D.C. Circuit Denies Drivers' Association Challenge of FMCSA Medical Licensing Exemptions
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on July 26 denied a request from the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association seeking a review of a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rule that requires U.S.-based drivers -- but not drivers based in Mexico or Canada -- to obtain medical certificates. While, unlike the U.S., "Mexico and Canada incorporate physical fitness criteria as part of their licensing regimes," the statutory requirements being implemented from the 2005 Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act do not call for such an exemption, the OOIDA argued.
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The U.S. has existing "executive agreements" with Mexico and Canada, allowing for "reciprocal licensing of commercial drivers operating across national borders," the ruling said. While the agreements aren't "quite treaties," they do carry the "force of law as an exercise of the President's foreign policy powers," it said. The statutory provisions of 2005 law were "not intended to abrogate the executive agreements with Mexico and Canada" and therefore the court finds "FMCSA’s implementing rules appropriately understood the medical certificate requirement to apply only to drivers based in the United States," it said.
The same court denied a similar claim filed by the OOIDA as part of a larger challenge to a FMSCA pilot program that allows Mexican and Canadian drivers to operate in the U.S. under their own country's commercial driver's license (see 13042201).
(Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association v. Department Of Transportation, D.C. Circuit Court No. 12-1264, dated 07/26/13)