NewsMacroTexas, Pennsylvania Lead States in CDL School Shutdowns

Texas, Pennsylvania Lead States in CDL School Shutdowns

Author: FreightWaves·

Key Takeaways

  • Texas and Pennsylvania each had 13 physical CDL training schools affected by the DOT action, the highest total among states listed.
  • DOT said 23 additional training providers operated online and had no physical location, and those providers are also under review.
  • Federal officials said the schools targeted for emergency removal trained more than 5,000 drivers who were later cited for English-language proficiency violations.
  • Derek Barrs said every targeted school had trained at least 10 drivers later cited for those violations during roadside inspections.
  • The agency has not released a complete public list of the schools by name, leaving the full scope of the crackdown unclear.
Texas, Pennsylvania Lead States in CDL School Shutdowns

Texas and Pennsylvania had the largest number of brick-and-mortar commercial driver training schools affected by the Department of Transportation’s sweeping crackdown on CDL training providers announced Monday.

DOT provided a state-by-state breakdown showing 13 schools each in Texas and Pennsylvania, followed by 11 in California, 10 in Florida and nine in Utah, according to information provided by the agency to Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin.

The breakdown came one day after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced what he called an emergency shutdown of 110 commercial driver training schools that federal officials identified through an analysis of drivers cited for English-language proficiency violations.

“These are driving schools that account for 5,000 of the violations for English proficiency,” Duffy said Monday during a news conference in Detroit. “There’s 110 of them through a data analysis that are the greatest offenders. As of today, those schools are shut down.”

The state-by-state breakdown released by DOT includes:

DOT also said 23 additional training schools operated online and had no physical location, and Duffy has ordered a review of those providers.

The 84 schools identified by state plus the 23 online providers account for 107 schools. DOT’s state breakdown therefore does not fully account for the 110 schools Duffy said Monday were subject to emergency removal.

Federal officials have not released a complete list identifying all of the schools by name, leaving carriers, drivers and training providers without a full public accounting of which schools were covered by the action.

Texas, Pennsylvania and California account for nearly half of physical schools

Texas, Pennsylvania and California together accounted for 37 of the 84 physical-location schools, or about 44% of those identified in DOT’s state breakdown.

Adding Florida and Utah brings the five states’ combined total to 56 schools, representing two-thirds of the physical-location providers identified by DOT.

The geographic breakdown provides the first detailed look at where the schools targeted in the federal crackdown were operating. Monday’s initial announcement did not provide a complete list of the affected schools or their locations.

That matters because CDL training schools are a key part of the entry-level pipeline for commercial drivers, and federal regulators have tied this review to whether schools were properly teaching English-language proficiency requirements before trainees completed instruction.

FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs said Monday that every school targeted for emergency removal had trained at least 10 drivers who were subsequently cited during roadside inspections for failing to meet federal English-language proficiency requirements. Collectively, the schools certified more than 5,000 drivers later cited for those violations.

Federal regulations require entry-level driver training providers to teach drivers about English-language proficiency requirements and certify that trainees meet applicable standards before completing training.

Barrs specifically identified ASC Technical Institute in Texas, saying it certified 58 drivers who were later cited for English-language proficiency violations. Barrs said one of its former trainees subsequently ran a stop sign and killed a man in Texas.

He also identified Platinum Plus Truck Driving School in California, which he said certified 36 drivers later cited for English-language proficiency violations. One of those trainees was involved in a fatal crash in Oklahoma, according to Barrs.

DOT’s disclosure of state totals gives the clearest public indication yet of how the emergency removal is distributed across major trucking states, even as the agency has not released a full list of school names. The review of the 23 online-only providers suggests the federal response may extend beyond brick-and-mortar facilities as officials continue examining how the schools were operating.

The state breakdown shows the CDL training crackdown is concentrated in several major trucking states, with Texas, Pennsylvania, California, Florida and Utah accounting for two-thirds of the physical-location schools identified by DOT.