The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is withdrawing two notices of proposed rulemaking regarding commercial driver’s licenses due to concerns from industry stakeholders.
One rule would have allowed states to use a third-party skills test examiner to administer the commercial driver’s license skills test to applicants to whom they had also provided skills training. However, some states worried about potential fraud with no mechanisms in place to verify a person taking the knowledge test in one jurisdiction is in fact the same person taking the skills test in another and the potential for conflict of interest or examiner bias.
In its response to the withdrawal, American Trucking Associations commented, “ATA believes that eliminating the prohibition preventing third-party skills test examiners from administering the CDL skills test to applicants when the examiners also provided skills training will have no adverse effect on safety.”
The FMCSA is also withdrawing a proposed rule that would have allowed driver applicants to take CDL general and specialized knowledge tests in a state (the testing state) other than the applicant’s home. The applicant’s home state would have been required to accept knowledge test results from the testing state. Some states argued security concerns with ensuring the CLP being delivered to the correct recipient.
All of the states that commented on the proposed rules (Virginia, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota and Missouri) also raised concern that lifting the prohibition could negatively impact safety by undermining the integrity of skills testing.
