The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance is asking the feds to allow drivers to continue using paper copies of their medical certificates until a new rule is fully implemented.
Specifically, CVSA asked FMCSA to provide guidance to commercial motor vehicle enforcement officials that paper copies are permitted to demonstrate compliance.
This past June, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced it would implement new guidelines requiring medical examiners to electronically submit physical exam results to FMCSA and state licensing agencies within 24 hours of the exam.
The new rule – commonly known as NRII – also eliminated the need for drivers to carry a paper copy of their medical certification card. At that time, the agency reported that 37 states were already compliant with the new medical certification requirements, with the remaining states “expected to meet all requirements in the coming months.”
However, by mid-July, a dozen states had not yet fully implemented the new guidelines, prompting the agency to issue a waiver allowing CDL holders to continue using paper copies of medical examiners’ certificates as proof of medical certification for up to 15 days after issuance.
This brief respite wasn’t enough time to make a difference. In response, the agency modified the waiver in August to allow drivers to continue using the paper copy for up to 60 days after the exam. At that time, Land Line was told by FMCSA that the agency would “continue to monitor the extent of delays and the need for regulatory relief during this transition.”
By October, 12 states were still non-compliant, and the agency extended the waiver for an additional three months.
On Friday, Dec. 5, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance sent a letter to FMCSA requesting that truckers be allowed to use a paper copy of their medical certification until “all issues” surrounding the implementation of NRII were resolved, and all states were fully compliant.
In its letter, CVSA noted that even carriers in states where the new regulations were fully implemented were experiencing issues with “reliable transmission of driver medical certification information” due to “incompatibility and errors being made in the data exchange” between medical examiners, state driver’s license agencies, and FMCSA.
“Motor carriers continue to grapple with the effects of this partial implementation of the NRII requirements,” CVSA said. “Currently, if a motor carrier has a driver whose medical certificate is not transmitting in the system correctly, they are forced to either temporarily cease using that driver until the issue is resolved or resubmit them for an additional medical certification exam, to ensure that they can prove the driver is qualified.”
Additionally, CVSA said that, because of a lack of notification confirming that a driver’s medical certification has been properly transmitted, carriers are forced to query a driver’s Motor Vehicle Record more frequently to ensure the medical certification has been posted.
The group contends that this leads to “additional costs and administrative burden to motor carriers, delays recruitment and onboarding of new drivers, and impacts existing drivers’ ability to complete deliveries, despite being properly qualified.”
There are still nine remaining states – Alaska, California, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Oklahoma – that have yet to implement the new regulations.
The current FMCSA waiver is set to expire on Jan. 10, 2026. LL
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