Drivers must continue to carry paper copy of medical certificates until Jan. 2015

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Updated Jan 10, 2014

Drivers must continue to carry paper copies of their medical certification, as is rule now, until Jan. 30, 2015, federal sources are reporting this morning. The rule requires drivers to self-report their operating status and provide their CDL-issuing state with a valid medical certificate by Jan. 30, 2014, and it’s not clear yet whether that deadline has been extended, too.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration could officially announce the delay in the Federal Register within the next week.

All drivers have until Jan. 30, 2014, to report to their state their operating statues — interstate or intrastate, basically — and furnish a valid medical examiner’s certificate.

A lack of readiness by some states, however, led to the delay in the date to which drivers must carry paper copies.

Drivers since Jan. 30, 2012, were required to report their operating status and provide medical certificates when renewing their CDL, as part of the FMCSA rule to combine CDL and medical certificates, so that drivers would only need to carry that single card.

Drivers who do not self-report are subject to losing their CDL privileges.

Note: This story originally said the deadline for drivers to self-report has been delayed until Jan. 30, 2015. That, however, appears to not be the case. More information will be posted when it becomes available.