19 Are Charged in a Plot to Cheat on Commercial Driver’s License Tests

For just a few thousand dollars, the complaint said, these test-takers had found a shortcut to a new career behind the wheel.

But their careers were cut short this week, when prosecutors in Brooklyn and Manhattan charged 19 people in connection with schemes that penetrated several local offices of the State Department of Motor Vehicles. Eleven people accused of organizing the cheating ring are facing federal fraud charges. Eight others who were applicants face state-level charges of making false statements.

Prosecutors said that more than 60 people cheated on the test and obtained commercial driver’s licenses, and officials said that more charges were expected.

Prosecutors said that none of the drivers who cheated on the tests went on to have an accident.

To obtain a commercial driver’s license from the D.M.V., applicants must pass a written or audio test covering subjects related to safely driving large vehicles. They must mark the answers to both the written and audio tests on paper. Applicants then take a road test.

In one cheating scheme for the written exam, Akmal Narzikulov, 28, an organizer of the ring, provided applicants with a coded pencil with a series of dots and dashes carved into its side, according to the court complaint. The dots and dashes reflected the answers to true or false portions of the exams.

In another scheme, the complaint said, test-takers would leave the exam room and give their blank tests to one of the members of the ring, often Joachim Pierre Louis. He would take the exams to a fast-food restaurant where an associate, Marie Daniel, would complete them, and then the exams would be returned to the applicants.

The ruse relied on bribed security guards, contract employees with the D.M.V., who turned  a blind eye. Three of those charged in Federal District Court in Brooklyn were guards.  

Two confidential informants approached the authorities and exposed the schemes. From April to September, undercover officers with the New York Police Department approached Mr. Narzikulov and Mr. Louis, paying them up to $4,000 for answers to the exams.

The scheme’s organizers face up to 20 years in prison; the drivers face up to 4 years.

The arrests were announced by the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Loretta E. Lynch; the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr.; and the state inspector general, Catherine Leahy Scott.

OBAC calls for moratorium on yearly road tests for senior A/Z drivers

OTTAWA, Ont. -- The Owner-Operator's Business Association of Canada (OBAC) says it is pleased Ontario Transport Minister Bob Chiarelli is seemingly willing to put an end to the discriminatory licensing requirements for senior commercial drivers.

OBAC also lauded the MTO for taking immediate steps to make the annual licensing requirements for drivers aged 65 and over less onerous. OBAC, along with other trucking organizations, has been appealing for change to the requirements for several years. Ontario is the only jurisdiction in North America that requires senior drivers to take a road test every year after the age of 65 in order to retain their A/Z licence.

"Through a succession of ministers, OBAC has gone to MTO recommending it does away with the road test for senior drivers, replacing it with a more suitable means of evaluating driver skills, cognitive ability, and regulatory knowledge," says OBAC executive director, Joanne Ritchie. "Forcing a driver with perhaps 30 or 40 years of experience to complete the entry-level driver's exam does nothing to test for conditions that could be associated with aging."

Chiarelli has directed his deputy minister to examine the issue and determine how to proceed with changing the licensing requirements. In the meantime, the MTO has made some small changes to the licensing procedure, which will be welcomed by commercial drivers.

Road test fees for senior drivers have been reduced to $14 from $75. Senior drivers will be able to use an automated transmission for their road tests. And the air brake portion of the practical test has been amended so that senior drivers can use diagrams to describe the process and demonstrate their comprehension of the air brake test.

OBAC has called for an immediate moratorium on the road test requirement until new legislation comes into effect.

"This would be a step toward righting the blatant double standard of age-based testing, and it can be done quickly, as was done with extending the expiry date for licenses that expired during the 2009 labour dispute with SERCO drive test examiners," Ritchie says. "The road test is the most costly and inconvenient element of retesting for senior drivers, and does nothing to test for conditions that could be associated with the effects of aging."

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