It’s still unclear what the long-term impact of COVID-19 will be on the job market for drivers possessing commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs). Back in February, the industry was still facing a historic shortage of qualified CDL drivers, especially with the country facing nearly full employment. Of course, a lot has changed with the overall employment rate since then, but it’s not likely to have an appreciable effect — at least in the long term — on the driver shortage. That’s why, for some routes, distributors are turning to delivery vehicles that don’t require a CDL, but still have the capacity to get the job done.
Typically, when a vehicle has a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 26,000 pounds or less, the driver does not need to have a CDL to operate it. That federal requirement gets augmented a bit when a trailer is involved. If the gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of the truck-and-trailer combo exceeds 26,000 pounds, then its driver is required to have a CDL.