Nearly 44% of the roughly 16,000 government-listed truck driving schools across the United States could be forced to shut down after a federal review determined they may not be meeting basic training standards. The Transportation Department announced that nearly 3,000 schools face having their certifications revoked within 30 days unless they are brought into compliance. These schools are now required to warn students that their certification status is in jeopardy. Another 4,500 programs have been issued formal warnings that they could face similar enforcement action. Schools that lose certification will no longer be allowed to issue the training completion documents required for students to obtain commercial driver’s licenses, which is expected to drive students away and leave many of the programs financially unviable. It remains unclear how many of the targeted schools are currently active. At the same time, federal officials are auditing trucking companies in California that are owned by immigrants to verify whether their drivers are properly authorized and qualified to hold commercial licenses.
The crackdown is part of a broader federal push to tighten safety standards following a deadly crash in Florida involving a driver who federal officials say was not authorized to work in the U.S. Officials claim the effort is aimed at stopping unsafe practices that allow poorly trained or unqualified drivers to operate large commercial vehicles. Enforcement actions now also include threats to withhold federal transportation funding from several states unless they correct failures in their commercial licensing systems and revoke licenses that should never have been issued. Industry groups have largely supported the push, saying weak training standards have long allowed unprepared drivers onto the roads, while immigrant driver advocacy groups argue that lawful drivers are being unfairly targeted based on citizenship. Sikh truck drivers in particular have reported increased harassment after recent high-profile crashes involving Sikh drivers, despite having clean records. California has already moved to revoke 17,000 commercial licenses, it says were improperly issued or allowed to remain valid after work permits expired. Safety advocates say the effort is overdue, while civil rights groups warn that enforcement driven by fear rather than evidence risks discrimination, economic harm, and disruptions to the national supply chain.