CDL Self Certification

I almost had the same happen to me, Fred. I was sitting at a scalehouse when i checked my voicemail-- had a message from my auto insurance company giving me a heads up that my CDL was coming up as suspended. You better believe I was sweating walking into the coop. Luckily they just glanced at my papers and sent me on my way.

My wife was deployed overseas at the time and I was on the road-- hadn't been home in months and I never got any of the mail telling me to self certify.

It took two days to jump through the hoops and get paperwork and a reinstatement payment out to the state.

 

When you "self certify" in TN, they will send you back a letter in the main saying they got your certification form. At least that way you know they got it and if you have any trouble, you have the letter as proof that it was sent in.

 

To self certify is to tier one for full interstate and intrastate commerce. WITH the required valid Medical attached to the CDL.

To self Certify under grandfather rule is Tier two, you hold the full CDL but no medical card required. You do get to do some farm work exempt and also Mortuary services hauling dead bodies after a terrorist attack under FEMA supervision.

There are other tiers availible depending on the state. For my purposes I certified under Tier Two for the grandfather provision. For all intents and purposes everything else was a full A cdl airbrakes, etc.