, or substituted controlled substances test results; Refusal-to-test determination by the MRO in accordance with 49 CFR 40.191(a)(5), (7), and (11), (b), and (d)(2)."

Employers report the alcohol side and the "actual knowledge" violations, both "by the close of the third business day following the date on which they obtained that information" (§ 382.705(b)(1)) or "obtains actual knowledge, as defined at § 382.107" (§ 382.705(b)(4)). The first covers a 0.04+ alcohol confirmation, a negative return-to-duty test, an alcohol refusal, and completed follow-up testing; the second covers on-duty use (§ 382.205), pre-duty use (§ 382.207), post-accident use (§ 382.209), and controlled substance use (§ 382.213).

SAPs report on the return-to-duty side. § 382.705(d)(1) requires the SAP's name, address and phone number, the driver's identity, the date of the initial assessment, and "Date the SAP determined that the driver demonstrated successful compliance as defined in 49 CFR part 40, subpart O, and was eligible for return-to-duty testing under this part," each within one business day of the relevant event under § 382.705(d)(2). C/TPAs sit on top of all of this as agents, not independent reporters: § 382.705(c), "Any employer may designate a C/TPA to perform the employer requirements in paragraph (b) of this section. Regardless of whether it uses a C/TPA to perform its requirements, the employer retains ultimate responsibility for compliance with this section" — except, as covered in section 2, when the C/TPA is designated under § 382.705(b)(6) to report on a self-employed driver's own violations.

Every reporter is held to the same standard: § 382.705(e), "Every person or entity with access must report truthfully and accurately to the Clearinghouse and is expressly prohibited from reporting information he or she knows or should know is false or inaccurate."

The operative bar on driving is stated as a query outcome. 49 CFR 382.701(d): "No employer may allow a driver the employer employs or intends to hire or use to perform any safety-sensitive function if the results of a Clearinghouse query demonstrate" a verified positive, adulterated, or substituted result; a 0.04+ alcohol confirmation; a test refusal under § 382.211; or a reported "actual knowledge" violation — "except where a query of the Clearinghouse demonstrates" one of two things. The first exception, § 382.701(d)(1): the driver "has successfully completed the SAP evaluation, referral, and education/treatment process set forth in part 40, subpart O ...; achieves a negative return-to-duty test result; and completes the follow-up testing plan prescribed by the SAP." The second, § 382.701(d)(2), covers a driver still mid-way through follow-up testing where "the employer assumes the responsibility for managing the follow-up testing process associated with the testing violation."

Subpart E states the same rule from the driver's side. § 382.503(a): "No driver who has engaged in conduct prohibited by subpart B of this part shall perform safety-sensitive functions, including driving a commercial motor vehicle, unless the driver has met the requirements of part 40, subpart O, of this title." Part 40 subpart O — the SAP evaluation, treatment referral, and return-to-duty/follow-up testing procedure — is outside what this page covers; §§ 40.305, 40.307, 40.309 and 40.311, which govern the negative return-to-duty result and the follow-up testing plan, are the sections part 382 itself cross-references.

A violation does not sit in the Clearinghouse forever once resolved. § 382.719(a): it stops being available to a querying employer once the SAP reports return-to-duty eligibility, the employer reports a negative return-to-duty test, the current employer reports completed follow-up testing, and "(4) Five years have passed since the date of the violation determination." Until then, § 382.719(b) is explicit that the record "will remain available to employers conducting a query."

A "prohibited" status is a bar on working, not a paperwork problem — section 7 above covers what triggers it and what removes it. Non-compliance with subpart G itself also carries its own penalty. 49 CFR 382.727: "An employer, employee, MRO, or service agent who violates any provision of this subpart shall be subject to the civil and/or criminal penalty provisions of 49 U.S.C. 521(b)(2)(C)," which caps a CDL-related civil penalty "not to exceed $2,500 for each offense." Broader subpart B and E violations (a positive test, on-duty use, refusing a required test) fall under § 382.507: "Any employer or driver who violates the requirements of this part shall be subject to the civil and/or criminal penalty provisions of 49 U.S.C. 521(b)," which sets a general cap of "$10,000 for each offense," reduced to "$2,500" for an individual employee under 49 U.S.C. 521(b)(2)(A).

