FMCSA Confident Medical Examiner Corps Will Be Adequate

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration remains confident that there will be an adequate number of certified medical examiners as of May 21, when U.S. government certification supplants individual state approaches to truck drivers’ physical exams, an agency official said.

Pamela Perry, nurse consult in the Office of Carrier, Driver and Vehicle Safety, said at the Mid-America Trucking Show here that 11,000 medical examiners have been certified, with 26,000 in the process of obtaining certification after training and testing.

While confident that there will be enough examiners certified to do the physicals for the nation’s 3 million commercial vehicle license holders, she also said the agency was concerned about the number of certified examiners who will be in rural areas, where many truck drivers live.

FMCSA is implementing the standardized approach after abuses of the process on the state level, including one examiner who certified a driver whose health problems led to a bus crash that killed 22 people. That same examiner, Perry said, reported the same blood pressure for everyone.

“We need that national regulation to be able to control that kind of thing,” Perry said.

Drivers whose card expires after May 21 must have exams done by someone in the registry, she said, stressing that drivers who have a valid medical card do not have to get an examination until the card expires.

Perry added that there are no changes in the health qualifications.

She also said that FMCSA has no idea how many people do the exams on a state level. Asked about a possible extension of the date while more examiners are certified, she said that decision would have to be made by Administrator Anne Ferro.