Washington D.C. – The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is encouraging State Driver Licensing Agencies (SDLA) to test drivers while practicing social distancing.

In April, Transportation Nation Network (TNN) reported the Agency issued new guidance to SDLAs informing that due to COVID-19 mitigation policies, commercial driver’s license (CDL) examiners need not be physically present during the administering of the CDL testing process.

Currently, regulations require that a CDL examiner must observe a driver applicant’s operation of the vehicle and provide instruction during the road test.

However, the FMCSA says SDLAs may leverage technology such as Bluetooth, in-cab cameras, and cell phones to “administer the CDL skills test in a way that allows the examiners to not be physically present in the cab.”

The Agency explained that examiners can observe the skills test from a second vehicle while deploying technology to monitor the process for accurate scoring.

“States may wish to consider, for example, either having two employees in a sufficiently large follow vehicle (seated six feet apart) or else having one employee in a follow vehicle while a recording device that is set up on the vehicle records the test, viewing the applicant’s performance after the examiner has stopped driving, and then immediately deleting the recording,” the guidance states.

CBS 4 in Minnesota recently demonstrated how this process works.

WATCH it out below.

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