Start with the Clearinghouse. It is free, takes a quarter of an hour, and is the one step that cannot be done for you: the carrier's required query waits until you approve it inside your own Clearinghouse account.
The steps, in order
Eight things that happen between the test and the road
Register in the FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse
Before any carrier can run the required pre-employment query; do it as soon as you hold a CLP.
Every carrier must run a full Clearinghouse query on you before you perform any safety-sensitive work, and you have to approve that query electronically inside the Clearinghouse. If you are not registered, the consent request has nowhere to go and your start date waits. Since November 2024 a driver in prohibited status also loses the CDL itself until the return-to-duty process is complete.
What to do
- Create a login.gov account (the Clearinghouse uses it to sign in).
- Register at the Clearinghouse as a driver and add your CDL or CLP number and state.
- Look at your own record once; it should show no violations.
- When a carrier sends a consent request, answer it in the Clearinghouse within the time it gives you.
Cost and time: Free. About 15 minutes.
Bring: Your login.gov sign-in method (phone or authenticator), so you can approve a query on the spot.
Keep the DOT medical certificate current and on file with the state
Before the carrier's driver qualification file can be completed, and again before it expires.
A carrier cannot dispatch you without a valid Medical Examiner's Certificate, and the state must show your medical status as certified or the CDL downgrades. Since June 2025 examiners send interstate certificates to the state electronically through the National Registry; California switched over on July 27, 2026. Many drivers get a card shorter than two years because of blood pressure, sleep apnea or diabetes findings, so know your expiry date.
What to do
- Use only an examiner listed on the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners.
- Bring your glasses or contacts, hearing aids, a list of medicines with doses, and any specialist letters or CPAP compliance report you have.
- Ask the examiner for the certificate's expiry date and put it in your calendar a month early.
- Check that the state shows you as medically certified after the exam (California: the DMV's record of your self-certification category).
Cost and time: Typically $75 to $150 at a clinic; the exam takes about an hour. Standard cards last up to 24 months; shorter cards are common.
Bring: The certificate itself (a copy on your phone is fine for orientation; the carrier keeps a copy in your file).
Read your own driving record before the carrier does
Before you apply; carriers pull it at hire and every year.
The carrier must obtain your motor vehicle record from every state where you held a license in the last three years, and will see every conviction and the status of your medical certification. Errors on the record are easier to fix before a recruiter sees them, and knowing what is there lets you answer questions straight.
What to do
- Order your record from each state you were licensed in during the last three years.
- Check the name, license class, endorsements, restrictions and medical status are right.
- Note any conviction and the date; recruiters will ask, and the application asks you to list them.
Cost and time: California: $2 online. Other states vary. Same day online.
Request your Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP) report
Before you apply, if you have ever been inspected or in a crash as a commercial driver.
Carriers that use PSP see five years of your crash history and three years of roadside inspections, including the ones from your training time. A new driver usually has a clean report; seeing it yourself confirms that and shows you what the recruiter will read.
What to do
- Request your own PSP record from the FMCSA PSP site.
- If something is wrong, use FMCSA's DataQs process to ask for a correction.
Cost and time: About $10 for your own report. Immediate.
Keep your ELDT completion proof and check the Training Provider Registry
Before the skills test (the state checks the Registry) and for your own records afterwards.
Your training provider must report your theory and behind-the-wheel completion to FMCSA's Training Provider Registry by the end of the second business day. The state will not give the skills test or the hazmat knowledge test until the Registry shows it. Carriers may ask for your certificate too, and providers are removed from the Registry when they fail audits, so your own copy matters.
What to do
- Ask your provider for a copy of the completion certificate for each part (theory, range, road).
- Confirm with the state, or with the provider, that the Registry shows your completion before you book the skills test.
- Keep the certificate with your CDL documents for at least three years.
Cost and time: Free. A few minutes with the provider.
Match your class, endorsements and restrictions to the job
Before you accept an offer.
The commonest surprise at orientation is a restriction that does not fit the equipment: an automatic-only restriction with a manual fleet, no air brakes, or a missing tanker or hazmat endorsement. The hazmat endorsement needs a TSA security threat assessment with fingerprints, which takes weeks and must be started before the state can add the H.
What to do
- Read every restriction code on your CDL and what it means in your state's handbook.
- Ask the recruiter exactly what equipment you will drive and which endorsements the job needs.
- If the job needs hazmat, start the TSA threat assessment first; it is the slowest step.
Cost and time: Removing a restriction means a retest in the right vehicle. The TSA hazmat assessment is about $85 and targets 30 days; the state knowledge test is separate.
Know what the carrier must do before your first dispatch
Between the offer and the first load; usually during orientation.
Federal rules make the carrier build a driver qualification file on you: an application with ten years of driving work history and three years of residence, your record from each state, a safety performance history request to every DOT-regulated employer of the last three years, a road test or an accepted certificate, a pre-employment drug test with a negative result, and the Clearinghouse full query. A missing answer from a past employer, or a slow drug test result, holds the start date, not the carrier's goodwill.
What to do
- Prepare a ten-year work history with dates and the addresses and phone numbers of past employers.
- Expect a pre-employment drug test; do not perform any safety-sensitive work until the negative result is in.
- Expect a road test or a request for your skills test certificate, and a check of your ELDT record.
- Ask the recruiter which items are still open before orientation ends.
Cost and time: Paid by the carrier. Orientation is commonly one to three days.
Bring: Your CDL, Social Security card, medical certificate, the work history, and bank details for pay.
Put the recurring dates in your calendar
The day you start.
Three things come back every year or two and each can stop you driving: the medical certificate's expiry, the carrier's annual limited Clearinghouse query (you sign a general consent for it once), and the annual review of your driving record. A driver who tracks these is never the one parked at the yard waiting for paperwork.
What to do
- Medical certificate expiry, with a reminder a month early.
- Clearinghouse: keep your login working; the carrier's annual query needs only the general consent you signed at hire.
- Any restriction or endorsement renewal (hazmat renews with the TSA assessment every five years).
Cost and time: Free. Five minutes.
Your checklist
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- See step 1: Register in the FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse
- See step 2: Keep the DOT medical certificate current and on file with the state
- See step 3: Read your own driving record before the carrier does
- See step 4: Request your Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP) report
- See step 5: Keep your ELDT completion proof and check the Training Provider Registry
- See step 6: Match your class, endorsements and restrictions to the job
- See step 7: Know what the carrier must do before your first dispatch
- See step 8: Put the recurring dates in your calendar
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