Get Ahold Of This BS From FMCSA Clearinghouse

This is in the email asking me to consent to release records to a company I applied for a while back.

Employer are required to obtain your electronic consent before FMCSA can release to them the information in your Clearinghouse driver record. Your consent also authorizes FMCSA to notify this employer if any additional information is reported to the Clearinghouse about you within 30 days of this query, however the employer must first obtain your specific consent before the information is disclosed. Refusal to provide your consent to this request will result in you being prohibited from operating a commercial motor vehicle or performing other safety-sensitive functions in accordance with 49 C.F.R. 382.703(c).

Naturally, I looked up the actual article they refer too:

(c) No employer may permit a driver to perform a safety-sensitive function if the driver refuses to grant the consent required by paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section.

(a) and (b) talk about authorizing a query and gaining electronic consent from the driver.

IDK WTF is up with them, but the email sure reads like If I do not consent, I may never drive a CMV again, where the actual rule only says that an employer cannot let a driver work without getting the records... THAT makes sense.

I am going to file a complaint with FMCSA and contact the TruckersJusticeCenter depending on the response... I did authorize the release of records because it costs me nothing, but wtf is the point of having all this consent and privacy stuff if a driver can't decline. Evidently the clearinghouse is interpreting the article a little to broadly.

P.S: Notice the spelling error in the first word from the clearinghouse?

That is the drug clearinghouse. All companies must comply and have your consent for soft inquiries.

You won't be able to fight it.

Oddball Check fire on replying to that email it's possible that you could be falling for a phishing scam! Most Government agencies will not contact you via email. You would get an official letter via USPS requesting information from you. Easy way to confirm if it's legit the email address would have a us.gov at the end. Hopefully you didn't give them any of your personal information. Hell I got a call tonight telling me that I'm currently a Federal Fugitive! I didn't recall being in Washington DC at any time last week? Humm???

Oddball Check fire on replying to that email it's possible that you could be falling for a phishing scam! Most Government agencies will not contact you via email. You would get an official letter via USPS requesting information from you. Easy way to confirm if it's legit the email address would have a us.gov at the end. Hopefully you didn't give them any of your personal information. Hell I got a call tonight telling me that I'm currently a Federal Fugitive! I didn't recall being in Washington DC at any time last week? Humm???

Oops! I re-read your post where you stated that a company that you previously applied to wanted your consent to get your information from the FMCSA Clearinghouse. I'm confused have you re-applied to this company? or you previously did? If you are currently not seeking employment from this company or offered employment why would they need to access your information from the clearinghouse? Sounds kinda hinkey!

I applied to UPS in May and they didn't run a clearinghouse check until August. It's not uncommon. I did a physical, a road test and filled out all my W-4, I9 paperwork before they did.

I applied to them about 2 weeks ago along with about 5 other companies, have since accepted another offer. I do appreciate the warning about phishing- the links were all .gov

Oddball Check fire on replying to that email it's possible that you could be falling for a phishing scam! Most Government agencies will not contact you via email. You would get an official letter via USPS requesting information from you. Easy way to confirm if it's legit the email address would have a us.gov at the end. Hopefully you didn't give them any of your personal information. Hell I got a call tonight telling me that I'm currently a Federal Fugitive! I didn't recall being in Washington DC at any time last week? Humm???

Oops! I re-read your post where you stated that a company that you previously applied to wanted your consent to get your information from the FMCSA Clearinghouse. I'm confused have you re-applied to this company? or you previously did? If you are currently not seeking employment from this company or offered employment why would they need to access your information from the clearinghouse? Sounds kinda hinkey!

That is the drug clearinghouse. All companies must comply and have your consent for soft inquiries.

You won't be able to fight it.

My beef is that the clearinghouse misused the law to threaten me with revoking my CMV driving privileges unless I comply... That is not what the law says. The law says that an Employer may not permit a driver to perform xyz without checking the data.

If you had not set up an account on the FMCSA site, you are required to do this the first time for a query by an employer. From what I have heard and read, if this wasn't performed prior to 5 January 2021, the driver is in violation.

Did you do this?

Refusal to provide your consent to this request will result in you being prohibited from operating a commercial motor vehicle or performing other safety-sensitive functions in accordance with 49 C.F.R. 382.703(c).

I don't see where they are saying anything is being revoked. You will be prohibited from operating a CMV because no employer will be able to let you.

That is the drug clearinghouse. All companies must comply and have your consent for soft inquiries.

You won't be able to fight it.

My beef is that the clearinghouse misused the law to threaten me with revoking my CMV driving privileges unless I comply... That is not what the law says. The law says that an Employer may not permit a driver to perform xyz without checking the data.

That is the drug clearinghouse. All companies must comply and have your consent for soft inquiries.

You won't be able to fight it.

My beef is that the clearinghouse misused the law to threaten me with revoking my CMV driving privileges unless I comply... That is not what the law says. The law says that an Employer may not permit a driver to perform xyz without checking the data.

My understanding is that drivers don’t need to register until they need to give consent for records to be released to an employer. My guess is that the wording of the messages that Oddball got were just a little vague and he could refuse consent for an employer where he no longer wanted to work without becoming ineligible to drive. But I guess I would just consent like you did unless I had a really good reason, and I can’t think what that would be.