The GigReporter

Freightwaves reports[1] that a confrontation is brewing between the federal Department of Transportation and California’s state government over the issuing of commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs). If it escalates this conflict could, potentially, invalidate every California-issued CDL.

The dispute stems from the issuance of CDLs to immigrant workers with expiration dates set after their visas were set to expire, in some cases years after. This practice violates federal safety regulations, and California admitted that these CDLs (approximately a quarter of all non-domiciled CDLs) were improperly issued, and initially agreed with the Department of Transportation to revoke all such improperly issued licenses by January 5 of this year. However, California decided on December 30 to grant a 60-day extension, supposedly to ensure the state DMV could properly determine which licenses to decertify.

Transportation Secretary Duffy has already announced a withholding of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal transportation funding, and has additionally threatened to revoke California’s ability to issue CDLs entirely. This might not just prevent the state from issuing new CDLs, but could even prevent other states from recognizing California-issued licenses.

SCI clients in the last-mile industry, for the most part, do not use vehicles large enough to need commercial licenses. However, transporting hazardous material does require one regardless of vehicle size, and this is not uncommon for our clients, especially those working with medical products. We urge our clients in those fields to review their own commercial licenses and those of any business partners, and if necessary, consider making plans to set up alternatives for owner/operators with California-issued CDLs that may not be able to make interstate or out-of-state deliveries until this dispute is resolved.

[1] https://www.freightwaves.com/news/california-could-lose-authority-to-issue-any-cdl-under-duffys-nuclear-option-its-on-the-table