Yes, truck drivers still use CB radios, mostly for one job: hearing from the trucks around them about a wreck ahead or a closed lane. What replaced CB for the rest of the work is a set of tools: an electronic logging device for hours, fleet messaging for dispatch, a hands-free phone for calls, and network push-to-talk radios for fleets that want one private group across the whole route. Federal rules help keep the CB in the cab. A CB needs no license and is capped at 4 watts on AM and FM, and the federal hand-held phone rule for commercial drivers does not cover it.
Key Takeaways
- CB radios are still in truck cabs for road reports from nearby drivers. A CB needs no license and is capped at 4 watts on AM and FM, 12 watts peak on single sideband (47 CFR 95.967).
- No official count of CB users exists. The FCC stopped licensing individual CB stations in 1983, so the percentages quoted online are estimates and self-selected polls, not counts.
- What replaced CB is split by job: an electronic logging device for hours (required for CMV drivers since 18 December 2017, with a few exceptions), fleet messaging for dispatch, a mounted hands-free phone for calls, and network push-to-talk radios for a private fleet group across the whole route.
- A network push-to-talk radio is a mobile telephone under FMCSA rules (49 CFR 390.5T), so the driver of a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) in interstate commerce may not hold one to talk while driving (49 CFR 392.82). A CB is outside that definition. The driver talks parked, or a passenger talks.
Why do truck drivers still use CB radios?
Truck drivers keep a CB because it does one job nothing else in the cab does. It puts the driver on an open channel with every CB in radio reach, strangers included, with no number to dial and no group to join. That is how a warning about a wreck or ice gets passed down the road, and the FCC's rules name it as a use: CB may carry "warnings of hazardous road conditions to travelers" (47 CFR 95.931). A member of the r/cbradio forum on Reddit described when it helps: "The CB wasn't very useful around town, but I used it a lot when traveling".
The rules keep CB simple and local. 47 CFR 95.305 authorizes CB operation "without individual licenses", and the FCC stopped issuing CB licenses in 1983. Power is capped: on AM or FM "the mean carrier power must not exceed 4 Watts", and single sideband is limited to 12 watts peak envelope power (47 CFR 95.967). That cap is a large part of why a CB's everyday reach is the road around the truck. The guide to walkie-talkie range explains what sets a radio's reach.
CB has 40 channels (47 CFR 95.963). Channel 9 "may be used only for emergency communications or traveler assistance" (47 CFR 95.931). Channel 19, at 27.185 MHz, is the truckers' channel by habit. The rules give it no special status at all.
A second reason comes from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Its hand-held phone rule for commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers leaves CB out by name (49 CFR 390.5T), so a CB microphone in a truck cab sits outside that federal rule.
The FCC has kept the service current. In 2017 it allowed cordless microphones and headsets and dropped its restriction on long-distance sky-wave contacts (82 FR 41104). In 2021 it allowed FM alongside AM, effective 28 October 2021 (86 FR 53565).
How many truckers still use a CB radio?
No one knows exactly, because no register of CB users has existed since 1983. When the FCC stopped licensing individual CB stations, the only count went with it, and today anyone eligible can operate a CB without applying for anything (47 CFR 95.305). The percentages repeated online are estimates and self-selected polls, not counts.
The drivers themselves are counted. The Bureau of Labor Statistics put heavy and tractor-trailer truck driver jobs at 2,221,200 in 2025 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook). How many of those cabs carry a working CB is not recorded anywhere.
How CB rose and faded
CB peaked in the late 1970s. From 1974 through 1978, the D.C. Circuit wrote, "the number of licensed CB operators grew from fewer than 800,000 to more than 14,000,000," and "there are probably several million more operators who are unlicensed" (ARRL v. FCC, 617 F.2d 875).
The Christian Science Monitor reported on 18 May 1983 that 1979 was "generally acknowledged to be the CB's peak year," with about 14 million licensees, and that the number had "fallen to between 5 million and 8 million" (Christian Science Monitor). That was the year the FCC stopped licensing CB altogether.
What do truckers use now instead of CB radios?
