Washington opened a joint crackdown on fraud in trucking

On September 28, the U.S. Department of Transportation said it was joining Homeland Security and the Justice Department in an interagency push against fraud in trucking. The public description is blunt: criminal networks and sloppy licensing have put unqualified drivers on the highway, and the agencies intend to use schools, roadside inspections, and state DMVs as the pressure points.

What they say they already did

According to the department's own account of the last year and a half, enforcement has already knocked more than 28,000 drivers off the road for failing to speak English, pushed states to cancel more than 30,000 licenses officials say were illegally issued to foreign drivers, and removed more than 8,000 training schools from the federal registry. Those are the government's figures, not an industry estimate.

The newest step is narrower and immediate. FMCSA said it is emergency-removing more than 110 entry-level driver training providers. The department tied those schools to more than 5,000 drivers who later failed English-language checks. A school taken off the Training Provider Registry has to stop teaching. Training it gave after removal does not qualify a student for a CDL.

Why English is the test they keep naming

This is not a new rule invented this month. Federal regulations have long required a commercial driver to read and speak English well enough to talk with the public, understand signs, fill out reports, and answer an officer. The skills test itself is supposed to be given in English. What changed is enforcement. Since the summer of 2025, failing that check has been putting drivers out of service in large numbers — more than 28,000 out-of-service orders, by the department's count since June 2025.

Out of service means the truck stays put. A shipper waiting on a delivery does not experience that as a policy debate. The load sits until a qualified driver arrives. That is why a licensing story in Washington shows up as a late truck in a warehouse.

Where investigators are looking next

• Third-party companies that give the driving test for the state. If the test was not really in English, or was never really given, the license is theater.
• State agencies that issue non-domiciled CDLs — licenses for drivers who are not residents — for longer than the person's legal stay, or to people who were never eligible.
• Medical examiners who sign a DOT physical without examining the driver.
• Companies that put visitor-visa holders behind the wheel of domestic freight, which those visas do not allow.

What is not settled

A crackdown is not the same thing as a finished court case. Some state licensing fights are already in litigation, and a school or a driver can contest a removal. Treat the big round numbers as the government's description of its own enforcement, and look up a specific company before you decide it is dirty. Public records exist for that. Suspicion is not a DOT number.