OOSC, Part I, Item 4. b. Medical Certificate (4) - Operating Property Carrying Vehicle without Medical Card

The out of service criteria Part I, 4. b. 4. Operating a property-carrying vehicle without a valid medical certificate in possession or on file with the state driver licensing agency. If the driver fails to produce a medical certificate or has an expired medical certificate, and has a previous history of either failing to produce a medical certificate, or having an expired medical certificate. (391.41(a)). Declare driver out of service. I feel is to open to interpretation. I request guidance or notes be added to clarify the out of service condition.

Example A: A driver of property-carrying vehicle (Non-CDL) is stopped and cited on inspection for not having a medical certificate in possession on 5/3/2016. The driver gets a medical certificate and is not stopped for and inspection again until 8/31/2017 (Non-CDL vehicle). There is no violations on the inspection report from 8/31/17. The driver is stopped again (Non-CDL vehicle) on 6/20/2018 and it is found that his medical certification expired on 5/5/2018. Example B: A driver of a property carrying vehicle (Non-CDL) is stopped and cited on inspection for not having a medical certificate in possession on 2/23/2018. On 6/25/2018 the driver is stopped again and is cited again for not having a medical certificate in possession. In both the above examples some inspectors determine that both drivers should be placed out of service because the wording of the out of service criteria states “has a previous history.” How far can an inspector go back a review previous inspections? Having any history would allow inspectors to place a driver out of service even is the violation occurred 10 years ago.

I request the Out of Service Criteria be revised to better explain the when a drive would be placed out of service. In my opinion, I feel that the intent of the out of service criteria is to insure the violation has been corrected. If there is evidence that the medical card violation was corrected and then another violation occurs on a later date, this would not be considered an out of service violation. I would suggest the out of service criteria be changed to the following: change is in parenthesis “Operating a property-carrying vehicle without a valid medical certificate in possession or on file with the state driver licensing agency. If the driver fails to produce a medical certificate or has an expired medical certificate, and has a previous history (change "and has a previous history" to “and the most recent inspection shows a violation”) of either failing to produce a medical certificate, or having an expired medical certificate. (391.41(a)). Declare driver out of service. If the committee feels that any history should be an out of service violation. Then a suggestion would be to change the out of service criteria to the following: changes in parenthesis Operating a property-carrying vehicle without a valid medical certificate in possession or on file with the state driver licensing agency. If the driver fails to produce a medical certificate or has an expired medical certificate, and has a (change "a" to "any" ) previous history of either failing to produce a medical certificate or having an expired medical certificate. (391.41(a)). Declare driver out of service.