The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced temporary regulatory relief amid the transition to a new electronic transmission process for commercial vehicle driver medical exam results.
Paper Medical Certification Cards Okay For Now, Feds Say
On July 14, 2025, the FMCSA announced a waiver to allow interstate commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders, commercial learner’s permit (CLP) holders, and motor carriers to continue relying paper copies of medical examiner’s certificates (MEC) as proof of drivers’ medical certification for up to 15 days after the date the medical examiner’s certificate was issued.
The waiver will remain in effect until October 12, 2025.
The FMCSA has also issued a recommendation that medical examiners continue to issue drivers a paper medical examiner’s certificate in addition to submitting results electronically.
Officials opted to grant the waiver due to “delays as certified medical examiners and State Driver’s Licensing Agencies transition from the paper-based process to the secure, electronic transmission of driver medical certification information under the Medical Examiner’s Certification Integration (NRII) final rule.”
The FMCSA notes that as of July 14, only 38 states and the District of Columbia have implemented NRII. The remaining twelve states continue to rely on paper MECs.
“FMCSA has determined that it is in the public interest to issue a waiver so that drivers with valid medical certification and their employers are not negatively impacted for delays outside of their control during the transition to NRII,” the agency said.
Waiver restrictions are listed as follows:
1) This waiver does not apply to a driver if the driver does not have a copy of his or her current, valid, MEC on his or her person that was issued by a certified medical examiner within the prior 15 days.
(2) This waiver does not apply to a motor carrier if the motor carrier does not have a copy of the driver’s current, valid, MEC that was issued by a certified medical examiner within the prior 15 days.
(3) FMCSA reserves the right to revoke this waiver if the waiver results in a lower level of safety than was maintained before it was granted or continuation of the waiver would not be consistent with the goals and objectives of 49 USC 31136(e) and 31315(a).
You can view the FMCSA’s waiver here.
What Is The NRII Rule?
On June 23, 2025, the FMCSA’s NRII rule went into effect.
The purpose of the new rule, according to officials, is to reduce fraud, cut red tape for truckers, and to provide law enforcement with real-time access to a driver’s medical certification status during roadside inspections.
Under this new rule, medical examiners must electronically submit the results of a CDL or CLP applicant’s physical exam directly to the FMCSA’s National Registry.
The NRII rule requires that medical examiners submit the results by midnight of the calendar day following the exam.
The FMCSA then electronically transmits the exam results to State Driver’s Licensing Agencies (SDLA), eliminating the need for CDL and CLP holders to submit their own Medical Examiner Certificates (MEC) to SDLAs. SDLAs will post the information exam information received from FMCSA on the Commercial Driver’s License Information System (CDLIS) driver motor vehicle record (MVR).
