Prior to implementation of the Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) program in Massachusetts, any person licensed to drive an automobile could also legally drive a tractor-trailer or a bus. In many of the states that did have a classified licensing system, a person was not skills tested in a representative vehicle. As a result, many drivers were operating vehicles that they may not have been qualified to drive. In addition, drivers were able to obtain driver’s licenses from more than one state and hide or spread convictions among several driving records and continue to drive, despite suspensions or revocations.
To address the problems with unqualified truck drivers, the Federal Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986 (the Act) was signed into law on October 27, 1986. The goal of the Act is to improve highway safety nationally by ensuring that drivers of large trucks and buses are qualified to operate those vehicles and to remove unsafe and unqualified drivers from the highways. The Act retained the state’s right to issue a driver’s license, but established minimum national standards which states must meet when issuing CDLs. Massachusetts adopted the Federal Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act in 1990.
The Act is designed to protect the public from unqualified and potentially dangerous commercial drivers. The law outlines a series of criminal or other offenses or serious motor vehicle violations which would disqualify an operator from possessing a commercial driver’s license (CDL). Section 9 Chapter 90F sets forth the penalties for CDL violations as well as certain non-CDL violations such as DUI or refusing to submit to a breath test, regardless of whether the person arrested for Operating Under the Influence is operating a CDL vehicle or not. A single DUI or breathalyzer refusal violation results in a one year CDL disqualification. If a CDL holder commits a violation contained in the list on two separate occasions, the CDL is subject to revocation and the CDL holder would be disqualified for life from reinstating his CDL privilege. Chapter 90F, Section 9 includes a life-time look-back period.
When a CDL, operator violates one of the Laws or regulations contained in c. 90F, Section 9, he is disqualified from holding a CDL for a certain period of time. A disqualification means that a person is not allowed to posses the license or right to operate.
Unfortunately, the Board of Appeal has determined that it does not have the discretion or statutory power to order the Registrar to modify the disqualification where the individual offenses are valid and proper.