Truckers' licenses raising eyebrows
But state doesn't want to close down driving schools over the issue
It sounds as if it must be one huge house.
Actually, it is the headquarters of C.R. England, one of the nation's largest trucking firms. The company acknowledges that virtually all who list its address as their own do not live there but come from out of state to attend its truck driving school for a couple weeks to obtain a Utah commercial driver's license (CDL) and to work for the company nationwide.
The trouble is, both Utah and federal law (according to a recent Utah attorney general's opinion) bans states from issuing CDLs to anyone who is not a permanent resident.
Utah issues them anyway but just to nonresident students at truck-driving schools like England's. That comes despite post-9/11 efforts to tighten access by illegal immigrants and other nonresidents to drivers' licenses.
Utah Public Safety Commissioner Robert Flowers acknowledges that technically violates the law (as interpreted by the attorney general). He says, however, that laws may soon change — and he wants to hold off enforcement for now to ensure they do not unnecessarily close 14 or so driving schools in Utah like England's and worsen a national driver shortage.
The situation is revealed by documents obtained by the Deseret Morning News through a state open records law request. They show England was able to halt repeated attempts to enforce laws that could hurt it by lobbying such people as Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.
Although officials say Utah has issued CDLs to out-of-state students at trucking schools for 16 years, documents show officials began questioning whether that is legal or wise in 2003 when investigations showed some schools issued CDLs without testing and "that nonresident individuals were coming to Utah merely to obtain a driver's license or CDL, contrary to Utah law."
A state memo notes that raised red flags because "many of the 9/11 terrorists had obtained multiple fraudulent drivers' licenses from various states."
Memos add, "Just recently, our State Bureau of Investigation discovered that nonresidents . . . were paying facilitators to help them obtain a Utah driver license. They would fly into Utah for the day, attempt to obtain a Utah license and leave the state the same day."
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