A Memphis-area truck driver training school operated by Swift Transportation has been closed since late February as officials investigate potential licensing problems at the facility.

Officials have had little to say since Feb. 25, when a veritable alphabet soup's worth of federal and state agencies, including the FBI and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, raided the driver's license facility at Swift Driving Academy in Millington, Tenn. According to the Memphis Commercial Appeal, the FBI executed search warrants and Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers blocked access to both the Swift offices on Veteran's Parkway and the Swift training grounds just east of Millington Regional Jetport.
The Tennessee Department of Safety operated a part-time driver license center at the Swift facility, which offered a convenient way for students who completed the course to get their commercial driver's licenses. Operation of that facility was suspended, and the driving school has remained closed since that time.
Last week, the Commercial Appeal reported that the state Department of Safety had proposed to suspend for a year the school's certification as a third-party testing program for the licenses.
Swift Vice President Dave Berry spoke about the situation with Heavy Duty Trucking Contributing Editor Evan Lockridge on "The Lockridge Report" on Sirius Satellite Radio's Road Dog Trucking Channel Friday. Berry emphasized that Swift Transportation is not the target of the investigation and is cooperating in any way it can with officials. He explained the relationship between the school and the state-run licensing facility.
"What our school would do is the skills test, at the completion of the [course], on behalf of the state," he explained. "Then we would pass that information on to the state, and then the state would work through their process in that office through the normal, rigorous state process for issuing a CDL."
According to the Commercial Appeal, the state Department of Safety sent a hand-delivered letter to Swift the same day of the raid, notifying them of the suspension of the third-party testing program. "The service of search warrants by the Federal Bureau of Investigation at your commercial driver license training facility today demonstrates that Swift has committed acts which compromise the integrity of the program."
However, federal and state authorities have not revealed the nature of any potential wrongdoing that prompted the raids, and Swift has appealed the suspension.
"We do not know when [the school] will re-open," Berry said on "The Lockridge Report."
"We are working with the state on a schedule and a plan and a way to reopen the school, and I characterize those discussions and meetings with the state as very cooperative, and just looking for the proper way to proceed."
According to the Commercial Appeal, Swift has proposed that state employees start conducting the driver skills test for Swift students.
The paper also reported that more than 100 students who had completed their testing were left without a CDL because of the shutdown.