Hey everybody, this is Ali Kamalzadeh at Gurney law. And this is One Reg A Day where we highlight one Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulation each and every weekday. And today before I jump into regulations, I wanted to show you guys something – BING – conspicuity tape! Reflective tape, as it’s also known. And yes, I did pull that into my jacket pocket. I always carry a strip with me because you just never know.
So anyhow, conspicuity tape, reflective tape. This is the type of tape that’s supposed to be on the sides of commercial motor vehicle trailers, as well as the rear of a truck or trailer to allow the motoring public (like you and me) to easily see these vehicles on our roadways. Now you can see – in the light – how reflective it is. Just in the beautiful lighting in our media room. And so you now see the effectiveness of this conspicuity tape.
So anyhow, today, our regulation that we’re highlighting is a continuance of regulations we’ve been discussing. Now, a couple days ago, we talked about the employer’s responsibility to be aware of or inquire of their drivers conviction history on their CDL license. And then the other day we talked about the driver’s responsibility to report convictions, moving violation convictions, to their employer as well as the state. And today we’re highlighting the state’s responsibility in reporting convictions of commercial motor vehicle drivers in their state. And that is under 49 CFR Section 384.209, titled “Notification of Traffic Violations.” Now, under this regulation states that whenever a person who holds a CLP (which is a commercial learner’s permit) or a CDL from another state is convicted a violation of any state or local law relating to a motor vehicle traffic control, other than parking weight or defects in any type of vehicle the licensing entity of the state in which the conviction occurs must notify the licensing entity in the state where the driver’s license of this conviction within the time period established within the regulation. Now let’s unpack that.
Suppose I have a commercial driver’s license in the state of Florida – issued out of the state of Florida – and I’m driving in Ohio and I get a moving violation that results in a conviction. Ohio would have to then report that conviction to the state of Florida. Well, how does Ohio do that? There’s a system called CDLIS – this is the commercial driver’s license information system. And all states including the District of Columbia and Canada and Mexico have access to this database. That allows all the states to report all these different convictions to one database. …
