FMCSA takes onus off of drivers in violation reporting

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced last week via the Federal Register that it was issuing a final rule removing the requirements of drivers to tell the state that issues their commercial drivers license when they are convicted of traffic violations in other states.

Previously, both the state in which the violation occurred and the CDL holder were required to report any convictions. Now, only the state in which the conviction is made is required by FMCSA to report back to the issuing state. FMCSA said the new rule will eliminate redundancies — which could potentially cause the issuing state to record two violations instead of one — and reduce the burden on CDL holders.

The rule change comes in response to an executive order from January 2011 that called on agencies to improve efficiency in regulations and regulatory review. Click here to see the Federal Register entry.