FMCSA's non-domiciled CDL rule: Meet the owner-operator at the heart of the case against it скачать в хорошем качестве

FMCSA's non-domiciled CDL rule: Meet the owner-operator at the heart of the case against it

"There's a lot of loopholes in a lot of places, systematically, but they're blaming the driver for everything." --owner-operator Jorge Rivera Lujan, about the federal non-domiciled CDL rule changes and what he feels is misplaced curtailment of credentialing, and similarly misplaced public attitudes toward non-citizen CDL holders Off the top of this week's edition of Overdrive Radio, an introduction to Utah-headquartered one-truck independent owner-operator Jorge Rivera Lujan. As hinted at in the quote above, he speaks to views of flaws in the FMCSA's September Interim Final Rule that would (and already has in some ways) severely restrict non-domiciled CDL issuance to a variety of classes of non-U.S. citizens. Those include asylum seekers in immigration limbo and many others. The rule seeks to cut off access to a CDL even for folks like him. Rivera Lujan's a recipient of the protections offered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program since near the time it became policy in 2012, as you’ll hear. If the owner-operator's name sounds familiar, that’s because he is the named plaintiff in the title of the court challenge to the non-domiciled rule, filed shortly after he and many other non-domiciled CDL holders realized that under the terms of the rule, they wouldn’t be able to renew their licenses or get another kind of CDL to continue their work. In his case, it was a direct threat to work and business he's done now for more than a decade. Rivera Lujan has been in the U.S. since he was brought here at pre-school age by his parents. The owner-operator’s younger brother is in trucking, too, with a small fleet now that’s a separate businesss. The younger brother enjoys a key difference from Rivera Lujan -- the brother was born here, and is thus a U.S. citizen. Aside from some side non-trucking business, Rivera Lujan fundamentally is like so many among Overdrive's principal owner-operator readers with motor carrier authority. "I have one truck, and I have some direct customers," he said, "because who says you have to use brokers all the time?" Jorge Rivera Lujan’s in agreement with many around trucking that the English proficiency standards should be enforced, yet he feels in the wider public's imagination ELP problems are blamed on the non-domiciled CDL as if they are one in the same. He feels that too many are painting non-domiciled CDL holders in the country today with a too-broad brush. Are there problems with many such CDL holders’ licenses extending beyond their legal stay in the country? Sure, as has been readily demonstrated. Do non-domiciled CDL holders exist who shouldn’t be hauling over-the-road because their English skills aren't sufficient for safe operation or for other reasons? Again, sure, but one might say the same about plenty native-born citizens with CDLs who could use a lot of additional training, he feels. Fundamentally he feels it's not sufficient reason to curtail most non-domiciled CDL issuance, and too many seem willing to just throw long-term U.S. residents like him and plenty other documented visitors -- who pay taxes, who have legal presence and in his case have built businesses over many years -- under the proverbial bus. He has a lot to say generally about immigration, about his own path toward as-yet-unrealized citizenship, and the trucking markets writ large post-COVID. Likewise: where he feels regulators might best focus their attention when it comes to credentialing -- rather than dropping bombs on the very end of the CDL-issuance food chain: the driver. So far, the federal court seems to agree. As mentioned in the podcast: **N.C. put on notice by FMCSA for non-domiciled CDL problems: https://www.overdriveonline.com/15814284 **Jorge Rivera Lujan v. FMCSA contends non-domiciled rule unlawful: https://www.overdriveonline.com/15769818 **Further reading via this Overdrive Radio post: https://overdriveonline.com/15816105