A three-month waiver lifting certain restrictions for drivers with learner’s permits will help keep them on a path toward receiving their commercial driver’s license (CDL) despite barriers raised by COVID-19, according to federal regulators.
The waiver issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) on March 28 acknowledges that some states have closed their state driver licensing agencies (SDLAs) in response to social distancing guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That move has led to SDLAs being unable to process and issue a CDL to commercial learner’s permit (CLP) holders who have passed the driving skills test. The waiver expires on June 30 or until the national emergency declaration is lifted.
A waiver issued on March 24 by the FMCSA addressed for expiring CDL, CLP and medical cards but didn’t address drivers currently in the training process.
“Given the national emergency, there is a public need for immediate transportation of essential supplies, equipment, and persons, which requires an adequate and sustained supply of drivers eligible to operate a CMV [commercial motor vehicle], FMCSA stated. “This waiver provides needed relief from specified [regulations] for states and CLP holders.”
The latest waiver has two parts. First, it waives the requirement that a CLP holder be accompanied by a CDL holder, with the proper CDL class and endorsements, seated in the front seat of the vehicle while the CLP holder operates a CMV on public roads or highways, according to FMCSA.
A CLP holder may operate a CMV on public roads or highways without an accompanying CDL holder present in the front seat of the vehicle “provided that the CDL holder is elsewhere in the cab, the CLP holder is in possession of evidence from the testing jurisdiction, including an authorized third-party tester, that the CLP holder has passed the CDL driving skills test, and, unless the FMCSA waiver issued on March 24 applies,” whereby the CLP holder has a valid non-CDL driver’s license, CLP, and medical certificate, the waiver states.
Second, it waives a regulatory restriction that limits states to administering a driving skills test to a CDL applicant who has taken driver training in one state but lives in another. “Under the terms, conditions, and restrictions of this waiver, a State may elect to administer a driving skills test to any non-domiciled CDL applicant, regardless of where the applicant received driver training,” FMCSA stated.
The waiver will help the agency “to respond to this unique event, prevent a possible shortage of CMV drivers from becoming a transportation emergency, and…continue the ability of intrastate and interstate CDL and CLP holders to transport goods in response to the COVID-19 emergency,” according to FMCSA.
The Commercial Vehicle Training Association (CVTA), which has urged the FMCSA to loosen restrictions on behalf of driver training facilities, welcomed the changes.
“The FMCSA is trying to create a path forward so that these drivers who currently have CLPs can get tested despite the fact that a state may be shut down, and we applaud them big-time for doing that,” CVTA President and CEO Don Lefeve told FreightWaves.
“But the broader issue is that for a shutdown that’s going to last at least another month and maybe longer, you’re talking about 25,000 to 45,000 drivers that won’t be able to get their CLP to start with, which is going to have a major impact not only in short-term to response to this crisis but also in the longer term recovery effort. That’s what we’re trying to figure out and solve right now.”
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Mr.
Dummy can do no wrong; according to his clueless voters. They have the Jim Jones Syndrome. Pitiful!!!
Steve
Desk jockies making bad decisions again cause of the big trucking lobbies cause they got loans due fuck them
Williambwhite
This doesnt even help bc if I had a chance to do the drivers skills test that would have allowed me to go to the dmv that day and get my cdl so how you going to do the skills part if the testers wont come out? And for y’all naybsayers about some help for us who were in cdl school and are now stuck with nothing to do I earned my right to be on the road as much as any of you I went to school for a month and was 3 days from testing now no skills test and no cdl , and please stop acting like you on the front lines if you want to be known as being on the front lines go to a real war and have bullets flying by your heads and ieds and bombs blowing up around you and then have no choice but to take some lives then you can say youve been on the front lines of a war
Kim Lindsey
I have not driven since 2013 but I still carry CDL A with Tanker and a medical card. Can i drive? Regulations use to be must have 2 years continuous driving in order for a company to hire an experienced driving who stopped driving.
James Goodrich
Knowing the feeling I do Not hold a CDL and have not for many years but believe that people like me that have past experiance should not have to have 2 years verifiable experiance. Back in the day we actually had to drive a truck now they practicĺly drive themselves some of these graduates still dont have a clue. Give some of us old duffers who have been there and done that start where we left off. Truely us old timers know much more about operation and the respect needed to get the job done without harming both the equipment and the reputation of those we work for. Thank you for listening
Dawn
We are already seeing drivers getting laid off in one area our company has over a thousand drivers not working so I see no need for CDL holders to be put out on the road. We definitely do not have a driver shortage right now and it will be a while before things get back to normal so there is no need to put a rookie out here on the roads.
Poll Keays Ranch, LLC
I have 17 years of OTR and I have been off the road as a semi driver cause I was told by my state that I couldn’t drive anymore because I have Multiple Sclerosis(MS). So, now I’m a hot shot driver & my state doesn’t give me any problems. I would like to help with the crisis, but most companies over look us self employed or independent contractors or hot shot drivers. Just because we are small, we can still help. Just give us a chance. Thanks for listening.
