Renewing Your CDL

Every four years, you'll need to make a trip to a deputy registrar's office to renew your Commercial Driver's License (CDL).

Your license will expire on your birthday of that year. (If you're under 21, your license will expire on your 21st birthday, regardless of when you initially received it.) You'll have up to six months after your birthday to renew your license without having to retake any examinations, providing you've had a clean driving record (see details below) in the two-year period preceding your renewal request.

If you're in the clean-driver category, all you'll have to do is pass the vision test, provide any updated information, pay the $43 fee, and you're on your way.

Please note that if you have a change of address, you should notify the registrar in writing within 10 days of the change.
You can pick up a Change of Address form at any deputy registrar's office.

License or Endorsement Upgrades

If you want to upgrade your license, you'll also need to pass all of the additional testing requirements that may be needed, such as a written or driving test. If you want to either retain or upgrade a hazardous materials endorsement, you'll have to pass the written test.

License Already Expired?

Now, if you wait until after six months from your birthday to apply for your renewal, you'll have to retake both the CDL written and skills tests. The same goes for if you've been convicted of any of the following in the two-year period before your renewal:

• Speeding ticket while driving a commercial vehicle.

• Reckless operation offense.

• Traffic offense that results in a fatal accident.

• Any traffic offense that is deemed serious by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation.

You'll also need to certify that in the preceding two-year period you:

• Have held only one license.

• Have not had any license suspended, revoked, or canceled.

• Have not had any violations connected with a traffic accident while operating a commercial vehicle.

• Have not been in an accident in which you were at fault while operating a commercial vehicle.

• Have not been guilty of any of the disqualification offenses described in Ohio Revised Code 4506.16.