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DUI costs for CDL holders: a one-year disqualification, a lifetime on the second
For a commercial driver, the DUI fines in our state guides are the small print. The headline is federal: a first DUI — in the truck or in your own car — disqualifies you from driving commercially for a full year, and a second major offense ends the CDL for life. The cost of a DUI on a CDL is measured in income, not fees.
The federal disqualification table
49 CFR § 383.51, Table 1 sets the disqualification periods every state must apply to CDL and CLP holders. For alcohol offenses it reads:
| Offense | First conviction | Second conviction (separate incident) |
|---|---|---|
| Under the influence of alcohol (state law), in a commercial or personal vehicle | 1 year | Life |
| Alcohol concentration of 0.04 or more while operating a commercial vehicle (the CMV limit — half the usual 0.08) | 1 year | Life |
| Refusing an alcohol test required under implied-consent law | 1 year | Life |
| Any of the above while hauling placarded hazardous materials | 3 years | Life |
Source: 49 CFR § 383.51, Table 1 to paragraph (b) — "major offenses." A "second conviction" means a second major offense of any type in the table (DUI, refusal, leaving the scene, a vehicle felony, and others) arising from a separate incident. Checked October 2026.
What "lifetime" and "one year" actually mean in dollars
There is no hardship CDL. States cannot issue a restricted or occupational commercial license during a federal disqualification — the one-year benching is complete for commercial driving, however the state treats your regular license. For an owner-operator or company driver, that is a year of the income the license existed to earn, which dwarfs every fee on this site.
The ordinary stack still applies. The state case proceeds exactly as it would for any driver: the fine, court costs and program layers, the suspension of the base license, and the reinstatement fees at the end of it. The federal disqualification runs on top of, not instead of, the state penalties.
Reinstatement after a lifetime disqualification. Federal rules allow a state to reinstate a lifetime-disqualified driver after 10 years, if the driver completes an approved rehabilitation program and meets the state's conditions; a further major offense after such a reinstatement means a second lifetime disqualification with no second path back (§ 383.51). States set their own reinstatement fees and testing requirements — expect to re-test and to pay the CDL issuance fees in your state guide.
Price the state side of your case — fines, program fees, interlock and reinstatement — in the calculator, and treat the federal disqualification as the multiplier on top.
Open the DUI cost calculatorThe refusal trap
Note the third row of the table: for a CDL holder, refusing the test carries the same disqualification as failing it — one year on a first refusal, life on a second major offense. That equivalence is federal, applies to a refusal in a personal vehicle as well, and is separate from (and additional to) whatever implied-consent suspension your state imposes for the refusal itself.
Cost information only. Employment consequences — employer policies, insurance underwriting for carriers, and hiring rules — sit outside the statutes cited here and outside what this site prices. The disqualification periods above are the federal floor every state must enforce.