A nationwide effort to investigate problems with commercial driver training is putting hundreds of schools under federal scrutiny, with about 270 facing shutdowns or removal.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy discussed the enforcement action Monday during a news conference in Detroit. He appeared with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and officials from the Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission and several U.S. attorney offices. Federal prosecutors from Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Illinois were involved as well.
The government is coordinating the investigations through a new task force focused on fraud in commercial trucking. It has been named Crossroads of America.
More than 110 providers that offered entry-level commercial driver training have already been removed from a federal registry. The administration has identified another 160 schools that it says do not qualify to provide truck-driver training. A wider sweep is examining more than 200 schools spread across 23 states, while investigations have reached 40 states.
Federal officials described several ways that training programs allegedly failed to meet requirements. Some instructors did not have commercial driver’s licenses of their own. Certain schools lacked proper classrooms, vehicles or places where students could practice operating an 18-wheeler. Investigators even found one program that reportedly used a parked school bus as its classroom.
Another concern involves whether drivers can communicate in English. More than 5,000 drivers connected to the 110 removed providers had failed English proficiency testing. Officials also said almost 30,000 commercial drivers have been taken off the road for not meeting English requirements.
Federal regulators now plan to examine third-party organizations that conduct CDL skills tests across the country. The testing process is supposed to determine whether an applicant can safely operate a commercial vehicle before receiving a license.
Safety concerns surrounding commercial trucks have received more attention following deadly crashes. One happened in Fort Pierce, Florida, in 2025 and left three people dead. The driver in that crash had previously failed the written CDL test 10 times before later obtaining a commercial license in Washington state, according to information provided about the case.
A family affected by a separate crash was present for Monday’s announcement. Marcus Coleman attended with Dalilah Coleman, his daughter. She suffered a severe brain injury after a 2024 collision involving a commercial truck and remained in a coma for three months.
Her name is now attached to proposed federal legislation dealing with commercial licensing. Dalilah’s Law would tighten requirements for obtaining a CDL and could allow federal highway money to be withheld from states that do not comply.
The proposal has faced opposition from some Democrats. Rep. Rick Larsen of Washington said during a March hearing that the changes could take employment opportunities away from people who are legally in the country. Concerns have also been raised that roughly 200,000 truck drivers could lose their jobs, including some people working under temporary visas.
The administration’s trucking plans also include recruiting military veterans to become drivers. Officials are separately seeking to stop people with driving-related safety violations in other countries from receiving U.S. commercial licenses.
The Midwest will be a major area of attention for the federal effort because of the amount of truck traffic passing through the region and across the Canadian border. Detroit alone handles more than 2.5 million trucks traveling through its international border area each year.
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