1. Designate your C/TPA. Currently, your C/TPA is Drug Free Business. If you do not designate Drug Free Business, we will not be able to access the Clearinghouse on your behalf.

2. Select and purchase a query plan. Until January 2023, you must conduct both manual background queries with former employers and electronic queries in the Clearinghouse. FMCSA charges a flat fee of $1,25 per query. Employers must be registered to purchase a query plan to ensure they or their designated C/TPAs can conduct queries. C/TPAs cannot purchase queries on behalf of employers. Our members and clients must have a query plan on their FMCSA account to enable us to run queries on their behalf.

3. Have a consent form on file from each driver. We recommend that your consent form allow for “multiple limited queries for the duration of employment”. Download our sample consent form.  If you are an Owner/Operator in DFB’s consortium pool, fill out this Owner-Operator Consent Form.

4. Download and save the Bulk Import template file Note that the template file has 3 fictitious drivers as examples. List your commercial drivers in the spreadsheet. For help with the format, see the Bulk Import ReadMe file. We recommend that in the “QueryType” field you place the number “4” which means “Limited Query with Automatic Consent Request” to save time and avoid confusion. Save your spreadsheet file and send it as an attachment to randomselections@drugfreebusiness.org.

You, the employer, will still be required to conduct manual inquiries with previous employers to meet the three-year time frame for pre-employment driver investigations as required per §391.23(e).and §391.23.