PAM Transport, headquartered in Tontitown, Arkansas, has asked the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for an exemption that would let its newly tested commercial learner's permit holders drive revenue loads without a CDL holder sitting in the front seat beside them, according to a notice published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, and reported by Land Line Media, the trucking publication of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.
Source: Land Line Media
The Federal Register notice itself, Docket No. FMCSA-2026-3466, is the primary federal document in the case: it opens PAM's application to public comment through November 27, 2026, on Regulations.gov. FMCSA has not granted the exemption. PAM is asking to become the eighth carrier with this kind of relief.
Source: Federal Register / FMCSA, Docket FMCSA-2026-3466
The rule PAM wants relief from, in plain terms
Under 49 CFR 383.25(a)(1), a commercial learner's permit (CLP) holder may drive on public roads only while a CDL holder is seated in the front seat. The exemption PAM seeks applies narrowly: only to CLP holders who have already passed the CDL skills test but have not yet obtained the actual CDL document from their home state. In other words, the driver has passed the test; the paper licence has not yet arrived.
Seven carriers already hold active exemptions from that front-seat rule, according to FMCSA's list cited by Land Line: Wilson Logistics, Werner Enterprises, Landair Transport, CR England, New PRIME, CRST and Stevens Transport. PAM would be the eighth if FMCSA grants its request.
PAM's argument, in its own words
PAM told FMCSA the exemption would 'allow the CLP holder to begin employment in a timelier manner, strengthen their newly acquired driving skills and participate in a revenue-generating trip back to their state of domicile to obtain their CDL documents.' The company estimates somewhere between 500 and 700 of its CLP holders would operate under the exemption each year.
PAM suggested that denial of the exemption would create 'financial hardships for already-trained drivers and the potential degradation of recently acquired driving skills' — drivers who have passed the test but must wait, unpaid or underused, for the home-state document before they can work a full revenue trip home.
The opposition, and why this is contested
Truck safety groups and individual truckers have opposed this class of exemption before. When FMCSA granted Landair Transport a five-year exemption on September 1, 2026, the agency had received 10 comments: eight opposed, one in support and one neutral, Land Line reported. Opponents contend large carriers use the exemption so they can run teams with the CLP holder — effectively putting a brand-new driver to work in a team operation sooner than the front-seat rule intends.
The Truck Safety Coalition, quoted by Land Line in the Landair fight, wrote: 'All carriers should be willing and prepared to meet the cost that minimal safety compliance requires,' and called on FMCSA 'to demonstrate its unwavering commitment to safety and to deny this inadequately justified exemption application.' FMCSA does not grant every request: it recently denied a similar application from Agri-Tech Aviation, citing concerns over the transportation of hazardous materials.
Why this matters to Punjabi and other new-entrant truckers
A large share of Awaaz Punjab's U.S. readers are Punjabi truck drivers, many of whom entered the industry through carrier training programmes of exactly the kind PAM runs. For a new driver, the gap between passing the skills test and holding the home-state CDL document can mean days of waiting at a terminal far from home. An exemption lets the carrier put that driver on a paid, revenue-generating trip back toward the home state instead. Critics answer that the same gap is a safety buffer, and that team-driving a novice is not the same as supervised training. Both arguments are now on the public record in FMCSA's docket.
What happens next, and how to comment
Nothing has been decided. Comments on PAM Transport's request are accepted through November 27, 2026: go to Regulations.gov and enter Docket No. FMCSA-2026-3466, or use the comment link in the Federal Register notice. FMCSA will then decide whether to grant a time-limited exemption, as it did for Landair for five years, or deny the request, as it did for Agri-Tech Aviation. Until FMCSA acts, the front-seat rule in 49 CFR 383.25(a)(1) applies to PAM's CLP holders in full.