On Thursday, July 18, Senator Jordan Rasmusson (R-Fergus Falls) and Representative Heather Keeler (DFL-Moorhead) visited M State’s Moorhead campus to celebrate legislation they championed to help more Minnesotans obtain their commercial driver’s license (CDL). This event was held at the Minnesota State Transportation Center of Excellence, and it was attended by M State representatives along with community and business leaders.
“Some 10,000 people per year seek to obtain or renew their CDL licenses in Minnesota,” says Craig Beytien, Vice President-Strategic Engagement at M State. “With just 26 testing sites in the state, they’ve been having to wait up to nine weeks, and sometimes travel hundreds of miles, to be tested.”
To be a third-party CDL tester, a public higher education institution was previously required to offer a course with at least 180 hours of training. However, most state institutions do not offer 180-hour programs, and there is no federal or state requirement on the number of instructional hours needed to obtain a CDL. Therefore, the new law removes the 180-hour training requirement but keeps all the rigorous federal and state program requirements.
Beytien also noted that the law change, which went into effect July 1, “allows M State and other public postsecondary institutions to conduct testing at our own local sites and move people through the CDL pipeline more quickly. It means we can expand our CDL programs, in size and scope, to better meet student and workforce needs.”
During the event, Sen. Rasmusson spoke about the necessity for this new law and the positive impact it will have. He explained how it will help address the state’s CDL testing backlog and expand educational opportunities at institutions like M State within the Minnesota State system.
“CDL drivers are in high demand across the state, but a current challenge is limited testing capacity,” says Sen. Rasmusson. “I am grateful for the passage of this legislation that will allow more public higher education institutions to offer third-party CDL testing. This change will create more opportunities for Minnesota students to pursue in-demand careers.”