The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials recently sent a letter to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in support of an exemption to the “under the hood” requirement of Commercial Driver’s License or CDL applicants seeking to operate transit vehicles.
[Above image by AASHTO]
That exemption – requested by the American Public Transportation Association – would allow public transit agencies and their contractor partners to let State Driver Licensing Agencies or SDLAs to waive that under-the-hood requirement for transit vehicle operators for five years.
AASHTO said FMCSA’s CDL “under-the-hood” testing requirement is a “significant impediment” to hiring transit bus operators; contributing to the nationwide shortage of drivers, which leads to reduced transit service, missed trips, and higher costs for public transit agencies.
The organization said this five-year exemption from that requirement would help “alleviate” this ongoing shortage of public transit bus operators; reduce costs and increase efficiency; advance opportunity; and achieve an equivalent or greater level of safety.
“AASHTO has a longstanding partnership with APTA to cooperatively facilitate technical resources to state departments of transportation and their subrecipient transit agencies on matters of public transportation,” the organization said in its letter.
“AASHTO recognizes APTA’s technical expertise and critical representation of a robust network of public transit organizations and partners. To that end, AASHTO offers strong support to APTA’s application.”
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