BOSTON (WWLP) – Lawmakers held a legislative briefing on Tuesday about a Governor Healey bill that seeks to prevent hundreds of Massachusetts drivers from losing their commercial licenses.
The governor proposed a bill that modifies why truck and bus drivers can have their licenses taken away in order to ensure that passenger vehicle offenses committed before September 2005 do not disqualify drivers from holding commercial licenses.
One Massachusetts business owner, Sean Bishop, told lawmakers at the hearing that he was forced to lay off one of his best truck drivers when the driver lost his license due to a 1980s DUI that occurred when he was in his teens.
“This is just…it just can’t stand…it has to be changed. They’re not a danger to the public, they’re not a danger to families driving in their cars, and we need to give them a way to renew their careers and their livelihoods,” said Bishop, the owner of Ground Effects Landscaping and Supplies in Carver.
Bishop’s wife and co-owner of their business testified that drivers who reside in other states–like New Hampshire and Rhode Island–but work in Massachusetts, are not subject to the same rules to keep their commercial licenses.