If you feel like you see more trucks on the road every time you hop on the highway or run some errands around town, you’re not alone. It’s more than a feeling, too. New data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics shows there are 200% more trucks on the road today compared to 30 years ago. Part of that growth is the 125% increase in the heaviest trucks, leading to over 3.5 million trucks weighing in at over 33,000 pounds sharing our roads.
The weight of these vehicles, both literally and economically, demands skilled drivers to maneuver them from highways to crowded city streets. So, how do we know if drivers are up to the task? To safely operate such massive vehicles, drivers are required to obtain a Commercial Drivers License (CDL), and the requirements to obtain one are meant to ensure that qualified hands are behind the wheels of trucks weighing over 26,000 pounds.
But what happens when someone bypasses those safeguards and gets behind the wheel anyway? Fake CDLs- licenses obtained through fraud or scams pose a direct threat to everyone on the road. Some drivers haven’t passed their tests, have never taken them, or aren’t medically qualified to drive a truck, and still end up behind the wheel. These drivers can potentially endanger the health, safety, and lives of innocent drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians. When they do, injured victims rely on dedicated truck accident lawyers to help them pick up the pieces.
Why Seek a Fake CDL?
In short, an individual may attempt to obtain their license through a CDL scam because a career in trucking is promising but obtaining a CDL can be challenging. These individuals may desire a career driving heavy trucks but lack the knowledge, skills, medical requirements, or personal history needed to obtain their CDL. Instead of building their knowledge or skills, these individuals resort to driver’s license fraud to embark on their career.
Trucking Careers Are in Demand
The transportation industry accounts for nearly 5% of the entire nation’s GDP and Georgia’s is worth over a billion dollars. Powering this industry are the drivers moving commercial goods across the country and around the world. Companies operating in this industry know firsthand the importance of these drivers to their bottom line.
The importance of the transportation industry and its drivers explains why a career driving heavy trucks comes with attractive benefits. For starters, the median wage for transportation sector employees is over $60,000 annually. Beyond the pay, some drivers own their trucks and operate as small business owners, giving them more control over their work. Many drivers also take enormous pride in their work—truck drivers help get the food onto our tables, clothes on our backs, and carry the very materials we need to build our homes.
Obtaining a Fake CDL Provides a Shortcut
As appealing as the career is, it does have some challenges, not least of which is obtaining a CDL in the first place. While individuals seeking a CDL go through state DMVs, like the Georgia Department of Driver Services, the Federal government enacted the laws requiring drivers to obtain CDLs. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration oversees and regulates how states grant CDLs. These include who can offer driving courses, who can act as test administrators, and what qualifications an applicant must possess to get started.
In a state like Georgia these requirements are found in state law, O.C.G.A. § 40-5-147. The basic requirements are that an applicant be at least 18 years old and a Georgia resident. Applicants must also complete a federally-compliant driver training course, satisfy all federal regulations, and pass a knowledge and skills test:
- Knowledge Test: This exam tests whether the driver understands relevant safety guidelines and procedures, communication, and relevant emergency maneuvers among other essential information. An applicant must score an 80% or higher to pass.
- Skills Test: The skills portion tests whether an applicant can inspect their vehicle, control the vehicle, and drive safely on roads. Failure to perform well on this portion will result in an applicant getting denied their CDL.
Applicants must also meet medical requirements intended to ensure they can perform as required in all conditions. Federal regulations, 49 CFR § 391.41(b) describe those requirements in detail and how applicants must get their fitness certified through a medical professional. A vision test makes up just one of these requirements applicants must undergo to obtain their CDL.
Finally, the Georgia Department of Driver Services must also obtain the applicant’s driving record. The state must review the applicant’s driving record for offenses or violations that could potentially disqualify them from obtaining or maintaining a CDL. 49 CFR § 383.51 explains what those convictions or traffic offenses are, as well as the period of disqualification for them.
Applicants who can’t meet these standards, but still want a career as a heavy truck driver, may be tempted to cut corners. That’s where CDL scams often come into play. These scams can take many forms, but all are essentially designed to bypass one of the major requirements outlined above.
What are CDL Scams?
