The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced Jan. 10 that commercial drivers must continue to carry paper copies of their medical certifications for another year — until Jan. 30, 2015— but clarified that drivers must still certify by January 30 of this year, according to the agency’s deputy director, Duane DeBruyne.
Yesterday STN erroneously reported that drivers did not need to certify until the end of January 2015. In fact, commercial drivers are required to certify their status (e.g., interstate or intrastate, exempt or non-exempt) with the State Driver License Agency by Jan. 30 and to provide the SDLA a copy of any new medical certificate received after Jan. 30, 2012.
The amended rule applies to holders of a commercial driver’s license (CDL) or commercial learner’s permit (CLP). Drivers who do not adhere to this requirement are subject to losing their CDL privileges.
The FMCSA was forced to push back the medical self-reporting deadline to Jan. 30, 2015 because some states failed to adequately notify drivers and/or to upgrade their information systems to allow the integration of medical certification data into the Commercial Driver’s License Information System (CDLIS) online database.
Since Jan. 30 of last year, drivers have been required to report their operating status and provide medical certificates when renewing their CDL.
