If my medical stays expired for too long, is there a danger of losing my CDL and having to take a driving retest to get it back?

I'm currently not driving a commercial vehicle, so I let it expire and plan to get it renewed again should I plan to get another truckdriving job.

 

Guess it depends on the state. In Virginia I was originally told 6 months after the due date of the medical card they would take my CDL completely. A week after the due date, a letter came in saying I had 30 days or it was gone completely and I would have to start all over with the testing. Call up or email your DMV to ask. The new regs changed things, you should have gotten a letter right after it was due informing you of what was going on and how long you had.

 

Your medical card is now tied to your CDL. Unless you keep your medical card current your CDL could be downgraded to a standard drivers license. If you plan on keeping your CDL you should go ahead and get a current medical card. It can be a real hassle to get your CDL back once it has been downgraded. If you don't plan on using your CDL in the future, then don't worry about it.

 

in my state, if the medical card is not renewed, our CDL gets downgraded to an operators license. then, when we renew our med card, it goes back to a CDL. some states, yes, you have to go thru all testing, all over again.

the feds set it up as, just renew the med card. but some states feel the need to zap us for more money.

 

I'm in Louisiana, and here, you only need a medical card to renew your license. If you don't have one on the renewal date, you're downgraded from A to D, but still a CDL, and then you have one year to produce the card from then or you're stuck with the D CDL. Every state is different...