Thousands of U.S. trucking schools could lose accreditation under DOT crackdown

The Department of Transportation is threatening to shut down thousands of truck driving schools and other training providers as part of the Trump administration's widening crackdown on the U.S. trucking industry.

The DOT announced Monday it plans to revoke the accreditation of nearly 3,000 trucking schools and trainers unless they can comply with federal requirements within 30 days, and it warned another 4,000 schools and trainers that they could face similar action.

"We are reigning in illegal and reckless practices that let poorly trained drivers get behind the wheel of semi-trucks and school buses," said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in a statement.

The names of those schools and trainers were not immediately released. Together they represent more than 40% of the nation's 16,000 authorized training providers, according to the DOT. The department accuses them of falsifying or manipulating training data, neglecting to meet required curriculum standards and instructor qualifications, and failing to maintain or share accurate records.

The crackdown on trucking schools and trainers is part of the Trump administration's broader effort to make sure that drivers are qualified and eligible to hold a commercial driver's license or CDL.

The DOT has also proposed significant new restrictions on which immigrants can get a CDL, but a federal appeals court put those rules on hold last month. That push for tougher regulations coincided with a series of deadly crashes involving foreign-born truckers — including a fatal crash in Florida in August that killed three people.

Secretary Duffy argues that the restrictions are urgently needed because there are too many foreign-born truckers who don't know the rules of the road and don't speak English proficiently.

This article was published by NPR