Mark E Allor
Just great! So if the coronavirus doesn’t get you a untrained driver will.. I’ve been a CDL driver since 1992 and I strongly disagree with this.. People that are under alot of stress because of the current situation will most likely make more mistakes while driving than what they normally do. Training needs to be increased, not decreased.. The biggest problem is Shipping and receiving of certain companies that slow everything down. Try holding a factory worker back even ten extra minutes without pay, meanwhile us truck drivers can sit for 6 plus hours for nothing… Time too get a clue everyone. Good help isn’t cheap, Cheap help isn’t good.
ElizabethJerrell
I agree. Look they said between 25 and 45k additional drivers will b added. Just split the difference and call it 35 k drivers. That increases OUR TRUE CDL HOLDERS AND DRIVERS WHO EARNED THAT PRIVILEGE, by 50% to be involved in an accident with these green horns. 80k pounds fuel by at min 160 gal of fuel driven by inexperienced drivers spells gloom and doom for this industry, familes of victims and companies alike. This is an oxymoron coming from our wonderfully experienced leaders who the majority can’t even manage no dui or dwis in a 4 wheel. Most of these buttons have never seen pics of the inside of a rig much less been in them not they themselves possess a cdl. If it wasn’t for their jobs with the government would have a regular driver’s license. And now we are in suspension of HOS and expect these rookies to give a rat’s ass about them. To further the bs waiver is this last bitch. The feds and public in general have actually begun to take us the drivers serious and actually give us the credit we deserve. Since this virus we have had less tickets, wrecks and the general stress that 4 wheeler’s and companies have put is through for 4 decades. Now with this waiver we are back to square 1 or below. How many accidents and fatalities must it take by these cry baby bull shit spewing millennial turd eaters before trump has to once again and cool the jets of the libtards?
Noble1
Quote :
“before trump has to once again and cool the jets of the libtards?”
Your dear friend Trump’s negligence is the cause of the COVID-19 spread like wild fire across the USA !
WAKE UP !
The ignorance of truck driver’s these days never ceases to amaze me . What a pity !
In my humble opinion ……….
Jim Faith
your full of bull, his administration’s response to this virus has been phenomenal, unprecedented, and the best in the world. Go back to your safe space.
Noble1
ROTFLMAO !
Quote:
“World leaders who denied the coronavirus’s danger made us all less safe
Leaders who saw the coronavirus threat saved lives. Those who didn’t endangered them.
“Denial results in a delayed response,” which usually leads to an exponential growth of infections, said Thomas Bollyky, a global health expert at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank. “Countries that were slow to respond have, so far, paid the price.”
So what explains it? Experts I spoke to suggested leaders might respond with denial for several reasons: concerns about harming their political fortunes or their nation’s public image; fear of harming the economy; individual leaders’ agendas; and belief that an outbreak won’t really be as bad as it sounds.
Whatever the reason, though, it’s now clear just how dangerous denial can be when it comes to handling a pandemic.
Politicians prioritize politics”
Quote March 11 2020
“Now Trump’s Starting to Take Coronavirus Seriously, After It’s Already Spread”
Quote March 19 2020
“Trump, finally, takes the coronavirus emergency seriously”
LOL ! We certainly don’t have the same interpretation to what “phenomenal” implies .
In my humble opinion ……….
Noble1
Quote March 12 2020
“Republicans Continue to Deny Coronavirus Threat as Public Health Official Warns of Catastrophe
The worst of the new coronavirus outbreak is yet to come, Dr. Anthony Fauci told members of Congress during a hearing of the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday. “We will see more cases and things will get worse than they are right now,” said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Yet despite his stern warnings, several Republicans remained focused on the idea that Democrats have exaggerated the gravity of the public health threat posed by the virus.
“I’m incredibly disappointed in the politicization of this Covid-19 response. The 24/7 criticism the president is undergoing is unwarranted at a minimum and absolutely maligns the hard work done,” said Rep. Mark E. Green, R-Tenn. “Meanwhile the CDC, the NIH, and all the agencies in our scientific community with acronyms that boggle the mind have been working feverishly to sequence the RNA of the virus.”
Democrats made wide-ranging criticisms of President Donald Trump, who defunded parts of the federal government that were focused on dealing with global epidemics and recently dismissed the virus as a hoax at a campaign rally. His administration has also put people without medical or public health experience in charge of the coronavirus task force and, after downplaying the significance of the threat, has scrambled to order critical supplies. These failures make the accusations of politicization that much more galling, according to Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va..
“All of your words and sanctimony will not cover up the fact that this administration was not prepared for the crisis and it put lives at risk, American lives at risk. We didn’t have the tests we needed, we didn’t have the diagnostics we needed, the president made patently false assertions,” said Connolly. “We aren’t the ones that called the alarm being raised about this pandemic ‘fake news.’ That came out of the president of the United States’ mouth — and no gaslighting is going to hide that.”
End quote :
Trump is an entertainer , not a responsible leader . He screwed up big time on the coronavirus outbreak and put his people in harms way due to his negligence . Now Americans are paying dearly for their “leader’s” mismanagement , and so is Canada . However, Canada should have closed down their borders much sooner and especially once they saw how Trump was downplaying COVID-19
In my humble opinion ………
Stephen
Freight has already started to slow down. Make sure these (truck drivers) get retested when this is over. Many truck drivers are ready to drive if they have good health coverage. We need to get hotel room for layovers when available until this thing is over. The homeless at the truck stops are a dangerous for truck drivers.