Mandated by the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act (CMVSA) of 1986, CDLIS supports the issuance of commercial driver licenses (CDLs) by the jurisdictions, and assists jurisdictions in meeting the goals of the basic tenet "that each driver, nationwide, have only one driver license and one record" through the cooperative exchange of commercial driver information between jurisdictions. CDLIS has operated in all 51 U.S. jurisdictions (50 states and the District of Columbia) since April 1, 1992. As of March 31, 2009, CDLIS had 13.9 million records and growing.
The System
CDLIS consists of a Central Site and nodes at the Motor Vehicle Agencies (MVAs) of the 51 jurisdictions. The Central Site houses identification data about each commercial driver registered in the jurisdictions, such as:
- name
- date of birth
- Social Security Number
- state driver license number
- AKA information
- Current "State of Record" (SOR)
This information constitutes a driver's unique CDLIS Master Pointer Record (MPR). Each MVA houses detailed information about each driver for which it is the SOR. This detailed information, called the driver history, includes identification information, license information, and a history of convictions and withdrawals.
When a jurisdiction MVA queries CDLIS to obtain information about an applicant prior to issuing a CDL, the CDLIS Central Site compares data provided by the State Of Inquiry (SOI) against all MPRs in CDLIS. If one or more matches are returned, then the CDLIS Central Site "points" the SOI to the SOR. The SOR can then provide the detailed information about the driver's commercial driving history.
For more information, contact AAMVA's Operations Department.
New, Must-Read! A CDL and CDLIS Overview for New Users
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and AAMVA have just created a new Commercial Driver's License Information System (CDLIS) document, titled A CDL and CDLIS Overview for New Users (Release 1.0.0). The document is an illustrated introduction to the commercial driver licensing process, CDLIS, and the associated Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. FMCSA and AAMVA recommend that persons unfamiliar with CDLIS read this document before reading the detailed CDLIS documentation (which includes the CDLIS State Procedures Manual, the CDLIS System Specifications, and the ACD Manual).