Qualifications of Drivers; Vision Standards Grandfathering Provision

What it does

FMCSA amends the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations to remove the grandfathering provision under the physical qualifications standards for interstate drivers operating under the vision waiver study program administered from 1992 through 1994, and the vision exemption program operated from 1998 through 2022, as the grandfathering provision is now obsolete. FMCSA's current rules permit individuals who do not satisfy, with the worse eye, either the existing distant visual acuity standard with corrective lenses or the field of vision standard, or both, to be physically qualified to operate a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) in interstate commerce under specified conditions.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's summary, as published in the Federal Register.

What changed in the regulation

1 part of Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations:

49 CFR 391

Wording on eCFR: the day before it took effect and from the day it took effect (first part listed).

Compared with

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has published 21 final rules in 2026 so far, compared with 6 in all of 2025.

Counted by the Tribune from Federal Register records since Jan. 1, 2025.

Before this

1 earlier Federal Register document under regulation identifier 2126-AC87 since Jan. 1, 2025.

• May 30, 2025 Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM). Qualifications of Drivers; Vision Standards Grandfathering Provision

What happens next and when

Effective March 23, 2026. Petitions for reconsideration of this final rule must be submitted to the FMCSA Administrator no later than March 23, 2026.

The agency's dates, word for word.

Check it yourself

• The document in the Federal Register
• Docket FMCSA-2025-0113 on Regulations.gov
• Title 49 on eCFR

The record as published

Source: the Federal Register (public domain). The document in the Federal Register