FMCSA’s ‘Operation Saturday Night Fever’ puts trucks, drivers OOS
A recent enforcement initiative conducted by Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration safety investigators, the Department of Homeland Security and state police resulted in dozens of trucks and drivers being placed out-of-service.
The agencies conducted “Operation Saturday Night Fever” on Saturday, Sept. 26, along U.S. highways across South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida and Georgia, targeting unsafe drivers, hazardous vehicles, and violations that put motorists at risk, FMCSA said.
Officials conducted inspections, verified driver credentials, checked for fatigue, evaluated electronic logging devices and hours of service, looked for distracted driving or unsecured cargo, and assessed English language proficiency.
Results?
“This operation reflects the strength of our law enforcement partnerships and our shared responsibility to keep America’s roads safe,” said FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs. “By working together and focusing our enforcement, we can identify unsafe drivers and vehicles, disrupt criminal activity, and protect the integrity of our transportation system. Our message is simple: safety comes first, and those who put the public at risk will be held accountable.”
FMCSA noted that since President Donald Trump’s trucking-related executive order in April 2025, the agency and state partners have placed 31,200 drivers out-of-service for ELP violations.
Since Overdrive‘s last accounting with sister Fusable company RigDig, then with violations current through Spring, inspectors’ OOS-ELP enforcement efforts posted three summer months of record numbers, as shown in the chart.
In addition, FMCSA also emphasized it had shut down nearly 10,000 truck driving schools, and revoked more than 31,000 “illegally issued licenses to unvetted foreign drivers.” The agency’s February rule change to strictly limit foreign drivers’ access to non-domiciled CDLs remains in force while a challenge brought by owner-operator Jorge Rivera Lujan plays out in court.
A decision by the D.C. federal appeals court could come any day now.
[Related: Lujan v. FMCSA: Non-domiciled CDLs in court, full arguments for and against]
Company’s request to allow learner’s permit holders to operate with no CDL holder denied
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration denied a petition from Agri-Tech Aviation that would have allowed its commercial learner’s permit holders who have passed the CDL skills test, but not yet obtained their CDL, to drive without a CDL holder in the front seat.
Similar exemptions have previously been granted to other fleets, including C.R. England, Covenant, Wilson Logistics and others.
Agri-Tech Aviation is a five-truck fleet that serves farmers in Iowa with aerial application needs. It operates two straight trucks that hold 500 gallons of jet fuel for dry operations, and three Ford F-550 flatbed trucks with a 30-foot gooseneck capable of carrying up to 900 gallons of jet fuel and 1,350 gallons of crop protection products, most of which fall under Class 9 (miscellaneous hazardous materials) and do not require placarding.
The company said it needed the exemption because the brief operational season for aerial applications makes it “nearly impossible to recruit qualified drivers.”
FMCSA said it received 38 comments on the application, none of which supported granting the exemption.
In denying the request, the agency said the request “raises safety concerns because of multiple complicating factors identified in the application, including the potential use of CLP holders to transport hazardous materials (HM),” adding that Agri-Tech “does not address any safety countermeasures relating to the transportation of HM under the exemption.”
Additionally, even though the company’s CLP holders would have passed the CDL skills test, federal regulations still prohibit CLP holders from obtaining an HM endorsement.
[Related: An accurate, current MCS-150: More important than you realize]
FMCSA renews, consolidates steel manufacturer’s HOS, equipment exemptions
A steel manufacturer that operates a plant in East Chicago, Indiana, has received a provisional renewal of an exemption that allows certain company drivers to operate for up to 16 hours per day, as well as to use specialized coil carriers to transport steel coils.
Cleveland-Cliffs uses specialized tractor-trailer combinations designed to transport steel coils within the Indiana facility. The trailers are designed with cradles that hold between one and five steel coils.
According to Cliffs, the vehicles have an unloaded gross combination weight of approximately 77,000 pounds and may weigh as much as 263,171 pounds when fully loaded. The vehicles have a maximum speed of approximately 30 to 33 miles per hour and operate at approximately 15 miles per hour when fully loaded.
The coil carriers cross public roadways at two locations, both of which are controlled intersections. The company currently averages approximately 32 crossings per day at each location.
FMCSA originally granted the steel-coil exemptions in 2016. The exemption also allows covered employee drivers, limited to Cliffs’ coil carrier CMVs, to work up to 16 consecutive hours in a duty period and return to work following at least 8 hours off duty when necessary.
Cliffs also operates two trucks that transport scrap metal across the same two public-roadway crossings used by the coil carriers. On May 11, 2022, FMCSA granted Cliffs a separate exemption from the HOS requirements for the drivers of these scrap trucks.
In July, the company requested a 5-year renewal of both the steel coil and scrap metal exemptions and that FMCSA consolidate them into a single exemption.
FMCSA provisionally renewed and consolidated the exemptions for six months, subject to the terms and conditions of this decision and the absence of adverse public comments that would cause the Agency to revoke the exemption. The consolidated exemption is effective through March 23, 2027.
FMCSA is accepting public comments on the provisional renewal here through Oct. 30.