Obtaining a fake CDL isn’t exactly as it sounds. Rather than being a forged document, a fake CDL is a real commercial drivers license obtained through fraudulent means. There are essentially three main types of CDL scams perpetrated. First is testing fraud, involving efforts to get around the CDL testing requirements in some form or fashion. The second is medical fraud, to avoid the high medical standards for CDL drivers. Finally, are forms of residency or identity fraud to skirt around other legal requirements.
Obtaining a Fake CDL Through Testing Fraud
The knowledge and skills tests are challenging. Studying, practicing, and performing well all take time and effort that not everyone has or is willing to dedicate to the test. In other cases, the requirement that the test be conducted in English makes passing harder for applicants who do not speak English as their first language. But whatever the reason, these applicants resort to drivers license fraud to pass their tests.
These CDL scams can involve multiple people across applicants, driving schools, test administrators, and government officials. Testing scams are also found across the entire country, from New York to California, and Idaho to Texas. These cases are investigated and tried at the federal level because they involve interstate commerce. The Department of Transportation’s Office of the Inspector General coordinates with the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute these cases.
In just the past few years there have been several notable driver license fraud cases involving CDL test scams:
Massachusetts State Trooper Ring
In Massachusetts, a special unit of the Massachusetts State Patrol administers the state’s CDL tests. Multiple troopers were recently convicted of bribery, extortion, falsification of records, and other related crimes.
These convictions stemmed from charges that these officers were accepting bribes between 2019 to 2023 that led to at least 36 applicants receiving passing scores on their CDL test. Notably, some of these applicants had never taken the tests. In exchange for the passing scores the officers received cash and gifts. One officer received cases of Fiji water, a snow plow, and a new driveway in exchange for passing grades.
New York Fraud Test Taking Ring
New York City hosted one of the largest and most coordinated CDL scam test rings to-date in the mid-2010s. In this coordinated scheme, CDL applicants paid test facilitators between $1,800 to $2,500 in exchange for answers to the test or assistance through the process. But more than just bribes, the rings would use Bluetooth headsets to communicate with others providing answers, pencils with answers encoded within them, and off-site test takers. The ring included not just the CDL applicants, but driver school owners and DMV officials.
Idaho Third-Party CDL Scam
Another prominent CDL scam came from Idaho, where third-party companies—not the state DMV—can administer CDL tests. One of these contracted test examiners was recently sentenced to two years in prison for honest services wire fraud. They also had to forfeit the $38,000 in bribes they had received between December 2017 and May 2020. In the scheme applicants paid the test examiner for passing scores regardless of how they had actually performed on the test.
Driver License Fraud Through Medical Scams
CDL applicants must comply with the requirements in 49 CFR § 391.41(b) related to their medical health and history. In addition to competent vision and hearing, drivers can’t have medical conditions that are likely to interfere with the ability to safely operate a commercial truck.
If an applicant doesn’t meet the medical requirements, or might be at risk of failing a drug test, then falsifying their medical exam might be their only path to obtaining or maintaining their CDL. There was just such a case in Georgia back in 2016.
In 2016, Georgia officials notified the Department of Transportation-Office of the Inspector General (DOT-OIG) that an Atlanta doctor did not appear to comply with DOT medical protocols related to CDL renewals. In September 2016, DOT-OIG agents posed as CDL drivers needing Medical Examiner’s certificates. These agents gave the doctor cash in exchange for certificates despite no medical examination occurring.
In June 2017, the doctor pleaded guilty to Federal false statement and false data entry charges for providing those medical certificates without examination. As a result, he was sentenced to six months of community confinement in addition to home confinement and community service requirements.
Other Types of Drivers License Fraud
Bribing officials for passing scores and medical professionals for certificates aren’t the only ways less-than-trustworthy applicants can receive their CDLs. More complicated and complex CDL scams can cross state lines. CDL drivers can only be licensed in one state, meaning they must return their licenses from other states when they move. States allow drivers licensed in one state to switch in a process that’s easier than getting the original CDL.
In one case, a Florida resident helped multiple New York residents obtain Florida CDLs through driver license fraud. For payments of up to $,2600, the Florida resident would produce documents establishing Florida residency for the New Yorkers and provide them with the answers for the CDL knowledge test. Once these applicants received their Florida CDL, they would exchange them for New York CDLs and begin driving.
