A group in the motion picture industry has asked the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for a renewal of an exemption from a portion of the agency’s Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse requirements.
DISA Entertainment Compliance Solutions, formerly known as Motion Picture Compliance Solutions, asked FMCSA for the exemption renewal in a notice that is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, March 25.
Specifically, the group wants an exemption from the requirement that an employer must not employ a driver who is subject to drug and alcohol testing until a full query of the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse has been conducted. Instead, DISA Entertainment Compliance Solutions would conduct a limited query of the Clearinghouse before one of its member employers hires a driver for a project.
If the limited query discovered the driver was in the Clearinghouse, the driver would not be allowed to perform safety-sensitive functions until a full query determines that the driver is not prohibited from operating a commercial motor vehicle.
Previous exemption
In 2020, FMCSA granted the group – then known as Motion Picture Compliance Solutions – a five-year exemption that runs through May 28.
As part of the original exemption request, the group said that the motion picture industry employs a pool of 12,000 drivers who work for multiple employers. The group said the requirement to conduct full queries would increase the number of production days and add millions of dollars of increased production costs to operate in the United States.
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association opposed the 2020 exemption request, saying that a driver working for multiple employers was a big part of the reason the Clearinghouse was created.
“This type of scenario was one of the reasons the Clearinghouse was enacted,” OOIDA wrote. “So drivers with drug/alcohol violations cannot simply move around to different carriers. Waiving the pre-employment full query requirements may prevent carriers from accessing necessary hiring information and allow drivers with drug/alcohol violations to return to the road before proper evaluation and treatment is completed.”
The 2020 exemption request received 12 comments with eight opposed. However, FMCSA still granted the exemption.
How to comment
Once the notice of exemption request is published in the Federal Register, the FMCSA will accept comments for 30 days.
To do so, go to Regulations.gov and enter Docket No. FMCSA-2020-0101. LL
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