Over six months after rolling out new regulations that would eliminate the need for drivers to carry a paper copy of their medical certification, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is yet again giving states a little extra time to comply with the new rules.
This past June, the agency announced the Medical Examiner’s Certification Integration Rule would go into effect. Commonly known as NRII, the new regulations require medical examiners to electronically submit results from medical certification exams to the FMCSA and state licensing agencies. The new electronic system would also eliminate the need for truckers to carry a paper copy of their certification.
“This new digitalized system will make life easier for lawful truck drivers and harder for bad actors who want to commit fraud,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in June. “It will also enhance safety on our roads and ensure law enforcement has access to the real-time data they need to do their jobs.”
While the agency said the implementation of the rule marked a “major advancement in the safety and integrity of the commercial driver licensing process,” states have struggled to fully comply with the new medical certification regulations.
A month after the announcement, with a dozen states still non-compliant, FMCSA issued a waiver in July to allow drivers to continue using a paper copy for up to 15 days after the exam date.
The next month, with the same 12 states still lagging behind, the agency modified the waiver to allow the use of a paper copy of the medical certification for up to 60 days after the exam. That original waiver expired on Oct. 12.
As the deadline approached, the number of noncompliant states remained unchanged, prompting the FMCSA to issue yet another waiver set to expire on Jan. 10.
In December, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance urged FMCSA to allow drivers to continue using paper copies of their medical certification until “all issues” surrounding the implementation of NRII were resolved, and all states were fully compliant.
As of press time, eight states – Alaska, California, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Oklahoma – have yet to fully implement the new regulations.
Despite the forward progress, the agency has once again issued a waiver to assist truckers as states continue to move towards implementing the new medical certification regulations.
On Tuesday, Dec. 30, FMCSA reissued the waiver allowing drivers to use a paper copy of their certification for up to 60 days following the exam. The agency said its decision to reissue the waiver was “in the public interest to prevent undue hardship on drivers with valid medical certification and their employers due to potential processing delays outside of their control during this transition period.”
The agency also recommends that certified medical examiners continue issuing paper medical examiner’s certificates to drivers, in addition to submitting examination results electronically, until the issues have been resolved.
The new waiver will go into effect on Jan. 11 and expires on April 10. LL
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