Vehicles: driver's licenses.

(1) Existing law prohibits a person from renting a motor vehicle to another unless the person to whom the vehicle is rented is a validly licensed driver, as specified, and the person renting to that driver has inspected the person's driver's license and compared the signature on the license with the signature of the driver written in his or her presence. This bill would delete the requirement that the signature of the driver be written in his or her presence and would allow the person renting the vehicle to instead compare the photograph on the driver's license of the person with the person to whom the vehicle is to be rented. The bill would also exempt a "rental company," as defined, from these requirements if the rental is subject to the terms of a membership agreement that allows the renter to gain physical access to a car without a key through use of a code, key card, or by other means that allow the car to be accessed at a remote location or at a business location of the rental company outside of that location's regular hours of operation. (2) Existing law requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to not issue a commercial driver's license to any person to operate a commercial motor vehicle until the person has passed a written and driving test for the operation of a commercial motor vehicle that complies with the minimum federal standards established by the federal Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986 and specified federal regulations, and has satisfied all other requirements of that act as well as any other requirements imposed by the Vehicle Code. This bill would authorize the department to waive the driving skills test required by federal regulations for a commercial motor vehicle driver with military commercial motor vehicle experience who is currently licensed with the United States Armed Forces at the time of his or her application for a commercial driver's license, and whose driving record in combination with his or her driving experience meets, at a minimum, specified conditions required by federal law. (3) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 15250 of the Vehicle Code proposed by AB 2188, to become operative only if AB 2188 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2013, and this bill is chaptered last.