The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced that it is “going after CDL mills” and scrutinizing entry-level driver training requirements.

The news came during a press conference with an update on the Transportation Department’s efforts to crack down on unqualified truck drivers who don’t have the necessary English proficiency and those with non-domiciled licenses.

The department also is diving into the companies that are hiring these drivers, including drivers without a CDL at all. And, he said, the department is working with ICE in going after truck drivers who are in the country illegally.

“I think it begs the question, who is testing these drivers?" Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said. "Who is taking drivers in, seeing if they speak English, and then testing them on basic skills that would allow them to be certified to then go to the DOT to get a license?”

The Problem With Entry Level Driver Training Standards

There already are federal Entry Level Driver Training (ELDT) regulations, which were finalized in 2016 and went into effect in 2022.

The ELDT rule set new federal minimum standards for CDL training schools, including those operated by motor carriers, as Heavy Duty Trucking reported in 2023.

Critics at the time complained that the rules had been watered down. One complaint was that the final rule did not require a specific number of hours of behind-the-wheel training standard for student drivers but instead required that students be trained to a proficiency standard. Another was the self-certification aspect of CDL training providers.

And there increasingly are questions about the effectiveness of the ELDT rules.

The press conference was also the first one for new Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration chief Derek Barrs, who was confirmed last month.

“As the secretary also mentioned, we need to look at every step and everything, every tool in our toolbox, which includes the entry-level driver training schools, where safety truly begins,” Barrs said. 

Soon, he said, the FMCSA will announce what it’s doing to ensure that entry-level driver training standards are being upheld.

Are CDL Schools Following Entry Level Driver Training Standards?

Currently, CDL schools self-certify that their training programs comply with federal Entry Level Driver Training standards. These providers are then listed in FMCSA’s Training Provider Registry.

“However, the integrity of that system has been undermined by insufficient oversight and enforcement to verify that providers are, in fact, meeting required safety and training standards,” said the American Trucking Associations in a news release.

In an April letter to the DOT, ATA said, the organization “is concerned that the Training Provider Registry (TPR) is still insufficiently robust to shield prospective drivers and the motoring public from fraudulent and non-compliant training entities that fast-track CDL applicants with minimal, if any, training. 

“ATA believes that these providers serve as a venue for individuals to obtain a CDL simply by paying a fee, circumventing the structured curriculum established by ELDT. 

“While FMCSA has made progress in establishing tools for ELDT enforcement, FMCSA’s ELDT/TPR website shows that only four training providers have been removed from the TPR since 2023. However, ATA has been informed that non-compliant training entities likely remain on the TPR.”

In early October, ATA sent a letter to Congress urging greater federal action to identify and remove noncompliant training providers from FMCSA’s Training Provider Registry as well as strengthen enforcement of ELDT moving forward.  

“Proper driver training is the baseline for highway safety, which is why we commend Secretary Duffy and Administrator Barrs for closing dangerous loopholes, enforcing existing regulations, and ensuring that only qualified, well-trained drivers are operating on our nation’s roadways,” said ATA President & CEO Chris Spear in a statement.

The American Transportation Research Institute, the research arm of the American Trucking Associations, is examining the rule’s effectiveness as one of the research priorities this year for ATRI. 

Scrutiny of Truck Driver Training and Qualifications

The qualifications and training of truck drivers have come under scrutiny lately, particularly in the wake of the highly publicized August 12 fatal crash in Florida. Three people died when their mini-van smashed into the side of a trailer blocking the road as a non-domiciled CDL holder with poor English skills blocked made an illegal U-turn.

“As the administrator of FMCSA, I want to make this perfectly clear to the driver training schools. If you are not following the rules and you're not doing the things that you're supposed to be doing, we're going to ensure that we put you out of business, we're going to come after you.”

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association welcomed the news.

“Years of misguided ‘driver shortage’ policies have flooded America’s roadways with poorly trained newcomers operating 80,000-pound trucks, and innocent motorists are paying the price, said OOIDA President Todd Spencer in a statement.

“Trucking is a skilled profession, not cheap labor. We applaud the Trump Administration’s commitment to restoring standards in trucking that will not only save lives, but help improve professionalism in our industry.”

Is There Really a Truck Driver Shortage?

A reporter asked Transportation Secretary Duffy about the lack of people willing to pursue long-haul trucking careers and how the Trump administration's stricter enforcement of rules is going to affect the driver shortage.

Duffy disagreed with the assumption that there’s a driver shortage that could be affected by tightening the rules.

“I do not buy the idea that there's not enough American truck drivers,” he said, but instead blamed it on companies hiring truck drivers without a valid CDL or who don’t meet federal safety requirements.

“There's a lot of Americans who want to get behind uh the wheel of a big rig,” he responded. “These are and have been really great-paying jobs."

He praised truck drivers and compared them to air traffic controllers or our pilots.

“They take their jobs very seriously. So I think you'll see American truck drivers fill the space when we do what's right and take out these unlawful drivers.

“I feel very confident that if we're able to take out the unlawful, untrained, non-English-speaking drivers, we will not have an issue on our roadways. We will not have issues with our deliveries. Our products will move, but they'll move safer," Duffy said.

Shortage of Truck Drivers, or of Quality Truck Drivers? 

OOIDA has long contended that there is no driver shortage, in contrast to the American Trucking Associations.

ATA used to release its estimates on the truck driver shortage. In 2021, for instance, it said that the truck driver shortage that year would climb to a record high of just over 80,000 drivers. And that if those trends continued, the number could soar to 160,000 in less than 10 years.

The driver shortage message has helped ATA in its efforts to broaden the labor pool of potential truck drivers, including finding find pathways for younger drivers to enter the industry, programs for veterans, and addressing issues that keep women out of the industry, such as sexual harassment and assault.

However, during the ATA’s annual management conference in October, Spear appeared to change the tone of the discussion regarding the driver shortage.

“The shortage in talent has never been about the number of people with a commercial driver’s license,” Spear said in his state of the industry address. “It’s about qualifications. 

"We don’t lack people with CDLs… What we lack is a number of qualified drivers who meet our high standards of professionalism and safety.

“Qualified means you can speak English, read road signs, understand safety rules, and respect our laws,” he said. “Qualified means you are not abusing alcohol or using drugs.  Qualified means you earned your CDL the right way, not through a rubber-stamped process in a state that looks the other way.”