The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on June 13 proposed to keep in effect until Jan. 30, 2014, the requirement that commercial drivers must retain a paper copy of the medical examiner’s certificate. In addition, interstate motor carriers also would be required to retain a copy of the medical certificate in the driver qualification files.
FMCSA said the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was issued to ensure the medical qualification of CDL holders until all states are able to post medical self-certification and medical examiner’s certificate data on the Commercial Driver’s License Information System driver record. But the proposed rule would not extend the mandatory dates for states to collect and post to the CDLIS driver record data from a CDL holder’s medical self-certification and medical examiner’s certificate.
On Dec. 1, 2008, FMCSA published a final rule to require any CDL holder to provide a current original or copy of his or her medical examiner’s certificate to the issuing state driver licensing agency (SDLA).
These requirements have a compliance date of Jan. 30, 2012. Several SDLAs recently have advised FMCSA that they may not have the capability by that date to receive the required medical certification and medical examiner’s certificate information provided by a nonexcepted interstate CDL holder, and then manually post it to the CDLIS driver record. Inability of an SDLA to receive the required material would render both the CDL holder and his or her employer unable to demonstrate or verify the driver is medically certified in compliance with the FMCSR.
For more information, go to www.regulations.gov; the docket number is FMCSA-1997-2210.
