For the purpose of complying with the new requirements for medical certification, it is important to know how the employee is using the CMV. To help you decide, follow these steps:

Step 1

Does or will the employee use a commercial driver’s license (CDL) to operate a CMV in interstate or intrastate commerce?

Interstate commerce is when the employee drives a CMV: 

• From one State to another State or a foreign country
• Between two places within a State, but during part of the trip, the CMV crosses into another State or foreign country
• Between two places within a State, but the cargo or passengers are part of a trip that began or will end in another State or foreign country

 Intrastate commerce is when the employee drives a CMV within a State and does not meet any of the descriptions above for interstate commerce

If the employee operates in both intrastate commerce and interstate commerce, you must choose interstate commerce

Step 2 

Once you decide whether the employee operates (or will operate) in interstate commerce or intrastate commerce, you then must decide whether the employee operates (or expect to operate) in a non-excepted or excepted status.
Interstate Commerce:
The employee operates in excepted interstate commerce when the employee drives a CMV in interstate commerce only for the following excepted activities: 

• To transport school children and/or school staff between home and school
• As Federal, State or local government employees
• To transport human corpses or sick or injured persons
• Fire truck or rescue vehicle drivers during emergencies and other related activities
• Primarily in the transportation of propane winter heating fuel when responding to an emergency condition requiring immediate response such as damage to a propane gas system after a storm or flooding
• In response to a pipeline emergency condition requiring immediate response such as a pipeline leak or rupture
• In custom harvesting on a farm or to transport farm machinery and supplies used in the custom harvesting operation to and from a farm or to transport custom harvested crops to storage or market
• Beekeeper in the seasonal transportation of bees
• Controlled and operated by a farmer, but is not a combination vehicle (power unit and towed unit), and is used to transport agricultural products, farm machinery or farm supplies (no placard-able hazardous materials) to and from a farm and within 150 air-miles of the farm
• As a private motor carrier of passengers for non-business purposes
• To transport migrant workers

 If you answered yes to one or more of the above activities as the only operation in which the employee drives, the employee operates in excepted interstate commerce and does not need a Federal medical examiner’s certificate

 If the employee drives for more than just the above activities, the employee operates in non-excepted interstate commerce and is required to provide a current medical examiner’s certificate (49 CFR 391.45), commonly referred to as a medical certificate or DOT card, to your SDLA. Most CDL holders who drive CMVs in interstate commerce are non-excepted interstate commerce drivers

 If the employee operates in both excepted interstate commerce and non-excepted interstate commerce, you must choose non-excepted interstate commerce to be qualified to operate in both types of interstate commerce

Intrastate Commerce:

 The employee operates in excepted Intrastate commerce when drives a CMV only in intrastate commerce activities which State of licensure has determined do not require to meet the State’s medical certification requirements

The employee operates in non-excepted intrastate commerce when drives a CMV only in intrastate commerce and is required to meet State of licensure’s medical certification requirements
If the employee operates in both excepted intrastate commerce and non-excepted intrastate commerce, you must choose non-excepted intrastate commerce.

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