On Wednesday, 550 CDL truck driving schools and training facilities were found in violation of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) standards.
These sham organizations received notices that they are to be removed from the registry of federally authorized truck driver training providers. Thousands more have been removed over the last couple of months.
Sean P. Duffy, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, was sworn into office by Trump in January, 2025. Over the last few months, Duffy has launched a serious crackdown across the country on CDL training mills (sham truck driving schools) and noncompliant training programs.
Over a recent 5-day period, FMCSA sent over 300 investigators to 50 states.
They conducted 1,426 on-site sting investigations of driver training providers (schools).
Some of these locations even previously trained school bus drivers. Here are the results of that 5-day sting.
- 448 truck driving schools were removed for failing to meet basic safety standards.
- 109 training providers voluntarily shut down their businesses after learning of these investigations.
Two months ago, the FMCSA removed nearly 3,000 CDL training providers from their Training Provider Registry (TPR).
However, most of those schools were idle, so it won’t likely have much impact on keeping unqualified truck drivers off our roads.
The Registry website shows the location of training schools in your area, the removed schools, how to file complaints, and so on.
This past December, 4,000 providers were placed on notice for noncompliance with the new ELDT training standards.
In February 2022, the federal government (FMCSA) established a single, national training standard for obtaining a CDL truck driver’s license.
The ELDT training must be completed before entry-level truck drivers can take skills and knowledge tests, and obtain that valuable CDL license.