Misusing what the Clearinghouse returns is its own violation, separate from the underlying drug or alcohol conduct. 49 CFR 382.723(b): "An employer's use of information received from the Clearinghouse is limited to determining whether a prohibition applies to a driver performing a safety-sensitive function ... No employer may divulge or permit any other person or entity to divulge any information from the Clearinghouse to any person or entity not directly involved in determining whether a prohibition applies," with § 382.723(c) subjecting violations "to civil and criminal penalties in accordance with applicable law, including those set forth at § 382.507." These statutory caps are the ceilings Congress set; the dollar figures actually assessed are adjusted for inflation under a separate part of the CFR and are not reproduced here (see "What this page does not cover" below).

Registration itself is not priced anywhere in part 382. What costs money is querying. 49 CFR 382.721: "FMCSA may collect a reasonable fee from entities required to query the Clearinghouse. Exception: No driver may be required to pay a fee to access his or her own information in the Clearinghouse." The statute is nearly identical: 49 U.S.C. 31306a(e) authorizes "a reasonable, customary, and nominal fee from an authorized user," but bars a fee on "an individual requesting information ... that pertains to the record of that individual." Neither text states a dollar amount; FMCSA's published Query Plans factsheet states the rate as "$1.25 Flat per query rate (limited or full)," sold in prepaid, non-expiring bundles. That factsheet is dated September 2020; treat $1.25 as the last officially published figure, not a confirmed live price.

Access does not last indefinitely. § 382.713(a): "Clearinghouse registration is valid for 5 years, unless cancelled or revoked." Under § 382.713(b), FMCSA cancels registrations "for anyone who has not queried or reported to the Clearinghouse for 2 years," and § 382.713(c) lets FMCSA revoke access for cause, including "submission of inaccurate or false information" or "failure to maintain the requisite qualifications, certifications and/or training requirements as set forth in part 40."

Recordkeeping runs alongside registration rather than duplicating it. § 382.701(e): "Employers must retain for 3 years a record of each query and all information received in response to each query made under this section. As of January 6, 2023, an employer who maintains a valid registration fulfills this requirement" — because the Clearinghouse itself now holds the query history that employers used to have to file separately.

• This is not legal advice, and CarrierStat is not affiliated with FMCSA or any government agency. Whether a specific test result or actual-knowledge report was correctly made is a fact-specific question this page does not resolve.
• Part 40, subpart O in full. The SAP evaluation, treatment referral, and return-to-duty/follow-up testing procedures are a separate, detailed regulatory scheme. We cite the sections part 382 cross-references (§§ 40.305, 40.307, 40.309, 40.311) but do not reproduce subpart O.
• Exact current civil penalty dollar amounts. The statutory caps in 49 U.S.C. 521(b) and 521(b)(2)(C) are quoted; actual penalties are adjusted for inflation under 49 CFR part 386, appendix B, which we did not pull for this page.
• The $1.25 per-query figure is FMCSA guidance, not CFR or U.S. Code text, and is dated to a September 2020 factsheet.
• State-level rules and employer policies based on independent (non-DOT) authority, which § 382.601(c) allows employers to layer on top of this part. We print none of it.
• Non-CDL, non-FMCSA-regulated testing programs are outside this page's scope.

49 CFR part 382 — §§ 382.103(b), 382.107, 382.205–382.213, 382.305(j), 382.413(b), 382.501, 382.503(a), 382.507, and all of subpart G (§§ 382.701–382.727). eCFR API, text in effect 2026-09-01, retrieved 2026-09-23; human-readable at ecfr.gov.

49 U.S.C. 31306a (national clearinghouse) and 49 U.S.C. 521(b) (civil penalties) — retrieved 2026-09-23 from the Legal Information Institute at law.cornell.edu and law.cornell.edu.

FMCSA Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse — Query Plans (FMCSA-MCE-19-010, September 2020), clearinghouse.fmcsa.dot.gov — per-query fee and the owner-operator C/TPA statement. Retrieved 2026-09-23; the only FMCSA-hosted document we could retrieve directly, since fmcsa.dot.gov and ecfr.gov human-readable pages returned automated-access blocks.

49 CFR part 40, subpart O (cited but not reproduced) — referenced by 49 CFR 382.309, 382.311, 382.503(a), and 382.705(d), specifically §§ 40.305, 40.307, 40.309 and 40.311.

New entrant safety audit — the broader compliance review a new authority undergoes, including drug and alcohol program elements.

USDOT number vs MC number — which registrations an owner-operator needs before any of this applies.

Carrier authority & insurance lookup — look up any USDOT or MC number.

All guides.