DOT and FMCSA Just Declared War on Unsafe Trucking. Here's What Fleet Operators Need to Know.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs didn't mince words. In a joint press conference, they laid out the most aggressive federal enforcement agenda the trucking industry has seen in decades. CDL mills are being gutted. Chameleon carriers are being hunted. English proficiency is no longer optional. And three new rulemakings are on the way.

If you run a fleet, manage safety, or dispatch loads, the rules of the road are changing fast.

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In this article:

• The problem DOT is trying to fix
• 7,000 CDL schools shut down
• Chameleon carriers are in the crosshairs
• English proficiency enforcement is getting teeth
• Three new rulemakings, plus the end of self-certification
• Operation SafeDRIVE and ongoing enforcement
• ELD fraud and the new MOTUS registration system
• What this means for your fleet

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The problem DOT is trying to fix

Secretary Duffy framed the issue bluntly. Under the prior administration, CDL training schools were allowed to self-certify that they met federal safety standards. No in-person audits. No verification of whether instructors were qualified, whether trucks existed for hands-on training, or whether any meaningful curriculum was in place.

The result? Thousands of "CDL mills" popped up across the country. Some had no trucks. Some had no curriculum at all. You could pay $800 to $1,000, skip actual training, and walk away with a certificate saying you'd completed the schooling requirements to sit for a CDL test.

Testing wasn't much better. In states that outsourced CDL exams to third-party testers, FMCSA found some of those testers were part of the scam. States were supposed to audit these testers and run covert operations to verify they were properly administering skills and knowledge tests. According to Duffy, many weren't doing that.

He pointed to specific numbers. In California, 20,000 foreign driver's licenses were issued unlawfully. In New York, 50% of CDLs were issued in violation of federal standards. In Illinois, the figure was 20%.

The bottom line: people who had no business operating an 80,000-pound vehicle were getting behind the wheel.

7,000 CDL schools shut down

FMCSA hasn't been waiting around. Duffy announced that the agency has shut down 7,000 CDL training schools and taken them out of service.

Barrs added detail on the most recent enforcement push. FMCSA went into 1,500 driver training schools and found that over 550 were cutting corners. Some lacked a curriculum entirely. Others had only a partial curriculum. Some didn't even have trucks or buses to train students with.

Self-certification is what made all of this possible. Any person could open a CDL school, certify themselves as qualified, and start issuing training certificates. Barrs announced that FMCSA will initiate a rulemaking to end the self-certification process entirely.

His message to non-compliant schools was direct: "If you're not following the rules, we're going to put you out of business."

Chameleon carriers are in the crosshairs

One of the most alarming parts of the press conference was the focus on chameleon carriers. These are trucking companies that cycle through DOT numbers to dodge enforcement. When one entity racks up too many violations, it shuts down on paper and reopens under a new name and DOT number, often with the same drivers and equipment.

Barrs cited two recent crashes in Indiana to illustrate the problem.

Just two days before the press conference, a preventable crash involving a non-domiciled driver took the life of Terry Schultz. And in Jay County, another preventable crash claimed four innocent lives from an Amish community. The driver in that crash held a non-domiciled CDL, was trained by a non-compliant school, and worked for a motor carrier that was part of a chameleon network designed to evade enforcement and compliance.

FMCSA investigators placed three carriers connected to that network out of service in what Barrs described as "record time."

Duffy announced that DOT would begin verifying physical locations for all carriers. No more registering 200 DOT numbers to a P.O. box. No more operating out of an apartment while claiming it as a principal place of business. He pointed to the Indiana case as an example: the carrier behind the crash had multiple DOT numbers registered to a location that was "not necessarily the place of business."

FMCSA is restoring principal place of business enforcement, requiring carriers to maintain safety records that can be produced within 48 hours.

English proficiency enforcement is getting teeth

Under previous administrations, English language proficiency requirements existed on paper but carried no real consequences. A driver who couldn't speak English well enough to read road signs or communicate with law enforcement would get cited, but the penalty was nothing. They'd get back behind the wheel and keep driving.

