If you hold a commercial driver’s license, a DWI arrest puts two things at risk: the criminal case and your CDL. The CDL can be lost before the criminal case is over. A first DWI conviction disqualifies you from driving a commercial vehicle for a year, even if you were in your own pickup on a Saturday night, and for three years if you were hauling placarded hazardous material (Transportation Code § 522.081(b)(2), (c)). A second one is a lifetime ban. The disqualification can’t be probated or appealed once it’s based on a conviction, and no occupational license covers a commercial vehicle (§§ 522.085, 522.086, 522.087(a)). Deferred adjudication, which resolves a lot of first DWIs for other drivers, isn’t available to anyone who held a CDL or a commercial learner’s permit at the time of the offense (Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 42A.102(b)(1)(B)(i)). For a commercial driver, protecting the CDL means winning the license hearing and beating the DWI.
Call (713) 664-4000. You usually have 15 days from the arrest to request the license hearing. For a commercial driver, that hearing is the first fight over whether you keep working.
How a CDL gets disqualified
| What happened | CDL disqualification |
|---|---|
| Any detectable alcohol while driving a commercial vehicle | Out of service for 24 hours (§ 522.101) |
| First DWI conviction, in any vehicle | 1 year (§ 522.081(b)(2)) |
| Refusing a breath or blood test, in any vehicle | 1 year, with no conviction required (§ 522.081(b)(3)) |
| Test result of 0.04 or more in a commercial vehicle, or 0.08 or more in any other vehicle | 1 year, with no conviction required (§ 522.081(b)(4)) |
| Any of the one-year disqualifications above while hauling placarded hazardous material | 3 years (§ 522.081(c)) |
| Any two of the one-year disqualifications above, from separate incidents, in any combination | Life (§ 522.081(d)(1), (d)(3)) |
Nobody explains the last row at the roadside. Refusals and failed tests count as strikes the same way convictions do. Two refusals, with no conviction on either one, is a lifetime ban. So is a refusal five years ago plus a conviction now. Our page on getting a CDL with a DWI in Texas covers the lifetime ban and reinstatement in more detail.
A 0.04 is a disqualification standard for commercial vehicles, not the line for a DWI charge. A DWI in Texas still means an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more, or not having the normal use of your mental or physical faculties, in any vehicle (Penal Code § 49.01(2)). A 0.05 in a truck isn’t a DWI by the number alone, but it can still cost you your CDL for a year.
The license hearing comes first
Any suspension of your regular license also disqualifies your CDL (§ 522.089). After a DWI arrest, a test result of 0.08 or more or a refusal starts an administrative suspension of your license, and the same result or refusal is its own one-year CDL disqualification (§ 522.081(b)(3), (4)). The two don’t stack, and the longer period controls (§ 522.089(b)). Both get fought at the license hearing, which happens long before the criminal trial. A result between 0.04 and 0.08 in a commercial vehicle doesn’t suspend your regular license, but DPS still moves to disqualify the CDL, and you have to request a hearing to fight that too (§§ 522.104, 522.105). It’s also the first chance to question the arresting officer under oath if we subpoena the officer. If the officer lacked reasonable suspicion for the stop or probable cause for the arrest, the suspension can be defeated. See our page on the ALR hearing.
Why a plea deal doesn’t save a CDL
For other drivers under 0.15, a first DWI can end in deferred adjudication, with no conviction. That’s barred for CDL holders. Federal rules also prohibit states from masking a CDL holder’s traffic conviction, so no diversion program or deferral can keep a DWI off a commercial driving record (49 C.F.R. § 384.226). Harris County doesn’t reduce DWIs to reckless driving or other non-DWI offenses, and a plea to any version of DWI still disqualifies the CDL. A nondisclosure order can later seal many first DWI convictions from most criminal background checks, but it doesn’t touch your driving record (Gov’t Code § 411.082(2)(B)), and that’s the record DPS and carriers use. That’s why we prepare a commercial driver’s DWI for trial from the first day.
How we defend a CDL holder’s DWI
The stop. The officer needed reasonable suspicion to pull you over. If the stop was bad, the evidence from it can be suppressed (Art. 38.23).
Operating and public place. The State has to prove you were operating a vehicle in a public place. A driver asleep in the sleeper berth at a truck stop or a private yard is a different case from a driver on the Katy Freeway, and those facts matter.
The field sobriety tests. Jay Blass Cohen is a certified instructor in the standardized field sobriety tests and a certified Drug Recognition Expert. Drivers who’ve spent 11 hours behind the wheel often do poorly on these tests for reasons that have nothing to do with alcohol, and Jay knows what a bad administration looks like on the video.
The breath or blood test. Jay is an ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist trained in forensic chromatography. We read the breath instrument’s maintenance and calibration records and the blood lab’s raw data, not just the number on the report. A portable breath test at the roadside isn’t the evidential test, and a number that climbs between the roadside and the station can point to a rising alcohol level after you stopped driving.
Results
A Harris County jury found a commercial driver not guilty of DWI after a crash in which he failed the field sobriety tests at the scene and again at the station. In another case, a Harris County client on a keto diet blew well over the limit without being intoxicated. Jay showed the reading came from ketosis, which can make a breath test read high, and the case was dismissed. See more of our case results. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Commercial driver charged with DWI in Houston? Call Blass Law
Jay Blass Cohen has defended DWI cases in Houston since 2009 and has never worked for the prosecution. When your job depends on your license, we treat the license hearing and the criminal case as one fight, and we don’t recommend a plea that costs you your CDL. For how a first DWI works for other drivers, see our first-offense DWI page.
Call (713) 664-4000. The 15-day deadline for the license hearing usually starts the day you’re arrested.
Reviewed by Jay Blass Cohen, founder of Blass Law PLLC, ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist, certified Drug Recognition Expert, and SFST instructor, serving Houston since 2009. This article is general information, not legal advice for your situation. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.