Several changes are coming to the Idaho Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) on July 1 as new legislation takes effect. These changes will improve customer service and offer more options to Idahoans.
Driver’s License and ID Cards
Customers who are eligible to renew their driver’s license online will get a $5 discount for completing the transaction online.
The requirements for getting a free identification card (ID) for voting have been reduced. Legislation has removed the rule that applicants must not have had a valid driver’s license for 6 months before applying for the free ID.
Commercial Drivers and Vehicles
Commercial drivers will now be able to get a commercial driver’s license (CDL) for eight years. The previous limit for CDLs was four years. CDLs will also be checked against the National Drug and Alcohol Clearing House.
DMV will now issue two-year weighted registrations for commercial and non-commercial vehicles up to 60,000 lbs. The previous limit was one year.
License Plates
Idaho will offer a Space Force Plate to eligible customers.
All Purple Heart recipients will be able to get a Purple Heart plate for free. Previously the fee exemption only applied to disabled Purple Heart recipients.
Legislation also created a Gadsden Flag “Don’t Tread on Me” plate. Plate sales will help fund educational grants for firearms safety training. While the legislation goes into effect on July 1, per the timeline included in the law, plates will be made available by January 1, 2025.
Driver’s Education
Parents in rural school districts or districts without driver’s education programs will be able to teach the on-the-road portion of driver’s ed. Parents must keep a log of drive time and skills learned. Students will complete the classroom driver’s ed course through the Idaho Digital Learning Alliance (IDLA). More information is available from the Idaho Department of Education.
Other
The definition of “resident” to get a vehicle registration, title, license, or identification card has been changed from 90 days to 30 days. This does not change the definition of resident for voting purposes.
If an owner wants to sell a vehicle that has no active registration, they can get up to two 30-day temporary registrations for the purpose of selling the vehicle.
The Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) and Tyler Idaho are offering commercial fleets a Driver Record Dashboard (DRD) to help companies manage their driver risks. The DRD service allows motor carriers to build a roster of Idaho drivers to monitor changes and receive an alert if any of their drivers’ statuses change.
Benefits:
Driver roster is checked twice a month (early and mid-month) for changes.
Email notification when a driver’s status changes.
Status changes include new conviction/suspension, a class change, expired or cancelled DLR.
Nightly monitoring for medical certification issues and expiration dates.
Flags records, driver’s licenses, and CDL expiration dates are for review and download.
Companies can build a roster one driver at a time or through bulk employee uploading. After building the roster you can purchase driver records individually or in bulk. If there is an issue with a driver’s status, the tracking history is saved each month, to create a compliance record. The record will be a full view of a driver’s history and available for review for 24 months.
Auto dealers, bus companies, school districts, state agencies, and food distribution fleets have used DRD for managing multiple driver records and compliance.
What does DRD Cost?
Monthly DRD service $10.00/month
Twice a month monitoring fee per record $0.16
Automatic record pull following a status change $10.00/Driver’s license record (DLR)
Manual driver’s license record pull $10.00/DLR
Tyler Idaho subscription $95/year
For more information on participating in this program call Tyler Idaho at 208-332-0102 or visit https://www.tyleridaho.com/demo/drd/ to view a demo and sign up.
A tire blowout on a semitruck traveling at highway speeds can be dangerous, even deadly. As part of the Idaho Transportation Department’s (ITD) ongoing commitment to safety, the agency will begin installing Tire Anomaly and Classification (TAC) Systems at Ports of Entry (POE) around the state.
Ports of Entry inspect commercial vehicles and oversee their safe operation on Idaho roads. TAC systems are installed in the road and screen semitruck tires for anomalies and damage. Port employees can use the TAC data to notify truck drivers of damaged or underinflated tires before they cause a safety problem.
Idaho’s first TAC system was installed at the Declo POE in February 2023. Over 1,100 tire anomalies have been detected since the system went live.
“Installing TAC systems is a proactive approach to safety,” explained ITD Commercial Vehicle Services Manager Craig Roberts. “The driving public is much safer when commercial vehicles with tire issues are stopped to correct blowouts, flats, or missing tires.”
The TAC installation schedule is as follows:
East Boise POE in both directions, week of May 28.
Lewiston POE in both directions, week of July 15.
Sage POE in both directions, tentatively late July or early August depending on other road construction in the area.
Huetter POE in both directions, tentatively August depending on other road construction in the area.
Inkom POE will have a phased installation. Southbound is to be completed in June. Northbound is to be completed next year during work on the Inkom interchange.
The cost for all the new TAC systems combined is $1.2 million. In 2022, the economic cost of crashes involving commercial motor vehicles in Idaho was over $627 million.
Do you have what it takes to be a truck driving champion? The Idaho Trucking Association (ITA) is hosting The Idaho Truck Driving Championships (TDC) on May 3 and 4 at the Idaho State Police Training Facility (POST), 700 S. Stratford, Meridian, ID 83642.
Drivers compete for the top positions in Idaho and for the right to compete at the National Truck Driving Championship that will be held in Indianapolis in August.
The TDC is a family-friendly event. The ITA encourages drivers’ families to attend and watch the competition from designated viewing areas.
Is your Commercial Driver Medical Examiner’s Certificate (Form MCSA-5876) coming from an FMCSA-registered medical examiner? As of February, medical examiners are required to register with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Using a medical provider who is not on FMCSA’s national registry could lead to a downgrade of your commercial driver’s license (CDL) if it is not fixed within 45 days.
The Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) has received a few Medical Examiner’s Certificates from providers that have been removed from the registry. Those drivers who didn’t use a registered provider will need to book new appointments with someone on the registry and submit a new Form MCSA-5876 to ITD.
Tires wearing out early on commercial vehicles can be dangerous for the driver and other vehicles on the road. Conventional wisdom is to inflate a truck’s inside and outside tires to the same pressure. However, when the tires have equal pressure, it puts more weight on the inside tire leading to uneven wear and issues with braking, fuel mileage, and handling.
The Idaho Transportation Department’s (ITD) Port of Entry (POE) team has six new split platform portable scales that will be used to demonstrate the weight difference between the inside and outside dual tires. They’ll demonstrate this issue to industry members in ITD’s six districts and to ITD’s teams. This can save companies and the state money on tire replacements, fuel, brakes, and suspension parts. The POE will start reaching out to industry partners in April.
Check out this video for a demonstration of the split scales and the effect of tire pressure on weight distribution.
Starting February 1, 2024, Idaho Motor Carrier Services will no longer accept the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 2290 Heavy Highway Vehicle Use Tax Returns (HVUT) filings for forwarding to the IRS. This includes in-person locations, by mail, by drop box, or e-mail.
Instead, carriers must file directly with the IRS either by mail or online.
If filing by mail, the address is provided on the 2290 instructions. The IRS estimates 6 weeks of processing time, so please plan accordingly.
Once filing of the 2290 form is complete, the IRS will email a watermarked Schedule 1. This is the proof of HVUT filing. Federal rules require that carriers provide it when applying for vehicle registration that reflects a gross weight of 55,000 pounds or more.
Motor Carrier Services cannot accept the receipt-stamped or e-filed Schedule 1 if there are errors, or if it is filed for the wrong tax year. To ensure the right tax year is selected, use the online HVUT filing period tool.
If you have any questions please contact Motor Carrier Services at 208-334-8611
Idaho commercial vehicle customers can now renew annual special permits in bulk online at permits4idaho.com and save money in the process.
Customers can save $5 per permit when renewing online at permits4idaho.com. Bulk renewals also save time over renewing annual permits individually.
Permits4idaho.com also has a new Company Dashboard to easily manage your permits. Now customers can renew and pay for annual permits online in bulk, order special permits for overweight and/or over-dimensional loads, and remove annual permits that they no longer need. The site displays a notification when permits are 30 days from expiring.
Find the link to the Instructions for Annual Renewal ProcessTrucking.idaho.gov/permits/. The website is the central location for all commercial vehicle and motor carrier information. From permits and registrations to taxes and safety information Trucking.idaho.gov is the greatest resource for Idaho’s trucking industry.
Update: Both Declo Ports of Entry (POE) are now open.
Original story Dec 13, 2023:
10-months after the Declo westbound Port of Entry (POE) opened, the eastbound side is nearing completion. Staff moved in at the end of November to set up the building and test the electronic screening equipment before full operations begin. The hope is to have the newest port completely open by December 21, 2023.
The eastbound Declo port will have a state-of-the-art commercial registration office with a customer service window for appointments.
The Declo POE also has a Tire Anomaly Classification System (known as TAC) which screens tire conditions at highway speeds. Catching damaged tires before they blow out helps keep highway users safe.
The current Cotterel Port of Entry, eastbound location, will be decommissioned and only the rest area will remain.
For more information about commercial vehicle services in Idaho visit Trucking.idaho.gov. The site is the central location for all commercial vehicle and motor carrier information. From permits and registrations to taxes and safety information Trucking.idaho.gov is the greatest resource for Idaho’s trucking industry.
There are about 4,000 commercial vehicle customers with full fee (Idaho registered only) commercial registrations that expire on December 31 and 500 that expire on January 31.
If your registration expires in December or January, you can change the expiration date to a different time. Idaho Motor Carrier Services offers this option to all full fee (Idaho registered only) commercial vehicles.
Customer benefits:
Pay renewal fees during the time of year that works best for your finances.
For seasonal operations, you can choose the latest month of the year you will operate and then wait to renew until you start operating. This reduces the registration fees by the number of months you are not operating.
Faster renewals. Moving your renewal to a less busy month evens out the workload for the DMV’s commercial vehicle staff and leads to quicker service.
How to change your expiration date:
Every customer with full fee registered vehicles receives an Expiration Date Change form in the mail with their renewal packet.
If there is a more convenient month for your commercial vehicle registration(s) to expire, please complete the form and return it with your renewal.
For registrations that expire December 31 you will receive the renewal packet in early November. If your registration expires January 31 you will receive the packet in early December.
If you have already renewed for the 2024 calendar year, we can’t change it now, however you will receive the option again next year.
Motor Carrier Services’ goal is to transition at least 50% of December and January renewals to a different month. This will greatly improve department efficiency and turn-around time for all customers.
If you have any questions, contact a registration specialist at 208-334-8611, Monday – Friday, 9 am to 4 pm Mountain Time, e-mail us at cvs@itd.idaho.gov, or go to Trucking.idaho.gov where you may find the answer you’re seeking.
Trucking.idaho.gov is the central location for all commercial vehicle and motor carrier information. From permits and registrations to taxes and safety information Trucking.idaho.gov is the greatest resource for Idaho’s trucking industry.
