WASHINGTON — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has issued notices of proposed removal to over 550 commercial driver’s license (CDL) training schools, escalating a campaign that began late last year to purge the industry of CDL “mills” that fast-track unqualified drivers onto the nation’s roadways.
Over the course of five days – after mobilizing more than 300 investigators across 50 states – FMCSA conducted 1,426 on-site sting operations and investigations that resulted in 448 schools being hit with formal notices of removal for failing to meet basic safety standards, the Department of Transportation announced on Wednesday.
Another 109 training providers voluntarily withdrew from FMCSA’s national Training Provider Registry (TPR) “as soon as they learned investigators were on their way,” according to DOT, and an additional 97 training providers remain under investigation for compliance issues.
“For too long, the trucking industry has operated like the Wild, Wild West,” said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in a press release.
“The buck stops with me. Under President Trump, my team is cracking down on every link in the trucking chain that has allowed lawlessness to impact the safety of America’s roads.”
Noncompliant schools lacked qualified instructors, used fake addresses, and failed to properly train drivers on the transportation of hazardous materials, among other violations.
FMCSA also found that schools were using vehicles that didn’t match the type of training being offered, training providers failed to properly test students on basic requirements, and schools admitted to investigators that they did not meet their state’s specific requirements.
“If a school isn’t using the right vehicles or if their instructors aren’t qualified, they have no business training the next generation of truckers or school bus drivers,” said FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs.
Commenting on DOT’s action, Todd Spencer, president of the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association, asserted that CDL mills have fueled a “destructive churn” of unqualified truckers and a “false narrative” of a truck driver shortage.
“Rather than fix retention problems and working conditions, some in the industry chose to cut corners and push undertrained drivers onto the road,” Spencer said. “That approach has undermined safety and devalued the entire trucking profession.”
The latest compliance crackdown follows DOT’s initial wave in December when DOT purged nearly 3,000 providers from the TPR and placed an additional 4,500 on notice. Schools receiving a notice of proposed removal had 30 days to provide evidence of compliance or face permanent de-listing.
