Not every commercial driver has legitimate medical papers

Our Blog | August 4, 2016

A recent Overdrive story told how some truck drivers, with help from their fleet owners, are faking their commercial driver’s license credentials to stay on the road.

Here are two of the CDL fraud stories, supplied by the Department of Transportation’s Inspector General.

The case of the falsified test results

The first case took place in Louisiana, where a CDL driver’s license examiner falsified test results and took money from applicants rather than examining them.

The CDL exam required n you take for your medical certificate confirms that you are healthy enough to do the work of CMV driver. With falsified test results, who knows what problems that driver behind you has? Epilepsy, narcolepsy, hypertension, drug addiction – these are things your family doesn’t need to deal with.

Texas trucker forges medical provider’s signature

The other case took place in Texas, and involved a driver forging a provider’s signature on his medical documents. The system worked in this one, however. When the nurse practitioner was contacted for her national registry number – a number the driver could not have known – she told the employer she never signed the driver’s exam papers.

The lesson of these stories is that some drivers will do anything to keep their jobs – even if it puts your family’s lives at risk.

Their attitude is, “I’ll be fine, it won’t matter.”

But we see so many stories of families wiped out, and only learn later that the driver had a significant medical problem.

Drive carefully, and never assume that everyone else on the road is as healthy and sober as you.