Commercial Driver's License Devolution Act of 2003

The Commercial Driver’s License Devolution Act of 2003 was a legislative proposal that sought to give individual states more authority over the licensing of commercial truck and bus drivers who operate exclusively within their own state borders. Under this bill, a driver would be allowed to operate a commercial vehicle within a single state as long as they met that specific state’s fitness standards and passed its required written and driving tests.

For citizens, the bill’s primary impact would have been a shift from federal to state-level oversight for local commercial driving. This would have allowed states to set their own qualification and testing requirements for intrastate drivers, potentially creating different standards for local delivery or transport drivers compared to those who drive across state lines. The bill was referred to a subcommittee in 2003 and did not become law.