Truckers now split the CB's old jobs across several devices, and many keep the CB for the one it still does best.
| The job | What drivers use for it | What the rules say |
|---|---|---|
| Road reports from trucks nearby | A CB, with channel 19 as the road channel by habit | No license; 4 W on AM and FM, 12 W peak on single sideband; outside FMCSA's mobile-telephone definition |
| Emergencies and help for travelers | CB channel 9 | Reserved for emergency communications or traveler assistance |
| Hours of service | An electronic logging device (ELD) | Required for CMV drivers since 18 December 2017, with a few exceptions; not required to carry messages |
| Loads and dispatch messages | Fleet messaging on an in-cab tablet or the driver's phone | No texting while driving a CMV |
| Calls to dispatch and home | A mounted phone used hands-free | Holding it to talk, or pressing more than a single button to dial or answer, is banned while driving a CMV |
| One private group for the fleet and the office, at any distance | A network push-to-talk radio | Counts as a mobile telephone: a CMV driver talks parked, or a passenger talks |
Sources: rule text checked against the eCFR as of 2026-09-24, read 2026-09-29: 47 CFR 95.931, 47 CFR 95.963, 47 CFR 95.967, 49 CFR 390.3T, 49 CFR 390.5T, 49 CFR 392.80, 49 CFR 392.82 and 49 CFR 395.8. The ELD messaging point is from the 2015 ELD final rule, and the push-to-talk row from the 2011 hand-held phone rule.
The ELD is the one device on this list the rules require of CMV drivers, with a few exceptions, and it is not a radio. FMCSA's 2015 ELD rule says so directly: "ELDs are not required to include a capability to communicate between the driver and the motor carrier." Messaging comes from the fleet-management system built around the ELD, usually on an in-cab tablet or the driver's phone.
Dispatch is part of the job description. The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists "Report any incidents encountered on the road to a dispatcher" among a truck driver's duties. Driver apps have caught on at some fleets: in examples Heavy Duty Trucking collected in April 2021, 85% of one trucking company's drivers logged into its optional app in a month. Those are vendor case studies, not an industry survey.
The table's last row keeps the CB's press-and-talk habit and moves it onto a mobile network. Some fleets add a network push-to-talk radio, which puts every truck and the office in one private group. The explainer on how push-to-talk over cellular works covers the mechanism, and the story of how push-to-talk first reached phone networks tells where the idea began.
Can a truck driver talk on a push-to-talk radio while driving?
No, not while driving a commercial motor vehicle (CMV). Under FMCSA rules, a push-to-talk radio that runs on a cellular network is a mobile telephone that has to be held to talk, and a CMV driver may not hold one while driving. A CB is outside that definition.
The rule is built from four pieces:
- What a CMV is. For these rules, a vehicle used in interstate commerce with a gross vehicle or combination weight rating of 10,001 pounds or more, or one that meets the passenger or placarded-hazmat thresholds (49 CFR 390.5T).
- What a mobile telephone is. In the rule's words, "a mobile communication device that falls under or uses any commercial mobile radio service". The same definition adds: "It does not include two-way or Citizens Band Radio services" (390.5T).
- What "use" means. Holding the device with at least one hand to talk, dialing or answering by pressing more than a single button, or reaching for it in a way that takes the driver out of a seated, belted driving position (390.5T).
- The ban. "No driver shall use a hand-held mobile telephone while driving a CMV," and motor carriers may not allow or require it (49 CFR 392.82). Driving includes being "temporarily stationary because of traffic, a traffic control device, or other momentary delays". It does not include a truck moved to the side of or off the highway and halted where it can safely stay.
FMCSA answered the push-to-talk question itself when it wrote the rule in 2011. Push-to-talk uses commercial mobile radio services, so "the device is a mobile telephone; and it also requires the driver or user to hold it. Therefore, its use while driving a CMV is the same as that of a hand-held mobile telephone and is prohibited" (76 FR 75470). The same document says: "The use of CB radios by CMV drivers is outside the scope of this rulemaking."
In practice, a fleet on push-to-talk uses it the way the rule allows:
- The driver talks once the truck is parked at the dock or in the yard.
- The driver pulls off the highway and stops somewhere safe before answering.
- A passenger, or a team co-driver who is not driving, talks for the cab.
- The dispatcher sends to the whole group, and each driver answers once parked, or pulled off the road and stopped somewhere safe.
Section 392.82 itself has one exception: a driver may use a hand-held mobile telephone "when necessary to communicate with law enforcement officials or other emergency services" (392.82(c)). The federal rule applies to CMVs in interstate commerce (49 CFR 390.3T), and state laws on hand-held devices vary, so check your state's rule as well. Within those rules, one press from the office still reaches every truck in the group at once, where a phone tree calls them one by one.
