Since September, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has ordered more than two dozen states to revoke "illegally issued" non-domiciled CDLs, but have states actually fallen in line?
With rates hitting all-time highs, typically a flood of new capacity would enter the market to cash in.
But with the FMCSA's new rule all but completely banning non-domiciled CDLs, a crackdown on CDL mills and ELD cheats and Motus, a new registration system purpose-built to block bad actors, it's no surprise experts are noticing constraints on the supply side.
New capacity hasn't watered down the market yet.
How many non-domiciled CDLs were revoked? FMCSA's rulemaking predicted some 200,000 such licenses would expire or otherwise be removed from the market over five years, but even trucking experts don't know now exactly how far along that process is.
The best clue came from a Department of Transportation press release on May 1 that said 28,000 CDLs had been revoked, without specifying if those were all non-domiciled or if some belonged to sham CDL school graduates.
DOT confirmed to Overdrive that they were, indeed, all non-domiciled CDLs. A big chunk of them came when California, after months of fighting with FMCSA, revoked some 20,000.
But 25 other states got similar orders demanding they revoke wrongly issued non-domiciled CDLs.
"Take immediate action to void or rescind all unexpired noncompliant non-domiciled CLPs and CDLs," FMCSA letters stated in part to those jurisdictions, including Illinois, Utah, North Carolina, Colorado, New York, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and 18 others.
All were singled out for bad practices and ordered to stop issuing non-domiciled CDLs and revoke the "illegally" issued ones.
Overdrive contacted those states to get a feel for how the process played out.
[Related: Why rates are finally heating up]
Minnesota: 75% of non-domiciled CDLs gone
Minnesota said zero licenses got revoked, but plenty had lapsed or been downgraded:
"During the course of our internal audit and the review by FMCSA, non-domiciled CDL holders who were no longer eligible under the federal rule changes had their license downgraded to a standard driver’s license with no CDL driving privileges -- technically they were not revoked."
Ultimately, a spokesperson for the state's Department of Public Safety said 368 non-domiciled CDLs were downgraded, and that while on pause, 1,033 expired. Since then only 86 have renewed under the new rule.
FMCSA's December notice to Minnesota said the state had 2,117 active non-domiciled CDLs and CLPs, so about 75% were downgraded or expired already.
Colorado: 22% gone
Colorado canceled a total 414 non-domiciled CDLs after getting notice of noncompliance from FMCSA, said a spokesperson for the state. Two were reinstated after requesting administrative hearings.
Colorado's term-limited (that's what they call non-domiciled) CDL program "remains on hold until the litigation related to the new regulation is completed," the state said, referencing ongoing legal challenges to the non-domiciled CDL rule. "Once that is completed, Colorado will make a final decision on the viability of restarting the program."
In its December notice to Colorado, FMCSA said the state had approximately 1,848 unexpired non-domiciled CLPs or CDLs, so about 22% have been canceled.
North Carolina: Somehow more than 100% of non-domiciled CDLs gone
North Carolina has shattered expectations when it comes to canceling non-domiciled CDLs.
The state, which in January FMCSA thought to have 924 unexpired non-domiciled CLPs or CDLs, somehow managed to cancel 1,193 such licenses, a spokesperson for the NCDMV told Overdrive.
"NCDMV continues to work with FMCSA to ensure any corrective actions are satisfactory and the new regulations can be successfully implemented," the spokesperson said. "As part of this process NCDMV has canceled or downgraded the credentials found to be erroneous. The Division has not yet been authorized by FMCSA to provide any renewals, reinstatements, or duplicates under the new regulations."
Pennsylvania: None just yet
While some states, like those above, seem to mostly have fallen in line with FMCSA's demands, Pennsylvania's latest communication with the agency shows it's not revoking any licenses any time soon.
Unlike the other states, where FMCSA's initial sample of non-domiciled CDLs showed widespread problems, the agency found just two examples of wrongly issued non-domiciled CDLs in Pennsylvania. In both cases, the applicants were eligible, but the CDL's expiration date was wrong.
As such, Pennsylvania hasn't revoked licenses from the approximately 12,400 drivers that hold an unexpired non-domiciled CLP or CDL issued by the state.
PennDOT in March told FMCSA the two "identified errors" with non-domiciled CDL issuance "consisted of limited administrative mistakes and certain mismatched information."
PennDOT has since laid out plans to "further improve internal processes to push the rate of administrative errors even lower," a spokesperson said. "Like PennDOT, FMCSA did not find evidence of a single ND CDL being issued to an individual who was not eligible to receive one."
New York and others
New York, which had 32,606 active non-domiciled CLPs or CDLs as of December, did not respond to Overdrive queries and is currently looking at a loss of $74 million in funding over its CDL issuance lapses.
DOT called New York the "worst offender" with 53% of CDLs issued wrongly. It's unclear if the state has revoked any.
Indiana revoked almost all its non-domiciled CDLs, with about 1,700 gone.
Overall, the 28,000 revoked CDLs trumpeted in DOT's May press release includes most state revocations listed above. But a few other states have made news since the release, like Ohio, which announced plans to phase out some 5,000.
In total, call it about 35,000 CDLs revoked by Q3.
