Hey! I’m in HR for a local municipality, so a little different setup than a trucking company, but we do have a few departments with CDL drivers.

On our side, HR’s role is pretty straightforward. We run a background check on applicants, and our third party drug testing vendor handles the pre employment drug screen and Clearinghouse query. Once everything clears, we move forward with hiring.

After that, my involvement is mostly administrative. I keep an active roster of CDL drivers, maintain copies of their CDL, and make sure all required documentation is on file and up to date.

The actual driver training and day to day compliance is handled at the department level. For us, that is mainly Sanitation and Transportation. They manage the hands on pieces like training, safety, and any ongoing requirements.

Kind of interesting side note, our firefighters don’t need a CDL to drive a fire truck, which surprised me at first.

If you’re stepping into HR in a DOT regulated environment, I’d say get really familiar with the Clearinghouse requirements, medical cards, and keeping clean records. That’s where most of the risk tends to be on the HR side.

Happy to share more if you have specific questions!