Pennsylvania Form DL-3805: Ignition Interlock Employment Exemption Affidavit

Pennsylvania Form DL-3805, the Ignition Interlock Employment Exemption Affidavit, is the notarized document that lets a driver with an interlock-restricted license operate an employer-owned vehicle that has no interlock installed. Your employer fills it out and signs it in front of a notary, you keep the original with you whenever you drive the company vehicle for work, and without it in your possession you can be cited for driving without an ignition interlock.

Who the Form Is For

If you were convicted under 75 Pa.C.S. § 3802 for DUI or lost your license for refusing a chemical test under § 1547, PennDOT requires an ignition interlock on every vehicle you operate as a condition of restoring your driving privileges. The standard interlock period runs one year across the general impairment, high BAC, and highest BAC tiers, whether the offense was a first or a later one.¹

That rule collides with a common reality: your job may require you to drive a company truck or van that the employer has no interest in modifying. Under 75 Pa.C.S. § 3805(f), you can drive that employer-owned vehicle without an interlock if two things are true. Your employer has been notified of your interlock restriction, and you carry proof of that notification while driving. The notarized DL-3805 is that proof.²

One group does not need the form at all. A driver whose first-time offense was general impairment, with no prior DUI and no Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition completion in the previous ten years, is exempt from the interlock requirement under § 3805(a.1) and has nothing to carry.³

Situations the Exemption Will Not Cover

Even a perfectly completed DL-3805 does not protect you in these cases, which come from the statute and from the form itself:²

School buses, school vehicles, or any vehicle designed to carry more than 15 passengers including the driver.
Vehicles owned by a business you wholly or partly own. A sole proprietor or co-owner cannot use the form to skip installing an interlock on the business vehicle.
Personal use of a company vehicle. The exemption covers work driving only. The moment you take the vehicle on a personal errand or detour, you are driving without a required interlock.
Certified inspection mechanics test-driving customer vehicles.

Filling Out the Form

The employer, not the driver, completes DL-3805. PennDOT’s instructions on the form are explicit on that point. Your job is to confirm your license information is correct before your employer takes the signed form to a notary.⁴ You can download the PDF from PennDOT’s Driver and Vehicle Services forms page or request one through PennDOT customer service.⁵ The form is not filed with PennDOT. It stays with the driver.

Section A: Driver Information

Enter the driver’s full legal name as it appears on the Pennsylvania license, including any suffix. Add the driver’s license number, street address, city, state, and ZIP. Verify the license number digit by digit. A transposed number can turn the form into nothing if an officer runs it against PennDOT records.

Section B: Employer Information

Fill in the business name and full street address. Below that, enter the immediate supervisor’s name, title, and telephone number. The statute requires a working employer contact number because law enforcement may call to verify the arrangement during a stop.²

Section C: Vehicle Information

List every employer-owned vehicle you may operate during the normal course of business. Year, make, model, license plate, and the state of issue. If you rotate between trucks or drive different fleet vehicles on different days, list all of them. A vehicle that is not on the form is not covered by the exemption.

Section D: Work and Driving Schedule

Write out, in plain language, how your job duties require operating the company vehicle, the geographic area where that driving occurs, and the specific days and hours you work. Specific is better. “Delivers restaurant supplies to accounts in Bucks and Montgomery counties, Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 3 p.m.” gives an officer no reason to question the scope. “Drives for work” invites follow-up.

Section E: Notarization

An officer of the company or your immediate supervisor signs the form in the presence of a notary public, who administers an oath and applies the seal. This step is not optional. Section 3805(f)(1)(ii) says employer notification can be proved “only by the notarized signature of the employer.”² A signed but un-notarized form has no legal effect.

Both the employer and the driver swear the statements on the form are true. False swearing under 18 Pa.C.S. § 4903 carries a fine of up to $5,000, up to two years in prison, or both.⁴ Listing a personally owned vehicle as a company vehicle, or inflating hours to cover personal driving, is the kind of statement that can trigger it.

Carrying and Updating the Form

Keep the notarized original either in the employer’s vehicle or on your person every time you drive for work. The form says it must be “in the driver’s possession.” If you do not have it with you while operating the employer vehicle without an interlock, you can be cited for driving without one.⁴ A photocopy at home while the original sits in a drawer is not worth the risk.

If anything on the form changes, start over. A new company vehicle, a different supervisor, a new business address: complete a fresh DL-3805 with the current information and have it notarized again. The affidavit is valid only when it accurately describes the arrangement in place today.

Penalties for Driving Without the Form or the Interlock

Operating a vehicle without a required interlock is a misdemeanor under 75 Pa.C.S. § 3808. If no alcohol or drugs are detected, the fine runs from $300 to $1,000 with up to 90 days in jail. If your BAC is 0.025 percent or higher, or any Schedule I or non-prescribed controlled substance is present, the offense is a third-degree misdemeanor with a $1,000 fine and a minimum of 90 days in prison.⁶

A conviction also extends your interlock period by 12 months from the conviction date for a first violation. A second or subsequent violation brings a 12-month license suspension, and you still must complete the remaining interlock time after restoration.¹ The affidavit itself is cheap insurance against all of that, as long as it is filled out honestly, notarized, and in your possession when you drive.

1
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. DUI Legislation
2
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 75 Section 3805 – Ignition Interlock
3
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 75 Section 3805 – Ignition Interlock
4
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Ignition Interlock Employment Exemption Affidavit
5
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Ignition Interlock FAQs
6
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 75 Section 3808 – Illegally Operating a Motor Vehicle Not Equipped With Ignition Interlock