FMCSA wants more regulation of tests for brand spanking new truck drivers

WASHINGTON — Concerns about fairness and fraud are a part of a latest report to Congress outlining regulators’ rationale for not making everlasting a waiver providing flexibility on how truck drivers’ CDL knowledge tests are administered.

As an alternative, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is moving ahead on plans for brand spanking new testing oversight standards in an upcoming proposed rule, the agency told lawmakers.

Issued by FMCSA on April 9, 2020 and prolonged several times, the waiver allowed certified third-party skills-test instructors to also administer CDL knowledge tests without completing the training required for the state employees who normally conduct knowledge testing.

That flexibility was meant to ease backups resulting from reduced staffing and state driver’s license agency closures brought on by the pandemic, which in turn was keeping latest drivers from obtaining their industrial learner’s permits and CDLs.

But lawmakers included a provision within the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 tasking FMCSA with reviewing its discretionary waiver authority and — unless it finds safety concerns — changing the regulations to make the testing waiver everlasting.

In its report responding to the review requirement, FMCSA states that it biggest concern with doing so without imposing additional safeguards is “lack of regulatory requirements for states to audit and monitor the operations of third party knowledge examiners to be certain that third parties administer the knowledge tests equitably and without fraud, which requires regulatory oversight by states and, when applicable, FMCSA.”

It also states that examiner training and record-check requirements for state-employed knowledge test examiners should apply to third-party knowledge examiners.

“Should the [waiver] be made everlasting now, without additional safeguards, the integrity of the CDL knowledge testing program, and the security profit derived from CDL knowledge testing, could be undermined by the absence of state oversight and training and qualification requirements for third party knowledge examiners,” based on FMCSA.

Making the waiver everlasting would also cause confusion by implying that third-party knowledge tests will be administered only by certified third-party skills testers, based on FMCSA.

It noted that this might contradict updated guidance issued in 2022 allowing states to make use of third-party examiners to manage knowledge tests so long as they follow existing standards and requirements.

As an alternative of amending rules to permit for a everlasting waiver, FMCSA said it’s drafting a rule that may propose minimum regulatory standards and safeguards for states that opt to permit knowledge testing by third parties.

“The proposed standards … will include states’ examiner training and record check requirements, in addition to the states’ required oversight and monitoring of third party testers and examiners,” the report states. The standards would apply to all third-party knowledge examiners, including those that should not already certified as third-party skills test examiners.

“The agency intends, nonetheless, to propose specific flexibilities for certified third-party skills examiners who administer the CDL knowledge tests” that were included within the waiver, FMCSA added.

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