Federal Review Finds Almost Half of US Trucking Schools Don’t Meet Minimum Requirements
Nearly 3,000 trucking schools in the United States could be required to close after almost half were found not to meet minimum government requirements. Of the 16,000 truck driving schools in America, 44% failed a review by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Trucking schools that do not comply with training requirements within the next 30 days will have their certification revoked. According to The Associated Press, these schools must also notify all students that their certifications could be removed.
On top of that, another 4,500 trucking schools were warned by the U.S. Department of Transportation that they could face similar action. That means that around 7,500 of the 16,000 truck driving schools in the United States are in jeopardy.
The AP reports that any trucking school that loses its certification will no longer be able to issue training certificates. Such action would essentially be a death blow for those companies.
Andrew Poliakoff, executive director of the Commercial Vehicle Training Association – the largest association of trucking schools – tried to downplay the federal review’s findings. He believes many of the schools that will be decertified are nothing more than “CDL mills” that were “fleecing people out of money.”
The trucking industry in multiple states faces government threats
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has also threatened to revoke federal money from California and Pennsylvania. He made this threat over truck drivers, he says, who are not authorized to be in the country.
California recently moved to revoke 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses. Those licenses, according to federal officials, were issued improperly to immigrants or remained valid after they expired.
“We are reigning in illegal and reckless practices that let poorly trained drivers get behind the wheel of semi-trucks and school buses,” Duffy said after a truck driver, who he says was not authorized to be in the U.S., made an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida, killing three people in August.
On Monday, Duffy threatened to withhold $30.4 million from Minnesota if the state doesn’t clean up its commercial driver’s license program. He also required the state to revoke any licenses he believes should never have been issued.
