This week on the podcast we’re diving into the trends uncovered in the July report authored by our own Alex Lockie documenting the rise of the so-called “non-domiciled CDL” in the U.S. It’s a kind of license that many states can and do issue to those in the States from other countries and with temporary work authorization. If you haven’t downloaded our report for yourself as of yet, it’s available via this link or by filling out the brief form in the module below.
Lockie painstakingly gathered non-domiciled CDL issuance data from most states in the nation, and put it all in a single, 20-plus-page report that's available now, even as federal officials work to begin and complete their own review of such CDL-issue practices.
The research comes with the backdrop of a curious fact: as of about a year ago, very few around trucking had even heard the non-domiciled CDL term.
That includes Raman Dhillon, head of the North American Punjabi Trucking Association, who tells his story in part in this episode. "I learned in the last seven, eight months or so" that such a license existed, he said. At once, as our own Alex Lockie reported in conversation with Dhillon in June, he could see the influx of people into trucking throughout the pandemic period, and long-ongoing issues on the CDL training front with fly-by-night schools rushing people into work behind the wheel.
The latter -- the inadequate CDL training issue -- is something he had personal experience with in years past, placing it among principal issues for which he continues to advocate a fix.
[Related: Biden, 'driver shortage' myth caused CDL-vetting crisis: Punjabi trucking CEO]
Personally, he’s heartened to see the recent federal attention to CDL issuance practices broadly speaking, and non-domiciled CDL issuance in particular. "It's not only a trucking issue," as Dhillon has it. "It's a national security issue. A person crosses the border. Within a couple of months they get their work permit, and within the next month they get their [commercial] license."
More time, more and better training and vetting, he believes, are in order for all kinds of reasons.
In the podcast, Dhillon walks back through his own experience immigrating to the U.S. in the early-1990s after his father drove truck in the Indian military as he was growing up, through to establishing the Primelink Express trucking company with family and other close trucking associates, then the NAPTA association, in 2018, in the wake of advocacy ahead of the ELD mandate.
NAPTA isn't just for Punjabi-Americans, though, as you'll hear. It's set up for any trucking company owner or operator with discount buying groups for fuel, tires, and other parts, likewise back-office support services and more.
Dive into the non-domiciled CDL story today with both Dhillon and Overdrive Executive Editor Alex Lockie, who chronicles just how he came to author the 20-page report documenting rising issuance in most states around the nation. If you haven’t read the report yet, go give it a whirl.
As Lockie puts it in the podcast, "I look at it as just kind of a factual framework," he said. "We have maps in the report. ... We have a detailed write-up of every single state and what they told me. Look at your state. See where your state is on this."
You might just be surprised by what you find. Take a listen:
Download the full report via the form module below:
