More than 10,000 veterans and active-duty personnel have received their civilian commercial driver’s license (CDL) through a federal program intended to make it easier for veterans with driving experience to get the license often required to drive school buses and other large vehicles.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Military Skills Test Waiver Program gives state licensing agencies the ability to waive select portions of the CDL application for active-duty or recently separated veterans who have at least two years of safe driving experience operating a military truck or bus.
The program speeds up the civilian CDL application process, as well as helping to cut expenses for qualified individuals and operating costs for state licensing agencies.
In the first three years of the program, approximately 6,000 former military personnel obtained a civilian CDL, with another 4,000 individuals taking advantage of the program in the past 12 months.
“It is our duty to help returning veterans transition into civilian life, and I am proud that so many have used this program to secure careers in the transportation sector,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said. “Just as important, we want to put their valuable skills and experience to work driving the nation’s economy.”
Find out more about the program here.
