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New data on drivers to be available to employers

There will soon be more information available to motor carriers when pre-screening drivers.

Public Law 109-59, Section 4117, Safety Performance History Screening (SAFETEA-LU) requires the Department of Transportation and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to provide companies and employers conducting pre-employment screening services access to crash and inspection data in FMCSA’s Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS). SAFETEA-LU requires that consent to release data be obtained from drivers before their crash and inspection data history is shared with potential employers in the commercial motor carrier industry.  The program will be administered by a contractor chosen by FMCSA. Here is a summary of what information will be available, conditions for access and timeframe.

Information that will be available

Electronic access to the following reports contained in the Motor Carrier Management Information System will be made available:

Commercial motor vehicle accident reports. Inspection reports that contain no driver-related safety violations. Serious driver-related safety violation inspection reports. (The definition of this information is as follows: the term "serious driver-related violation" means a violation by an operator of a commercial motor vehicle that the secretary determines will result in the operator being prohibited from continuing to operate a commercial motor vehicle until the violation is corrected.)
Conditions for providing access

Before providing a person access to the Motor Carrier Management Information System the secretary of transportation shall:

Ensure that any information that is released to such person will be in accordance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.) and all other applicable federal law; the contractor shall further be subjected to the civil liabilities for willful or negligent noncompliance of the FCRA and shall be required to indemnify the government from same Ensure that such person will not conduct a screening without the operator-applicant's written consent Ensure that any information that is released to such person will not be released to any person or entity, other than the motor carrier requesting the screening services or the operator- applicant, unless expressly authorized or required by law, and Provide a procedure for the operator-applicant to correct inaccurate information in the system in a timely manner.
A couple of points should be noted.

The use of the information will not be mandatory (companies aren’t required to use the information) and the information may only be used during the pre-employment assessment of an operator-applicant.

Timeframe

The contractor(s) shall have the system completed and ready for business by April 30, 2009. The statutory deadline for having the program in place is August 9, 2009.

Summary

This new information is “designed to assist the motor carrier industry in assessing an individual operator's crash and serious safety violation inspection history as a pre-employment condition.” Unknown is how much the information will cost motor carriers (which will affect how much the information is used) and who the contractor will be.

For those of you registered with DOTJobHistory, we will be updating you as this progresses.

Derek Hinton has more than 20 years experience in the areas of employment screening, the Fair Credit Reporting Act and Motor Carrier Safety regulations. He began his career at DAC Services in 1984 and is the author of “The Criminal Records Manual,” a book that details criminal records in the hiring process. Contact information for Hinton can be found at www.dotjobhistory.com 

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