"Why can't I schedule my national exam?!"
Recently we have been receiving calls and emails from frustrated providers who are not able to schedule their national NRCME exam.
For providers seeking their initial certification, check that you have:
- Created an account with the FMCSA and allowed 3 business days for the DOT to verify your medical credentials. Do not create a second DOT account for yourself- contact the DOT if you have.
- Completed an accredited NRCME training program such as ours.
- Uploaded your training Certificate of Completion into your newly created DOT account.
- Submitted the training company name and mailing address into your DOT account, along with the name of the training company's accrediting organization.
- Indicated in your DOT account if the training was "in-person" or "online".
- Waited 24 hours after uploading your training certificate to schedule the $80 national exam online with either PSI or Prometric testing companies.
For providers seeking their 10-year recertification, check that you have:
- Completed the required 5-year refresher training, available in your DOT account, and that you have uploaded your signed affirmation of refresher training completion into your DOT account (located at the end of the last refresher training module to print, sign, and scan as a PDF to upload).
- Completed an accredited NRCME recertification training program such as ours.
- Uploaded your new training Certificate of Completion into your DOT account.
- Submitted the training company name and mailing address into your DOT account, along with the name of the training company's accrediting organization.
- Indicated in your DOT account if the training was "in-person" or "online".
- Waited 24 hours after uploading your new training certificate to schedule the $80 national exam online with either PSI or Prometric testing companies.
What to do when you have completed these steps and still cannot schedule the NRCME exam:
It is likely that the DOT/FMCSA are backlogged, causing delays in provider credential verification. In 2014, there were over 17,000 providers who became certified. The remaining years had, on average, 2,500 providers a year certifying. If only half of the initial crowd from 2014 are recertifying, that would still be a larger than normal amount of providers the NRCME have to verify before allowing them to schedule the exam. To further complicate matters, many of the providers from 2014 became certified shortly before the May 14 start of the program and did so to avoid any disruption of commerce.
If you uploaded your PDF training certificate of completion into your DOT account, and manually input the training company name and address, and the accrediting organization’s name (both listed on your training certificate), and checked the box that this was “online” training and not “in-person” training, and if it has been more than 24 hours since you have completed all of these tasks and still cannot schedule the national exam online, you will need to:
1. Call the FMCSA between the hours of 9am to 5pm EST, M-F, call the FMCSA at (617) 494-3003 – press option 2 when the first greeting starts, then press the number 6 on hearing the start of the second greeting. This will bypass lengthy greetings and they will answer if they are not already on the phone.
2. Compose an email to the FMCSA requesting verification to schedule the exam and send it to FMCTECHSUP@dot.gov.
3. Attempt to schedule the exam at the end of every business day. You will know you have been verified when you can schedule the exam.
If you uploaded your PDF training certificate of completion into your DOT account, and manually input the training company name and address, and the accrediting organization’s name (both listed on your training certificate), and checked the box that this was “online” training and not “in-person” training, and if it has been more than 24 hours since you have completed all of these tasks and still cannot schedule the national exam online, you will need to:
1. Call the FMCSA between the hours of 9am to 5pm EST, M-F, call the FMCSA at (617) 494-3003 – press option 2 when the first greeting starts, then press the number 6 on hearing the start of the second greeting. This will bypass lengthy greetings and they will answer if they are not already on the phone.
2. Compose an email to the FMCSA requesting verification to schedule the exam and send it to FMCTECHSUP@dot.gov.
3. Attempt to schedule the exam at the end of every business day. You will know you have been verified when you can schedule the exam.
Blog entries of interest:
About the NRCME Exam
Testing Options: PSI or Prometric?
Free CDL Examination Marketing
Growing Your CMV Driver Examination Business
Enroll in the NRCME Training Institute today or purchase our $99 NRCME Exam Reference Materials. Call us at (941) 600-8411 for more program information and for any current single provider enrollment discounts.