CDL history

Truck drivers make their living being the backbone of our society.  Without truckers, it would take longer to get materials to stores.  Yes, a lot of materials come by trains, but more materials we use actually come by trucks.  Let’s look at the history behind the how and why we have CDL’s for truck drivers.

Truck driving has been around for quite some time but it wasn’t until the early 1980’s that the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) determined that there was a need for guidance in the training of truck drivers.  Up until this time, there were no standardized national requirements for any driver.  In essence, anyone could drive a truck heavier than 26,000 pounds or drive a vehicle that carried over 16 passengers without showing they had the skills necessary for those jobs. 

The Federal government and individual states also had no CDL requirements (like those of today).  There also wasn’t any system to track existing licenses and no method that prevented drivers from obtaining multiple licenses across various states.  This allowed people to spread any convictions of traffic violations over various drivers’ licenses they held.  That loophole allowed many drivers to avoid having their license suspended or revoked for those violations and thus they weren’t reported to the National Driver Registry.

In 1986, 32 states issued some form of a classified driver’s license, i.e. class A, B, or C.  Of those, 12 required state-conducted testing and the other 20 waived testing if the applicants met certain conditions, like certification of training (only 2 states recognized training schools).  The other 18 states and D.C. thought that any driver license was qualified to drive trucks or a bus no matter what license you held.  Later that year, Congress passed the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act (CMVSA) to address those issues and implemented the CDL program and it supporting information system, CDLIS. The goal was to make sure all drivers possessed the knowledge and skills necessary to operate any vehicle they were driving on the highways and to make sure that all drivers were uniformly sanctioned for any convictions.  It directed the Secretary to establish minimum Federal standards states must meet before giving any driver a CDL and sanctions for those convictions. 

In 1995, FHWA conducted a study that concluded that effective entry-level drivers needed better training to include behind-the-wheel instruction.  Nine years later in 2004, FMCSA issued a final rule for CDL ELDT (section 49 CFR 380.503) that required an average 10 hours of such behind-the-wheel training, but that rule was challenged by the courts saying that the FMCSA needed to give more attention to its research on establishing meaningful minimum CDL training.  The rule was left in effect but remanded for further action. 

Here it is, 10 years later, and the FMCSA is still working on finalizing these rules.  There have been several updates and additions to these rules over those 10 years but the FMCSA has made progress.  The FMCSA had tasked the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee (MCSAC) to develop new training recommendations and the MCSAC delivered those in June of 2013.  This year alone it was announced a negotiated rulemaking was being considered and an initiation of the process with a contracted convener. 

While we still don’t have final rules yet for our CDL drivers but we have come a long way in the last 40 years.  We have made it safer for everyone on the roads by getting training to our CDL drivers and ensuring that they are trained for the vehicles for which their CDL’s are listed.  As with anything in life, there will always be changes and upgrades to these rules but it’s a step in the right direction.