BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1648
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Date of Hearing: April 28, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 1648 (Jeffries and Chesbro) - As Amended: April 14, 2010
Policy Committee:
TransportationVote:13-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
As proposed to be amended, this bill sets forth new driver's
license requirements for firefighters of federal, state, local,
and tribal fire departments that operate firefighter equipment.
Specifically, the bill:
1)Modifies the current requirement that a person operating
firefighting equipment with a gross vehicle weight rating over
26,000 pounds have a Class A or Class B, to include a third
option, which requires a Class C license and a firefighter
endorsement from the DMV.
2)Requires the driver to present evidence to the DMV of
successful completion of firefighter equipment operation
training and pass an existing written examination developed by
the department in cooperation with the State Fire Marshal.
3)Prohibits DMV from imposing fees for firefighter endorsements,
unless the endorsement is added to an existing license, for
which the driver is required to pay a duplicate license fee.
4)Provides that a regularly organized, official fire department
is not required to participate in the Department of Motor
Vehicles (DMV) Employer Pull Notice (EPN) Program and that
department's participating voluntarily will not be charged
fees.
FISCAL EFFECT
DMV reports that the bill would result in minor and absorbable
costs to the department.
AB 1648
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COMMENTS
1)Background. Under the Employer Testing Program (ETP),
employers of commercial drivers are permitted to conduct the
drive test portion for the DMV's commercial driver's licensing
requirements for Class A, Class B, and non-commercial
firefighter restricted license
Employers of commercial drivers are required participate in the
EPN Program, which provides employers with information
regarding a driver's current public DMV records and any
convictions, failures to appear, accidents, driver's license
suspensions, driver's license revocations, or other actions
taken against the person's driving privilege.
2)Rationale . The DMV reports that the ETP is about to undergo
significant changes to conform to new, more rigid, federal
regulations relating to such programs. These changes will
make it difficult for fire departments, particularly in rural
areas, to operate ETP programs. This will essentially require
fire districts to send new drivers to commercial drive test
facilities run by the DMV. At the same time, DMV reports it
is reducing the number of drive test facilities from 30 to
eight. This is posing a major problem for fire districts,
particularly in rural areas, which report that they need to
send personnel and equipment far away from their districts,
potentially hampering public safety.
This bill is intended to address the challenges posed by these
new federal regulations, by removing the firefighter
restricted license program from DMV's commercial driver's
license program (as authorized under federal law). It creates
new alternative testing requirements. Under this alternative,
drivers will be trained by their departments and will be
required to pass a written DMV test. The author also notes
that the required training standards are not impacted by this
bill.
3)Amendments . The proposed amendments authorize firefighters
from tribes to qualify for the alternative licensing
requirements, and make other clarifying and technical changes.
Analysis Prepared by : Brad Williams / APPR. / (916) 319-2081
AB 1648
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