Arnold SAFETY Consulting A


GOVERNMENT By Eric Arnold, President of Arnold Safety Consulting, Inc.


FMCSA is Allowing Use of Paper Medicals Until January 10, 2026 I began my chase. First, I called the doctor’s office who did


s I predicted in a previous column, FMCSA’s roll- out forcing doctors to send medicals directly to the government has been messy, to say the least.


To refresh your memory, medical examiners must now send completed medicals to the FMCSA, who then disseminate them to the various State Department of Motor Vehicles of- fices. Ultimately, this will then eliminate the employer’s duty to check via MVR within 15 days whether the driver has an updated medical. In reality, the process is a mess. Twelve different states are not currently part of this process. I learned Florida is one of them. I keep the driver files for one OABA member and one of our drivers who has a Florida CDL got a new medical. I checked 10 days later via the Florida DMV website whether the new medical had been attached to his driving record. It had not. Instead, our driver had a threatening message listed stating he would be downgraded within two weeks if the up- dated medical was not submitted.


the medical. I ended up talking at length with the doctor him- self, who offered good advice and thoughts about the pro- cess. He did send the medical in a timely fashion to FMCSA and even sent me proof he had done it. I next called the state of Florida to see if our driver’s medical was sitting in an inbox somewhere or lost in cyberspace. After being on hold for an hour, I finally got through to a


human. I was informed Florida was not part of the new pro- cess! Shazam! No wonder the new medical had not been attached to the driving record. The human told me they hoped to link up with FMCSA maybe by January. Maybe. I was then referred to another process where I uploaded the paper medical directly to the Florida DMV website, pressed a few buttons, and it was done. The whole process took over two hours. It would have taken 10 minutes had I known the direct-to-Florida DMV process. It seems the FMCSA is aware they have a goat rope on


their hands and has issued some waiver which allows the use of paper medicals for 60 days after the issuance of the new medicals. This waiver expires on January 10, 2026. I view this waiver with great suspicion. For example, the


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message threatening our Florida driver with a CDL down- grade said nothing about this waiver. The waiver itself says nothing about licensing.


It speaks merely of meeting the


medical qualification process. My expectation is State DMV will still downgrade drivers if they don’t have a new medical, waiver or no waiver.


Tips for Navigating This Mess Make sure your drivers confirm with the doctor’s office the


medical will be submitted. Ensure the driver gives the exact name on the CDL to the doctor, and that the names on CDL and medical match. For example, if the CDL uses a middle name, make sure the medical has that same middle name. If the CDL says Samuel Ulysses Grant, and the medical says Sam U. Grant, the FMCSA computer is likely to kick it out. Medicals which confuse the computers are rejected, which then require a human, whether it be an FMCSA employee or the doctor, to fix. Good luck with that. Run MVRs on your drivers following the issuance of new


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medicals. This is your proof the driver has a new medical. Furthermore, it’s the only way to tell if the medical is in the State DMV computers. Lastly, get your medical renewals done far in advance of the due dates so you have enough time to fix messes before any downgrades.


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