The U.S. Postal Service on Monday said it will require trucking contractors to weed out non-domiciled holders of commercial driver’s licenses who aren’t eligible to drive in the United States, taking its cue from a recent Department of Transportation crackdown on immigrant drivers that allegedly pose a safety risk.
The mail agency said it will begin working with trucking companies that haul mail between distribution centers to phase out any use of non-domiciled CDL operators who have not been thoroughly vetted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
The move aligns with a late September emergency interim final rule issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that significantly restricts eligibility for non-domiciled commercial driver’s license holders. The agency cited fatal crashes and widespread state compliance failures as the rationale for the quick rule change. The rule requires that states immediately stop issuing new non-domiciled CDLs, but provides a two-year period before all such licenses are invalidated.
The new regulation targets asylum seekers, refugees and recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
The original intent of the DOT’s non-domiciled rule nearly a decade ago was to allow drivers residing in one state to obtain a license in another one. Under the Biden administration, the program evolved to allow non-U.S. residents to obtain a CDL if they were authorized to work in the United States. The DOT says many immigrant drivers have CDLs that were improperly issued without requiring work permits or they continue to drive with work permits that have expired. About 200,000 foreign drivers hold licenses that allow them to drive commercial vehicles, but a DOT audit found that a large number of them were improperly granted.
The FMCSA’s rule is on hold after a federal appeals court in November said the agency hadn’t shown the rule would produce a net safety benefit or that there is a connection between the nation of domicile and U.S. safety outcomes. The FMCSA says it plans to reissue the rule after making some changes.
“The safety of our employees, our customers and the American public is of the utmost concern to the Postal Service,” said Amber McReynolds, chairwoman of the Postal Service Board of Governors in a news release. “In order to maintain the highest possible safety standards, we have decided to phase out any use of non-domiciled commercial driver’s license operators” that lack the proper credentials.
The Postal Service declined to provide details about how it will implement the driver ban and whether operations could be impacted.
Critics say the administration has not produced evidence that non-domiciled immigrant drivers are more dangerous.
The Postal Service generates about 55,000 truckload moves per day, with operators covering nearly 2 billion miles per year.
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