CDLIS Searches

What is CDLIS?

CDLIS — the Commercial Driver's License Information System — is a nationwide system that links every state's driver licensing agency. It was created by the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986 and is operated by AAMVA under US Department of Transportation authority.

Its purpose is written into how AAMVA describes it: to ensure each commercial driver has "only one driver license and one complete driver record." Before CDLIS existed, a driver could pile up violations in one state, get licensed in another, and leave the history behind. CDLIS is the infrastructure that makes the federal one-license rule enforceable across state lines.

What a CDLIS search actually shows you

This is where most explanations go wrong, so here it is plainly. The employer CDLIS search returns driver identification data:

• The driver's current CDL number and issuing state
• Prior commercial licenses the driver has held, and the states that issued them
• Aliases and former names attached to those licensing records

It does not return violations, convictions, or driving history. Those live on the state driver record and are obtained separately. A CDLIS search answers "what licenses and identities exist for this person?" — not "what did they do behind the wheel?"

That limitation is not a weakness. It is precisely the question no other check answers.

Why carriers run it: the application is self-reported

Everything you know about an applicant's licensing history at the point of hire comes from the applicant. Federal rules require them to list each unexpired commercial license they have been issued, but that is a self-declaration — and the drivers most worth catching are the ones with a reason not to declare fully.

Consider what an application will never show you:

• A CDL held in a previous state under a former name
• A second license the driver is not permitted to hold
• A licensing record attached to an alias you have no reason to suspect

A CDLIS search surfaces those records. It moves you from qualifying a driver on their account of their history to qualifying them on the record.

How this completes your driver qualification file

This is the part most carriers don't connect, and it's the strongest reason to run the search.

Your driver qualification file is not complete with one driving record in it. Under 49 CFR 391.51, the DQF must contain a copy of the motor vehicle record received from each driver's licensing authority required by 49 CFR 391.23(a)(1) — meaning every authority where that driver held a license in the preceding three years. Those records have to be in the file within 30 days of the driver's start date.

Now follow the logic:

• Your DQF needs a driving record from every state the driver was licensed in over the last three years.
• You only know which states to request from what the driver told you.
• If the driver held a CDL in a state they didn't mention — or held it under a former name — you never request that record, and it's never in the file.

The file looks complete. Every document you knew to collect is there. But it is missing a record federal rules require, and neither you nor the auditor can see the gap by looking at the file itself — you can only see it by checking whether other licenses exist.

That is what the CDLIS search does. It tells you which licensing authorities belong in that driver's file, so the driving records you request — and keep — are actually the complete set. It is often the difference between a DQF that is genuinely compliant and one that only appears to be.

The rule that puts this on you

Under 49 CFR 383.21, a commercial driver may not hold more than one license. But the enforcement obligation doesn't stop with the driver — under 49 CFR 383.37, no employer may allow a driver to operate a commercial motor vehicle if the employer "knows or should reasonably know" the driver holds more than one CLP or CDL.

"Should reasonably know" is the phrase that matters. If a driver was holding a second license and a routine, inexpensive search would have revealed it, that is a difficult position to defend after an incident.

Separately, 49 CFR 391.23 requires you to make a driving-record inquiry to each licensing authority where the driver held or holds a license during the preceding three years. Knowing which authorities those are is a prerequisite — and on a driver who has moved or changed names, the application alone may not tell you.

Is it required — and do we recommend it?

It is not federally required, and we'd rather tell you that than sell you a myth. No regulation mandates a standalone CDLIS search or sets a frequency for one. You may see competitors claim FMCSA mandates it; that claim doesn't hold up against the regulations they cite.

We still recommend running one on every driver you hire. Here's the honest reasoning.

Every other check in your driver qualification file assumes you already know who you're checking. A driving record request needs a license number and a state. A PSP report needs a CDL. A background check needs a name and a date of birth. If the driver gave you an incomplete picture — a license from a state they didn't mention, a record under a former name — every one of those checks comes back clean, because you asked the wrong question of the right database.

The CDLIS search is the only one that answers "what licenses and identities actually exist for this person?" It shows the current CDL and issuing state, prior commercial licenses and the states that issued them, and aliases or former names attached to those records. It is the check that tells you whether the rest of your file is complete.

And it's inexpensive for what it protects against. At $10 it is the least expensive check in the file — less than a PSP report at $20, and a fraction of a criminal background check at $39. Set that against the rule that puts it on you — an employer may not let a driver operate when it knows or should reasonably know the driver holds more than one CDL. A second license that a routine search would have surfaced is a difficult thing to explain after an incident.

Our recommendation: run it at hire, on every driver, alongside the driving record. It takes seconds to order, the driver signs once, and it closes the one gap the rest of your qualification file can't see.

How Vertical Identity runs it

CDLIS is not a public lookup. It is furnished for permissible employment-screening purposes, and because it is provided as a consumer report, the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires the driver's written authorization before the search is run.

Every CDLIS search we run is ordered through an electronic release the driver signs — no signature, no search. You order it in the member portal, the driver signs on their phone, and the result files directly into that driver's qualification file so the documentation is there when an auditor asks.

Members can order CDLIS alongside the rest of driver vetting — driving records, PSP reports, background checks and Clearinghouse queries — under one login and one invoice, with every price published on the site.