CINCINNATI, Ohio — FirstGroup America (FGA), North America’s largest transportation company, hailed a proposal from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to create a drug and alcohol clearinghouse for all commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders in the United States.
“Establishing a national clearinghouse would be an enormous step forward for improving roadway safety,” said Gary Catapano, Senior Vice President of Safety. “We fully support initiatives that encourage the employment of safe drivers who follow drug and alcohol requirements.”
Federal regulations require employers to conduct mandatory pre-employment screening of a CDL driver’s qualifications based upon his or her driving record. But there has not been a single federal repository recording positive drug and alcohol tests for employers to search.
The FMCSA’s proposal would create such a repository, a one-stop verification point. The plan also would require employers to conduct pre-employment searches for all new CDL drivers and annual searches on current drivers.
The clearinghouse proposal protects driver privacy because each CDL holder would need to provide consent before an employer could access the national database. Drivers who refuse could still be employed by a bus company, but could not drive a bus.
The proposal stems from a 1999 bus crash in New Orleans in which 22 passengers were killed. The investigation revealed marijuana in the driver’s system. The driver also failed a pre-employment drug testing when applying for previous positions, a fact not revealed or known to the current employer. The driver also failed to disclose on his employment application a previous employer who fired him after a positive drug test.
About FirstGroup America
FirstGroup America, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, is North America’s largest transportation company. With more than 87,500 employees, the company operates First Student, the largest provider of student transportation in the U.S. and Canada; First Transit, a leading provider of transit management and contracting services; First Vehicle Services, a leading provider of contract fleet maintenance and management services, and Greyhound bus lines, the largest provider of intercity bus transportation.
