Traffic school for commercial drivers

California courts allow commercial license holders to attend Traffic Violator School when cited while driving a non-commercial vehicle.

URGENT EXTRA STEP for commercial drivers

Commercial driver’s licenses follow different rules under state and federal law. Because of this, the DMV cannot automatically apply traffic school to a CDL holder’s record—even if the ticket was received in a personal (non-commercial) vehicle.

After attending traffic school, commercial drivers must contact the DMV Mandatory Actions Unit to inform them that they have completed traffic school and request that the point count to be reduced to a zero point count on their driving record.  Due to privacy regulations, the traffic school cannot make this request for you.

The Mandatory Actions Unit (MAU) must manually review the case to:

  • Confirm the violation was not in a commercial vehicle
  • Verify the driver was eligible for traffic school
  • Confirm the court approved traffic school
  • Verify the driver completed traffic school

Once MAU confirms all of this, they can determine how the violation will appear on the CDL holder’s record. Federal law prohibits improper “masking” of commercial violations, so the DMV handles these manually to stay compliant.

 Bottom line – Contact the MAU approximately 10 days after finishing the traffic school course. Tel. (916) 657-6525

Benefits of attending traffic school

The benefit of attending traffic school as an eligible commercial driver is that the negligent operator point is shown on driving record as zero count.

Furthermore.  Federal regulations prevent the masking of violations for commercially licensed drivers.   This means that, even by attending traffic school, the violation will remain on the driving record as with all class license drivers.  Your insurance company and employers may be able to act on the information viewed on your record.

While the citation will remain on the driver’s record and may be disclosed to insurers for underwriting and rating purposes, the violation point will not be counted toward determining negligent operator status.   Per Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations §384.226, the violation itself cannot be removed from the record.

Additional information

If you have ever applied for, previously been or are currently a commercial driver, you must indicate the class license(s) on the Traffic School Application.  You too will be categorized as a commercial driver and will need to take the urgent step below.

For questions or clarification, please contact the DMV Mandatory Actions Unit (MAU) at (916) 657-6525.

We provide three options for completing traffic school: Online, Home Study or In-Classroom.