The Los Angeles-to-Chicago train carried mixed freight when a container caught fire during a burglary. Riverside and Colton firefighters extinguished the blaze before BNSF Police took over the investigation.
A Texas couple has been sentenced for operating an online business that sold veterinary drugs and pesticides smuggled from Mexico to the U.S.
Law enforcement agencies across the U.S. are stepping up commercial vehicle enforcement, with recent cases ranging from unlicensed hotshot drivers to impaired truckers and dangerous equipment violations.
A California truck driver was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison for a 2025 crash that left three people dead.
A series of recent enforcement actions across three U.S. border states highlights growing scrutiny of commercial drivers.
A crash involving an independent owner operator ultimately caught up 3 carriers in case involving vicarious responsibility.
The Small Business in Transportation Coalition has asked a federal court to push for decertification of CDL programs in New York and California.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Florida’s effort to sue California and Washington over commercial driver licenses issued to undocumented immigrants.
A Freightliner Cascadia operated by Amritsar Trans Inc., a five-truck carrier out of Manteca, California, rear-ended three vehicles on Highway 99 near Lodi on May 19, 2026, killing two young men. The driver fled on foot. The carrier sits inside a web of 267 carriers clustered across residential addresses in the same ZIP code, and 10 involuntary revocation actions.
Rising fixed costs and creditor claims are forcing a small drayage carrier tied to West Coast ports into restructuring.
Secretary Duffy has moved beyond funding threats. He’s now openly discussing pulling California’s ability to issue commercial driver’s licenses to anyone, a move that would effectively ground 700,000 CDL holders and create supply chain chaos that would make the 2021 port backups look like a minor inconvenience.
The Trump administration’s decision to drop its appeal that tied billions in transportation funding to immigration enforcement represents a significant legal setback, but don’t mistake this tactical retreat for surrender. For motor carriers employing non-domiciled CDL holders, the regulatory battlefield has only shifted, not cleared.
California’s years of documented CDL fraud, enforcement failures, and defiance of federal regulations finally caught up with it. Today’s $160 million funding cut for non-domiciled CDL violations, combined with October’s $40 million ELP penalty, marks the largest federal enforcement action against a state licensing program in FMCSA history.
California’s latest high-risk audit reads like a warning label for the freight industry. As the state struggles with data integrity, benefit administration, and mounting fiscal pressure, the consequences may extend beyond Sacramento, into CHP staffing, roadside inspections, and federally funded enforcement programs that trucking depends on.
California delays cancellation of 17,000 non-domiciled CDLs until March despite Secretary Duffy’s January 5 deadline. With $160 million in federal funding and potential decertification of the state’s entire CDL program on the line, the standoff could reshape federal-state authority over commercial licensing for years.
A class-action lawsuit filed in Alameda County seeks to block California’s Jan. 5 cancellation of nearly 20,000 commercial driver’s licenses. The plaintiffs argue the DMV is punishing immigrant drivers for the agency’s own administrative failures while refusing to let them reapply for corrected credentials, violating state law and due process.
California is expected to reissue approximately 17,000 non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses it planned to revoke after federal enforcement pressure, setting up what may become the most significant federal-state confrontation over CDL authority in decades.
Union Pacific has brought a rare trackage rights dispute with BNSF to the Surface Transportation Board.
A proposed California law, Assembly Bill 1331, could upend how trucking fleets monitor drivers by prohibiting dashcam and GPS surveillance during off-duty periods, even inside the vehicle. If passed, the bill would redefine off-duty time as private, creating costly compliance challenges and raising concerns about safety, theft prevention, and liability. With $500 penalties per violation and the potential for lawsuits, fleets operating in California, and nationwide, may need to rethink how they balance privacy with operational oversight.
A proposed California law, Assembly Bill 1331, could upend how trucking fleets monitor drivers by prohibiting dashcam and GPS surveillance during off-duty periods, even inside the vehicle. If passed, the bill would redefine off-duty time as private, creating costly compliance challenges and raising concerns about safety, theft prevention, and liability. With $500 penalties per violation and the potential for lawsuits, fleets operating in California, and nationwide, may need to rethink how they balance privacy with operational oversight.
