CDL test waiver shouldn’t be made permanent, FMCSA report says

In a report to Congress, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration cited safety concerns and a lack of oversight as reasons for not making a CDL test examiner waiver permanent.

As part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, FMCSA issued a waiver in April 2020 that allowed third-party skills test examiners to administer the CDL knowledge tests without completing the state-employed examiner training requirements. The waiver was reissued multiple times throughout the pandemic.

The Ocean Shipping Reform Act, which was signed into law in June 2022, directed the FMCSA to review if the CDL test examiner waiver should be made permanent.

FMCSA recently delivered a report to Congress explaining its reasoning for not making the waiver permanent. Instead, the agency said it is developing a notice of proposed rulemaking that would create minimum regulatory standards for states opting to allow third-party knowledge testing.

“The agency’s primary safety concern with making the (waiver) permanent without additional safeguards is the lack of regulatory requirements for states to audit and monitor the operations of third-party knowledge examiners to ensure that third parties administer the knowledge tests equitably and without fraud,” FMCSA wrote in the report.

Additionally, the agency said the waiver was approved based on the “temporary nature and “limited scope of the regulator relief granted in response to the unique circumstances” the pandemic presented.

“Making the (CDL test examiner waiver) provisions permanent is another matter entirely and calls for consideration of a comprehensive regulatory framework applicable to the states’ discretionary use of third-party knowledge examiners, subject to public notice and comment,” FMCSA wrote.

The agency said its notice of proposed rulemaking will address the safety concerns and will include states’ examiner training and record check requirements, as well as the states’ required oversight and monitoring of third-party testers and examiners.

Despite FMCSA’s intentions, a bill has been introduced in the House (HR3103) and Senate (S1649) that would make the waiver permanent. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee recently advanced the LICENSE Act via a voice vote and next will be voted on by the full House. LL