CDL Serious Traffic Violations: Offenses, Penalties, and Reinstatement

Under federal rules at 49 CFR 383.51, CDL serious traffic violations are a defined list of ten offenses — six dangerous driving behaviors and four licensing failures — and while a single conviction won’t cost you your commercial license, a second within three years triggers a mandatory 60-day disqualification and a third pushes it to 120 days.¹

The Ten Offenses That Qualify

Six involve how you drive:

Excessive speeding, defined as 15 mph or more over the posted or regulated limit. Fourteen over doesn’t count; the threshold is a hard line.
Reckless driving, as defined by the state or local jurisdiction where it happens.
Improper or erratic lane changes.
Following too closely.
Any traffic violation (other than parking) committed in connection with a fatal crash.
Using a handheld phone or texting while driving a commercial motor vehicle.

The phone and texting rule only applies while you’re actually operating a CMV. The other five behaviors count against your CDL no matter what you were driving at the time, subject to the personal-vehicle condition explained below.¹

The other four are credentialing failures, and all of them apply only while operating a CMV:

Driving a CMV without ever having obtained a CDL or a commercial learner’s permit.
Driving a CMV without your CDL in your possession. If you can prove to the enforcement authority before your court date that you held a valid CDL on the day of the citation, the charge can be dismissed.
Driving a CMV without the correct license class for the vehicle (holding a Class B while operating something that requires a Class A, for example).
Driving a CMV without the required endorsement, such as hauling hazardous materials or operating a tank vehicle with no HazMat or tank endorsement on your license.

These four look at whether you were legally qualified to be behind the wheel at all, not at how you were driving.¹

What One, Two, or Three Convictions Cost You

One serious traffic violation on its own doesn’t disqualify you from operating a commercial vehicle under federal law. The penalty structure only engages once convictions start stacking within a three-year window.

Second conviction within three years: minimum 60-day disqualification.
Third or subsequent conviction within three years: minimum 120-day disqualification.

Those periods are mandatory minimums. No safety course, fine, or judicial discretion shortens them.¹

Each conviction from a separate incident counts as its own strike. The offenses don’t have to be the same type: two speeding convictions and one speeding plus one reckless driving are treated identically for counting.

When a Ticket in Your Personal Car Counts

Five of the driving-behavior offenses — excessive speeding, reckless driving, improper lane changes, following too closely, and any traffic violation tied to a fatal crash — can count against your CDL even when you commit them in a personal vehicle. There’s one condition: the conviction must result in the revocation, cancellation, or suspension of your regular driver’s license or driving privileges. If the state doesn’t touch your base license, the offense doesn’t feed into the CDL count.¹

When it does count, the disqualification periods are the same: 60 days for a second conviction, 120 for a third within three years. And federal rules require combining CMV and non-CMV convictions when counting strikes. A reckless driving conviction in your pickup and an excessive speeding conviction in your rig give you two strikes, not one in each column.

Railroad Crossing Violations Escalate Faster

Railroad-highway grade crossing offenses are treated separately, and even a first conviction disqualifies you. These apply when a CMV driver violates any federal, state, or local law at a railroad crossing.

First conviction: minimum 60-day disqualification.
Second conviction within three years: minimum 120-day disqualification.
Third or subsequent conviction within three years: minimum one-year disqualification.

That one-year floor on a third offense is well beyond the 120-day maximum for other serious violations.¹

Serious Violations vs. Major Offenses

Federal CDL rules put serious traffic violations in a middle tier. Above them sit “major offenses,” and confusing the two is costly because major offenses disqualify you on a single conviction.

Major offenses include driving under the influence of alcohol or a controlled substance (or having a BAC of 0.04 or higher while operating a CMV), refusing an alcohol test required under implied consent laws, leaving the scene of an accident, using a vehicle to commit a felony, driving a CMV while your CDL is already revoked or suspended due to prior CMV violations, and causing a fatality through negligent operation of a commercial vehicle.

A first major offense conviction carries a minimum one-year disqualification, or three years if you were transporting hazardous materials at the time. A second major offense means lifetime disqualification. Drug trafficking using a CMV brings a lifetime ban with no possibility of reinstatement.¹

What You Have to Report After a Conviction

Two separate notification duties follow any traffic conviction other than parking, and drivers often satisfy one while missing the other.

Within 30 days of the conviction, you must notify your current employer in writing. The notice should include the date of the offense and the nature of the violation. This applies to every traffic conviction, in any vehicle, in any state. If you aren’t employed, you notify the state that issued your CDL instead.²

Separately, if the conviction happened in a state other than the one that issued your CDL, you must notify your licensing state within the same 30-day window. An out-of-state court won’t automatically push the record to your home state.²

Both duties apply whether or not you plan to appeal. The 30-day clock doesn’t pause for an appeal.

Getting Your CDL Back

For the 60-day and 120-day disqualifications tied to serious traffic violations, federal law doesn’t prescribe a specific reinstatement process. The disqualification period expires and your state licensing agency handles the administrative steps. Requirements vary by state, and reinstatement fees typically run from $15 to $125. Some states require additional paperwork or an in-person visit.³

If your medical examiner’s certificate lapsed during the disqualification, you’ll need a new one before privileges are fully restored. Some states may also require retesting in that case.

1
eCFR. 49 CFR 383.51 – Disqualification of Drivers
2
eCFR. 49 CFR 383.31 – Notification of Convictions for Driver Violations
3
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. How Can I Get Back My Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) Privileges