Where the Echo radio fits in a truck fleet
A network push-to-talk radio covers a job CB was never built for: a private group for the fleet and its office, across the whole route.
What a fleet needs from a radio: One group should hold every truck and the office, however far apart they are, so a dispatcher can reach a driver at the dock without working down a phone list. Groups should change when a driver joins or leaves, without anyone reprogramming a radio. Drivers need a written policy they can follow: talk parked, or let the passenger talk.
The Echo Radios walkie-talkie is one example of the category. Its range equals coverage, not distance, so a dispatcher in the yard reaches a driver parked at a dock across the country the same way as one across the lot. It works on all major carriers and switches between them automatically. A group holds up to 250 people as standard, extendable to 5,000 on request. You can manage groups and names yourself from an admin panel, or ask Echo Radios to make any change for you, for as long as you own the radios. There is no FCC license needed, because the radios run on the carriers' licensed networks.
Nathan J., a customer, wrote on the product page: "Long haul trucking and always in touch with dispatch. Unlimited range sets Echo Radios apart."
The vehicle-mounted version has an attached microphone and runs off the vehicle's power, with an integrated 7.5-inch antenna and dual SIM slots. Its microphone is held to talk, so in a truck the driver talks on it parked, or a passenger talks.
Russel Dewalt, who wrote this post, tested the connection on a highway drive in two vehicles: a commercial truck fitted with the vehicle-mounted Echo radio, and a car carrying a standard handheld. The two radios stayed connected with no dropouts for the whole drive, and distance made no difference, so a call to the group reaches the truck at every stop.
The Echo radio needs a signal from some carrier to connect. Where there is absolutely no coverage at all, it has nothing to reach, and the CB in the dash still talks radio to radio there, within its short reach. Everywhere else, the Echo radio often holds a signal where a phone has given up, because it can use any major carrier's tower and its antenna reaches towers three to four times farther than a phone's. A phone's bars are not the test. No bars means one phone, on one carrier, could not hold a signal in that spot, and the guide to nationwide walkie-talkies explains why. Check your routes and yards with the radios themselves.
A private group does not replace the CB's open channel, and the Echo radio is not meant to. Its group hears only its own members, so the warning about ice two exits ahead still comes from a stranger on the CB. The group adds reach that CB is not allowed: CB may not talk to stations in other countries except Canada's General Radio Service stations (47 CFR 95.933), while the Echo radio's SIM roams globally, so a truck across a border stays in the same group.
Frequently asked questions about truck driver CB radios
What percentage of truckers still use CB radios?
No official figure exists. The FCC stopped licensing individual CB stations in 1983, so CB radios are not registered anywhere, and the percentages quoted online are estimates and self-selected polls, not counts. CB is still legal and needs no license, and the FCC updated its rules as recently as 2021, allowing FM alongside AM.
What are truckers using instead of CB radios?
Truckers split the CB's old jobs across several tools: an electronic logging device for hours of service, fleet messaging on a tablet or phone for dispatch, a mounted hands-free phone for calls, and network push-to-talk radios for a private fleet group across the whole route. Many drivers keep a CB for road reports from nearby trucks.
Does anyone talk on CB anymore?
Yes. Truck drivers still use CB for road reports from the trucks around them, and channel 9 is reserved for emergencies and traveler assistance. The FCC keeps the service current: in 2017 it allowed cordless headsets and dropped its restriction on long-distance sky-wave contacts, and in 2021 it allowed FM alongside AM.
What kind of radios do truckers use?
The classic truck radio is a 40-channel CB, which runs without a license at up to 4 watts on AM or FM and 12 watts peak on single sideband. Some fleets add network push-to-talk radios for a private group across the whole route. Under FMCSA rules those count as mobile telephones, so a CMV driver talks parked or a passenger talks.
Which radio a truck needs now
Keep the CB for the road around the truck. It needs no license, and FMCSA's hand-held phone rule does not cover it. For the fleet, add a push-to-talk group and use it the way the rules allow: parked, at the dock, in the yard, or by a passenger. The Echo Radios walkie-talkie puts every truck and the office in one group wherever any major carrier has coverage, and Echo Radios makes any change to the groups for as long as you own the radios. Start with a two-pack for the yard and one truck, and check your routes with the radios before you equip the fleet.