What are the Consequences of Not Abiding by the Law? The FMSCA finally pushed a hard deadline of July 2015 for enforcing the law. Since that date passed and not all states were on board, this caused quite the confusion for national carriers. The tanker endorsement regulation was originally debuted by the FMCSA in 2011 and it was said then that all states must be in line and enforcing by July 2014. The total combined volume in those containers exceeds 1,000 gallons.Īll states began enforcing this regulation in July 2015.The containers are loaded, and not empty.Your cargo includes liquid or gaseous individual containers larger than 119 gallon capacity.If the following conditions occur, you are responsible for obtaining a tanker endorsement on your CDL:

This change means that even those who are driving dry vans, reefers, flatbeds, and box trucks will be required to hold the endorsement if they meet the requirements below. In order to do this, the FMCSA changed the definition of a “tanker,” which, in turn, has changed the requirements for which drivers are required to hold a “tanker endorsement” on their CDL. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has rolled out a regulation meant to keep the roads safe from commercial drivers carrying large amounts of liquid or gaseous freight without the proper training.

What is it? Why is it needed? When did this become enforced? The information that has been published about this online is fairly vague, so we’d like to set some facts straight to help you ensure that you’re hauling your liquid or gaseous freight legally. Tanker endorsement is one of those regulations that often get some buzz in the trucking industry for CDL holders.

California tanker endorsement test