That changed. Drivers who fail ELP assessments now get placed out of service immediately. FMCSA has placed over 14,000 individual drivers out of service for ELP violations since enforcement ramped up. California alone has placed over 600 drivers out of service during roadside inspections.

But Duffy wants to go further. He's asking states to disqualify the CDLs of drivers who can't demonstrate English proficiency, rather than just issuing temporary out-of-service orders. He acknowledged he doesn't have the unilateral power to revoke CDLs (that authority rests with the states), but the direction is clear.

FMCSA is also initiating a rulemaking to require all CDL knowledge and skills tests to be administered in English only. Right now, California alone allows drivers to take their CDL exam in 20 different languages. Under the proposed rule, there would be one language: English.

Duffy credited California Governor Gavin Newsom for beginning to enforce ELP requirements, but noted the state hasn't gone far enough on revoking non-domiciled CDLs that were issued unlawfully.

Three new rulemakings, plus the end of self-certification

Barrs announced three new rulemakings during the press conference.

1. Enhanced procedures for granting, suspending, and revoking operating authority. The goal: make it harder for bad actors to game the system by cycling through DOT registrations.

2. Safety knowledge requirements for new entrant carriers. Before a new carrier can begin operating, they'll need to demonstrate a thorough understanding of safety regulations and application requirements. Barrs called it "a long-standing process that we should have actually been putting into place a long time ago."

3. Broker qualification and testing. Right now, $300 gets you a carrier authority to run interstate commerce. That's the entire barrier to entry. This rulemaking raises that bar by requiring brokers to be qualified and tested as part of the registration process.

Separately, FMCSA will initiate a rulemaking to end the self-certification process for CDL training schools entirely.

Operation SafeDRIVE and ongoing enforcement

Barrs highlighted Operation SafeDRIVE, a multi-state enforcement initiative where FMCSA partnered with state law enforcement to pull unsafe drivers and vehicles off the road. He described it as "just one initiative" that FMCSA is working on with state partners, and said similar operations will be "recurring, widespread, and unpredictable."

Duffy emphasized the challenge of scale. FMCSA doesn't have a massive team of law enforcement officers to deploy around the country. They rely on state partnerships, and he acknowledged that some states are better partners than others. But the message was clear: DOT will set the standards and push states to enforce them. Duffy specifically mentioned that states who aren't cooperating could face consequences, noting that DOT had already conducted a nationwide audit exposing states for issuing CDLs unlawfully.

FMCSA is also developing a new criminal interdiction training curriculum for state law enforcement. This expands beyond the older Drug Interdiction model to cover human trafficking and other criminal activity that uses commercial motor vehicles as a cover. The training applies to both cargo and drivers.

ELD fraud and the new MOTUS registration system

Electronic logging devices were supposed to prevent drivers from fraudulently exceeding hours-of-service limits. FMCSA has found widespread fraud here too.

Barrs revealed that FMCSA has removed 42 non-compliant ELDs from its approved list. The agency also blocked 238 new ELD providers that tried to enter the market through the self-certification process. A rulemaking to strengthen the vetting process and end self-certification for ELD devices is in the works.

On the registration side, FMCSA's carrier registration system hasn't been modernized in roughly 40 years. That's changing with a new system called MOTUS. Barrs described it as "protecting our front door," ensuring that when a company enters the system, FMCSA actually knows who they are. Under the old system, a single individual could obtain multiple DOT numbers with minimal verification. MOTUS is designed to close that gap.

What this means for your fleet

If you're running a compliant operation, most of this is good news. The carriers cutting corners are the ones getting squeezed.

But here's what to pay attention to right now. Your driver qualification files need to be airtight. An incomplete DQ file isn't just a paperwork problem; it's a liability that could put your trucks out of service during the next enforcement blitz. Your ELD devices need to be on the approved list (FMCSA is actively purging non-compliant ones). Your pre-trip and post-trip inspections need to be documented and defensible. And if you're hiring drivers, verify everything: the CDL, the training school, the testing process, the language proficiency.

The era of self-certification and lax oversight is ending. The carriers that come out ahead will be the ones who built compliance into their operations before enforcement came knocking.

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