Change in law aids trucking students

For years, Utah broke its own law by issuing commercial driver's licenses to non-residents if they enrolled in local truck-driving schools. Violations finally ended this week because truck companies persuaded the Legislature to change the law to legalize the practice.

However, it will still technically violate federal law. But federal officials have told the state they do not plan to enforce the law while they wait to see if federal rules also will change.

On Monday, HB140 sponsored by House Majority Leader Jeff Alexander, R-Provo, took effect. It will allow the state to provide temporary, 60-day commercial driver's licenses (CDLs) to out-of-state students enrolled in Utah truck driving schools. Recipients then would need to obtain a permanent CDL from their home state.

"As far as the state (law) is concerned, this solves the problem," said Nannette Rolfe, director of the state driver license division. "Current law did not allow anyone who is not a state resident to obtain driving privileges."

But trucking companies said the state had done that for at least 16 years for out-of-state students who trained in local truck-driving schools. The state began to re-evaluate that practice because of concerns that arose with the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Utah Attorney General's Office ruled last year that the practice was, in fact, illegal.

In documents earlier obtained and reported by the Deseret Morning News, state investigators said they found that many nonresidents came to Utah merely to obtain a CDL, sometimes without proper testing and sometimes while visiting the state for only a day.

A state memo said that raised red flags because "many of the 9/11 terrorists had fraudulently obtained drivers licenses from various states."

Out-of-state trucking students often list their school address as their home address on applications, leading to an appearance that they are state residents.

For example, a Deseret Morning News records request last year showed that one of every 12 people who obtained a Utah CDL that year — 1,895 of them — listed the same home address: 4701 W. 2100 South in West Valley City. That is the headquarters of C.R. England, one of the nation's largest trucking firms, and the site of its CDL school.

When state officials proposed to begin enforcing the law and stop issuing CDLs to residents of other states, England officials and others said it could kill their driving schools and hurt an industry that already has a severe shortage of drivers.

They persuaded the state to delay enforcement until the Legislature could consider changing the law. Now officials are waiting to see if federal law will change as well.

Utah Public Safety Commissioner Robert Flowers said the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration gave the state a letter saying it does not plan to enforce its law pending possible changes.

Bill Lloyd, a supervisor with the Drivers License Division, estimates that Utah issues about 6,000 CDLs a year to out-of-state trucking students.

Rolfe said, "We anticipate that volume may increase as more students may now come into the state," where they can legally obtain a CDL, based on the revised state law.

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