ORLANDO, Fla. — The U.S. Department of Transportation says nearly half of truck driving training schools in the country are not following government regulation.
It raises questions about the estimated three and a half million commercial drivers on the roads across the nation.
The department found thousands of schools that either aren’t training their drivers up to standards or didn’t have proper documents on file. Because of that, as many as three thousand schools could lose accreditation in the next 30 days.
In August, a viral video from inside a semi showed the fatal crash that killed all three in this minivan. Investigators say the van had no time to brake after the truck driver, Harjinder Singh, made an illegal U-turn on Florida’s Turnpike.
After the crash, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy cracked down on commercial drivers and ran a review of all truck driving schools.The department found roughly seven thousand trucking schools, about 44 percent across the country, not in compliance.
“We have been pressing and urging the U.S. Department of Transportation and the FMCSA to increase enforcement of these bad actor CDL mills,” said Andrew Poliakoff, executive director of the Commercial Vehicle Training Association.
He says many bad actors take advantage of the entry-level driver training rule that DOT put in place in 2022, allowing schools to “self-certify” that they meet federal requirements for their curriculum and records, with little oversight.
“Our members have reported seeing a lot of these fly-by-night, two-day training, three-day training CDL mills pop up here and there. And they’ve been really a problem, obviously from a safety standpoint,” Poliakoff said.
Poliakoff says because of this, some drivers from these failing schools aren’t prepared to drive big rigs. Driving instructors say the feds must take action now or it will cost everyone else on the roads.
“If he doesn’t get serious about it, a lot of people are gonna die,” said Joe Gast, owner of Truck Driver Institute.
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