The scheme lasted for over two and a half years before DHS and DOT-OIG agents arrested and charged the Florida-based fraudster. The conviction required him to forfeit the $226,620 he obtained through this scheme in addition to serving two years’ supervised release.
It Isn’t All Fraud
The people convicted of fraud above knew they were making false statements but continued to make them with the purpose of getting CDLs. However, knowingly lying isn’t the only way to receive a fake CDL or maintain a CDL when it should be disqualified. In some instances, states themselves fail to properly follow federal regulations.
In a recent Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration audit, investigators found that states weren’t transmitting required conviction information as fast as they needed to and in some cases not at all. If a state convicts a driver of certain crimes or serious traffic violations, there are mandatory disqualification periods during which those drivers cannot operate their trucks.
In 17% of convictions, the states weren’t transmitting that information from their law enforcement agencies to their motor vehicle departments. In 2% of serious traffic violation convictions, the conviction was not transmitted at all. The result of these delays or failures to transmit meant drivers who should have been disqualified were still on the road.
That wasn’t all the audit found, though. In other instances, state agencies were not following federal regulations. States offered administrative appeals to out-of-state drivers, overturned disqualifications that shouldn’t have been, and input the wrong dates for CDL disqualification periods. The result was that drivers were either not disqualified when they should have been, or served less of their disqualification period than the law required.
The Impact of CDL Scams
Large truck operators who get their jobs through fake licenses pose a risk to everyone else on or near the roads they travel on. The CDL requirements exist to promote a workforce of truck drivers who know how to safely operate their trucks and have the skills to do so regardless of the conditions. These drivers may travel long distances with short breaks and encounter varied road and weather conditions as they do so. A CDL provides proof that they are up to the task.
This is no easy task and there’s more at risk in an accident than consumer goods in a trailer. On average, there are over 6,000 large truck and bus crashes in Georgia alone each year. Nationwide, the number of accidents has risen since the 2010s, marking a grim shift from the declines in injuries and deaths that marked the first decade of the 21st century. The alarming rise has caused the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to undertake its first deep analysis into the causes of these crashes since 2006.
What Causes Truck Accidents?
The last FMCSA report provides an important starting point. That report identified that when a truck was identified as the cause of an accident, its driver was often the critical reason for the collision. In other words, there was something the driver did or failed to do that caused the truck accident.
These critical reasons for why the accidents occurred speak directly to the importance of CDLs. The top four reasons for crashes assigned to drivers were decision, recognition, non-performance, and poor performance.
- Poor Decision Making: In 38% of truck accidents, a decision the driver made led to the crash. These could be decisions like following too closely, driving too fast for the conditions, or misjudging the speed of other vehicles.
- Lack of Recognition: A driver’s failure to recognize the situation for the danger it presented was cited as the cause of a crash in 28.4% of crashes. These drivers were either distracted or failed to observe the situation as needed.
- Non-Performance: In 11.6% of collisions, drivers were physically unable to perform. That failure may have been due to sleeping, a heart attack, or some other physical impairment.
- Performance: The driver’s performance was the critical reason for the collision in 9.2% of cases. The drivers may have froze, overcompensated, or exercised poor control of the vehicle leading to the collision.
Even verified CDL drivers can make poor decisions, lose control of their vehicles, or fail to perform as they should. When drivers who obtained their CDL through drivers license fraud get behind the wheel, there’s a greater chance that the risks only increase, which highlights how important the CDL process is to keep drivers and other road users safe.
Justice for Victims of Fake CDL Drivers
The aftermath of a truck accident can be filled with trauma and chaos. These heavy machines move fast creating an enormous force that totals cars and creates lasting injuries. Many victims may become hospitalized and fear they won’t be able to cover the cost of their recovery. If you’ve been injured in a truck accident, call Montlick. Our firm has over 40 years of experience helping injured accident victims. Our truck accident attorneys investigate their clients’ accidents including looking for evidence of driver license fraud. They leave no stone left unturned in their relentless pursuit of justice.
Contact us today to see how Montlick can make a difference. Your initial consultation is free.
